Surfacing: Alek Bélanger • Charlotte Blake • Bill Boyko • Jacob Freeman • Roda Medhat • Ali Pilli • Jake Santos
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Press Release
sur·face /ˈsərfəs/
verb: provide with a particular upper or outer layer
[intransitive] to suddenly appear or become obvious after having been hidden for a whileAbbozzo Gallery presents Surfacing, a group exhibition that pays attention to texture and finish and posits a series of artworks that convey a sense of desire, of danger, of almost-there, of looking through a glass darkly, and coming-to-light; of things almost seen and caught in state of transition. Playing on the double-meaning of surfacing - this show explores various artists employment of texture on their respective surfaces; in some cases, application of paint and brushstroke is thick, and self-evident, for others, no contact with the surface has even been made at all, and for a couple, the surface is the artwork. Also featured is the experimentation with blurred and obfuscated compositions and subject matter caught in in-between states, objects not quite fully breaching a plane, and suspended in mid- action - in some cases imbuing a constant unresolved tension between itself and its viewer.
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Bill Boyko
Bill Boyko’s artwork, Surfacing, although not eponymous to the show – it arrived to us after its thematic conception and its title is coincidental – is perhaps the most literal display of the conceptual impetus of the show. The idea of something just below a surface, literal or figuratively, perhaps distorted or slightly obscured, exists within the layers of its image. The compartmentalization one subject, composed of two panels, in varying degrees of focus. -
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Jacob Freeman
Jacob Freeman’s Motorhead and Blink posit a snake and dog flashes their fangs, impressing upon its viewer a sense of looming danger and an attack caught in stasis. In Jean Shirt we see abstracted and informal figures underneath the veil of an almost monochromatic composition, but slight paint omissions and outlines reveal a heroic, tragic scene. -
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Ali Pilli
Ali Pilli’s simple yet striking compositions, sometimes referred to as “elevated tie-dye” have a distinct, almost matte finish where the symbiosis of colour, line, and texture meet. The outer layer / surface and tooth of the canvas, more than any other in this exhibition, play a visual role in the final aesthetic of the artwork. -
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Roda Medhat
Roda Medhat’s practice engages with traditional Kurdish and West Asian textile traditions and its translation into modern craft. The magnificent Ser-atah, a 41-foot lamb’s wool yarn rug, takes the concept of surfacing literally, as the textile artwork functions as a tactile upper layer of a surface: be it wall or floor. Employed here are traditional methods of fabrication with a modern take on its colour and geometry, collapsing at once its history and the present. -
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Jake Santos
Jake Santos employs his distinct airbrush technique, where no contact is made with the surface of the canvas or panel at all, where the work itself being interested more in the architecture of the image rather than recreating its source material in its exactitudes. The result of this are these out-of-focus compositions such as carissa, or promises, with our figures forever turned away, their faces tantalizingly hidden from their viewer. With the cinematic acrylic on canvas, you’ve been on my mind, the viewer chases a vehicle making its transit dangerously over a yellow meridian line into the oncoming lane. -
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