PETER BARRON

THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS

 

 

JANUARY 5 –JANUARY 27, 2018

OPENING RECEPTION – FRIDAY, JANUARY 5,  6-11PM

 

 

As Evans Contemporary enters its winter season, the gallery is pleased to present The Garden of Earthly Delights, an exhibition of powerful new paintings by Peterborough artist, Peter Barron.

 

Barron’s recent work presents colourful, and explosive images of tangled landscapes where figures seemingly materialize magically from the pigmented environment. Both edgy and sinister, Barron’s incongruous, abstracted figures populate a landscape of vivid colour, tangled brushstrokes, and colliding paint. Vivid in their palate and subject matter, the artist leads the viewer into this ominous, yet beautiful environment.

 

Barron’s works are painted in acrylic and oil on canvas and panel. The artist takes his cues from the traditions of expressionism and can be compared to the work of German artists Georges Rouault, Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Erich Heckel, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

 

Relatively unknown outside of the Peterborough region, Evans Contemporary is honoured to showcase, and promote the exceptional work of this talented, senior artist.

​

 

 

​

​

PETER BARRON

​

​

Originally from the Welland, Ontario area, Peter Barron arrived in Peterborough in the early seventies for work as a school art teacher.  Immediately setting up a studio, he met the artists that were building the city’s burgeoning art scene and immersed himself in what would become the beginnings of the parallel gallery movement. Surrounding himself with an ensemble of artists like Dorothy Caldwell, David Bierk, Joe Stable, Harold Town, Dennis Tourbin, and Erik Loder, Barron began his career as a prolific and powerful painter, and printmaker.

​

For almost fifty years, Peter Barron has maintained a studio practice in Peterborough, Ontario. His paintings have been exhibited extensively in Ontario, and throughout the city’s galleries. His printed work has shown at print fairs, and biennials in Russia, Seoul (South Korea), Trois Rivières (Quebec), Montreal, Ottawa, Sofia (Bulgaria), Finland, Connecticut (USA) and has been artist in residence at Pouch Cove Artist Residency in Newfoundland.

​

Barron has maintained a painting studio in downtown Peterborough since the early 1970’s.  He continues to paint daily in a third floor studio in the arts district’s historic Commerce Building.

​

​

​

EVANS CONTEMPORARY

 

Evans Contemporary is dedicated to the presentation of creative projects by national and international contemporary artists. Located in Peterborough, Ontario, the gallery is situated off the courtyard of a late Victorian building in the heart of the café and arts district. Its mandate is to launch contemporary exhibitions every four to six weeks and offer a unique space for special projects and new endeavours for each exhibiting artist, while allowing artists to present projects that transcend the trends of the commercial visual art market.

Evans Contemporary falls just outside of the entrenched public and private gallery sectors. It is privately owned and operated, and runs as a negative profit exhibition space. Through its generous supporters and patrons, it serves to provide exceptional, contemporary exhibitions to a region underserviced by visual culture. The gallery serves as a rallying point for artists, cultural workers and art lovers of the Kawartha Lakes region. In addition to its physical exhibitions, and openings, Evans Contemporary coordinates online documentation and publications for each exhibition. Operating as an amalgamation of artist-run centre, museum, institute, and private foundation, Evans Contemporary fills a void in the cultural landscape of the region, plays an important role as a leader in the cultural fabric of Peterborough and the Kawartha region and stands as a signifying site of local culture.

​