Matt Tarini: Liminal Space & Mike Pszczonak: Hand-eye | McIntosh Gallery
Matt Tarini: Liminal Space
August 7 - September 12, 2015
Closing reception: September 11 at 5:30 P.M.
Matt Tarini is a London based artist. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Western Ontario. The paintings in Liminal Space explore how the arrangement and structure of urban and suburban environments affect people’s moods and behaviours and our connections with one another. Based on my direct experience and observations of the architecture of residences and other small spaces that often go unconsidered in urban and suburban settings I hope to reveal how they subtly impact our lives. Using a representational style of painting and taking advantage of the pictorial tropes of Romantic art my work engages the viewer in an affective, non-conscious way similar to the manner in which these spaces influence us as we experience them. I believe that it is important that we critically examine constructed spaces to understand how they affect our psychological and emotional well-being.
Mike Pszczonak: Hand-eye
August 7 - September 12, 2015
Closing reception: September 11 at 5:30 P.M.
With the amalgamation of organic and synthetic materials, each object contains two types of negative space: the negative space of ergonomic motion in clay’s ability to document any imposed force and movement enacted upon it, and the negative space of utopic ideals imbedded in the foam packaging of various communication devices (such as smartphones and computers). I am interested in the intersection of these two thematics.
Through various material investigations and the experimental language of the modernist avant-garde, these works are an attempt to work through some of the questions surrounding perception posed in modernity and their implications now. The project began by painting light from observation as a re-evaluation of vision in modernity. Consequently, the current body of work has evolved into a more intuitive approach to creating sculptural and pictorial objects. It is in these abject objects that I would like to draw a relationship between the continued inquiry and documentation of the interior architecture of the body of the observer, and the utopic promises offered by the haptic functionality of contemporary communication devices.
Mike Pszczonak is a London based artist. He received his Bachelor of Arts within the studio art program at the University of Guelph and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Western Ontario.
