JONATHAN FORREST - Painter's Prerogative
Reception: Thursday, September 16, 6PM - 8PM
September 16 - October 21
Art Placement is pleased to present Painter’s Prerogative, an exhibition of works on canvas and paper by Jonathan Forrest. Over the course of nearly four decades, Forrest has established a national reputation for his unique and continuously evolving approach to abstraction. Throughout the breadth of his production, which is paradoxically notable for its variety as well as its cohesiveness, one element remains constant: his passion for the medium of paint.

For a painter, few things are more enchanting than paint. Art historian James Elkins called it their “life’s blood”. The act of painting--the brushing, smearing, pushing, scraping, and pulling of coloured mud across a two-dimensional surface--is a tactile, physical process that is also psychic, sensual, sensational; an experience of both the hand (body) and the mind. It is, to borrow another phrase from Elkins, “liquid thought”. It is fluid, mercurial, unstable, alchemical potential offering limitless possibilities. It is unlike any other medium, a fact that Forrest, like all painters, knows intimately.

Jonathan Forrest was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and grew up on the Canadian prairies. He divides his studio time between Vancouver Island and small-town Saskatchewan. He has exhibited extensively in Canada and abroad and his work can be found in numerous public and private collections. His upcoming exhibition at Art Placement coincides with a mid-career survey on view at Art Gallery of Swift Current from September 11th to October 30th. Click here for more information about the exhibition in Swift Current.

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