spilled edge soft corners
September 14, 2001 - September 14, 2001spilled edge soft corners takes an oblique look at the current state of abstraction in painting by presenting artists who extend the strict definition of painting as a rectangular stretched canvas. Although some make reference to the traditional grid, all the works in the exhibition begin with the end of the stretcher.
At the point where canvas, cloth, paint and even objects of representation become discombobulated material, painting reemerges in frayed folds, tight knots, wound up bundles or blown-up piles. Many of the works evoke a sense of physicality, like “falling apart”, “hanging by a thread”, “wound up” or “hanging loose”.
This exhibition features the works of eight Canadian and American artists: Polly Apfelbaum (New York), Francois-Marie Bertrand (Chicoutimi), Eric Cameron (Calgary), Jessica Stockholder (New York) and Robert Youds (Victoria). These not-so-painting-like paintings unsettle the categories of both abstraction and representation in painting.