Jonathan Forrest “Block Party” September 20 – October 25

Opening Reception with Jonathan Forrest on Saturday, September 20 from 7-9pm
In Collaboration with Nuit Blanche London

We are eagerly anticipating Jonathan Forrest’s September / October exhibition featuring new abstract paintings, our 6th solo with the artist.  Working within a Modernist tradition, Forrest’s new abstracts push the parameters of what he knows best, abstraction that is self-referential, open, thin, clear and flat, with no illusions to space or subject.

Through multiple layers of pulling, dragging, scraping and staining paint, Forrest builds up the luminous grounds, enriching each surface.  Set on top are repeated thick shapes creating an illusion of both depth and texture.

The blocks of shapes hint at representational objects like architectural elements or patterns.  It’s “not about the shape and not, not about the shape”.  Rather, in both colour and composition there is a connection to the real world.  For Forrest, it is a subconscious response to his immediate environment as well as a mirror or echo to past paintings, ;like “picking up a loose thread from the past”.

Colour, here, reins supreme.  Patterned, layered, thick, thin, washed and blocked, Forrest’s electric colour is generous and painterly, welcoming us in.

Jonathan Forrest is an abstract painter who divides his studio time between Vancouver Island and small town Saskatchewan, Canada.  He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and immigrated with his family to Canada in 1977.

Forrest studied at the University of Saskatchewan receiving his BFA in 1983 and his MFA in 1991. Jonathan has participated in several artists’ workshops including The Emma Lake Artists’ Workshop (1985, 1988, 1991, 2001, 2003 and 2005), The “Saskatchewan Invitational artists’ workshop”, Emma Lake (2000), and Triangle Artists’ Workshop, Brooklyn, NY (2002).

His work has been shown in Western Canada in museums including the Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, The Edmonton Art Gallery and The Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina.  In 2021, the Art Gallery of Swift Current organized a survey exhibition, which followed the trajectory of Jonathan Forrest’s painting practice from 2002 to 2019

Public collections include the Canada Council / Art Bank, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, Edmonton Art Gallery, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw Art Museum, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan Arts Board, University of Lethbridge and the University of Saskatchewan.

Link to Jonathan Forrest’s Artist Page HERE