RAINFORESTS
OF THE MIND
June
26 to July 27, 1991
Pnina Granirer · Don Jarvis · Patricia
Johnston · Gregg Simpson
Max Banbury · Audrey Marsden · Richard Turner · Monica
Shelton Gordon Payne
Jim
Felter · Miles Hunter · Ted Kingan · Pat Armstrong
· Ross Munro
Fourteen artists working in acrylic,
oil, watercolour, and mixed media presented an exhibition dedicated as a tribute to the west
coast rainforest.
At a time in our history when the future of the world's rainforests hang in
the balance, we need to constantly remind
ourselves of the
inspiration these environments give to us.
Works by: Gregg Simpson, lt. and Pnina Granirer, rt.
Rainforests
of the Mind presents artists who express an inner
process that parallels the growth and turmoil of the forest.
They evoke a variety of
moods or textures from this abundance of nature, rather
than simply depicting it. As such, these artists follow in
the tradition of Emily Carr and her
native predecessors by transforming elements of. this landscape into
a simulacra of nature.
Fine technique and a sense of clarity characterize the
rainforest evocations of artists Pnina Granirer and Patricia
Johnston, while Don Jarvis
manipulates colour
and brushwork to present his vaporous, calligraphic vistas and personal rainforest
abstractions.
Two mixed media works by Miles
Hunter
The
abstract, organic motifs of Max Banbury, Monica Shelton and
Gregg Simpson are in themselves a reminder of how Nature's microcosm
resembles the shapes and patterns of
the external world. This approach is also reflected in the works by Richard
Turner and Ted Kingan which
develop images conjured from
an inner world of complex overlays or snaking tendrils that function
as cryptic symbols of the rainforest. The
landscape itself becomes a direct
focus in the abstracted paysages of Audrey Marsden, Ross Munro,
and Pat Armstrong, the scratched and
burned wood surfaces of Miles
Hunter, and the geometric "trees" of Jas. W. Felter.
Works by Audrey Marsden, lt.,
and Pat Johnston, rt.
The artists in Rainforests of the
Mind celebrate the lush, convulsive landscape of the west coast rainforest
while voicing a
collective response to the threat
to our forest environment.
