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Gary Pearson: One Way Ticket assembles together a range of works produced by the artist between 1989 and the present and explores some of the ideas, themes and images that appear in his paintings, drawings, video and poetry. Pearson's artistic practice is, in part, informed by questions about displacement, melancholy and isolation in relation to the experience of living in a contemporary urban society and in the ways that such questions might be visualized and communicated. The works selected for this exhibition draw attention to this emotional and intellectual undercurrent.
The exhibition includes a selection of semi-abstract paintings from the early-mid 1990s, works produced during Pearson's studio residency in Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, in 1998, and several recent paintings and videos. Many of these works are influenced by Pearson's interest in the relationship between sound and the visual image. The series of paintings which make up The Night of the Diana Krall Concert, Berlin, April 19, 1998, are representative of the shift Pearson made in 1997 from the use of semi-abstract imagery toward a depiction of figurative characters in various, often awkward, social situations.
Many of Pearson's paintings have a close relationship to the videos he has produced over the past 10 years and the installation of Gary Pearson: One Way Ticket attempts to capture this fluid exchange of the artist's images and ideas that occurs between screen, canvas and paper. The carry over of sound throughout the gallery space contributes to the often confusing and disorientating experience of urban living that influences Pearson's work and provides the viewer with an opportunity for a rich, complex and multi-sensory experience of the artist's vision.
Gary Pearson received his education at the University of Victoria (B.F.A. 1980) and the University of Saskatchewan (M.A. 1983). He is a recognized painter, video artist, and writer whose work has been included in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the United States, and Europe since the early 1980s. Pearson has received numerous awards in recognition of his contribution to Canadian art including the 1991 VIVA award, and a Studio Award/International Studio Program from the Institute for Contemporary Art PS.1/MOMA, New York, (1990/91). Gary Pearson has been based in Kelowna, B.C., since 1991 and is an Associate Professor in Fine Arts at Okanagan University College.
Linda Sawchyn
Exhibition Images
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