Steph Krawchuk: BUILDING BLOCKS
Reception: Saturday, May 30th, 2pm
May 30 – June 25, 2015
Art Placement is pleased to present this first solo exhibition by Steph Krawchuk, an emerging, Saskatoon-based artist who has exhibited her work in group and feature shows at the gallery since 2011. Recalling some of the stylistic touchstones of Fauvism and German Expressionism, Krawchuk’s paintings are characterized by vivid, inventive colour, bold linear elements, and reduced forms. Krawchuk regularly explores a range of subjects in her work, including people, interiors, still-lifes, and urban cityscapes. Gathering as much information as she can from observation, she then reduces her subjects to their most basic elements, retaining only the details that are absolutely necessary. We are left with strikingly concise compositions that are at once familiar and novel, instantly recognizable but rendered according to Krawchuk’s unmistakably personal vision.

In addition to several new cityscapes, this exhibition also unveils an exciting new series of non-objective works on paper and canvas in which Krawchuk gives explicit focus to the formal elements that have always characterized her style. Although it is tempting to view these works as further simplifications of observed forms, in fact they are not. Completely non-objective, improvised and developed according to their own visual logic, these abstract paintings completely ignore the world of real objects and focus solely on the interplay of line, shape, colour and texture. Lively and whimsical, the works retain the spontaneity and discovery inherent in their making. The surface, sometimes thick and heavy from intense reworking, becomes a visual record of the search for resolution. Despite the distinct focus and character of each series, the two bodies of work nonetheless highlight the common elements that unite all of Krawchuk's explorations.

The Art of Subtraction - an interview with Steph Krawchuk about her recent work by Amanda Leigh at yxeart.wordpress.com

Installation images: