On loan from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program (TREX) and the Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre.
Curatorial statement
“Abstractland features a selection of twenty oil paintings by Les Graff, and spans four decades of the artist’s prolific career. The paintings, which he refers to as “oil studies,” were produced on location in various settings around Alberta: mountains, prairies, lakes and farmland. His spontaneous and intuitive approach produces abstract works that “intensify the real by defamiliarizing it,” a fundamental quality of abstract expressionism. The results convey characteristics of nature, such as the light over a farm field at sunset or the silence of the boreal forests in winter. They are both aggressively and thoughtfully rendered, evoking the power and beauty of our natural world. ” – Xanthe Isbister, Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre.
For more information, please visit the exhibit’s informational brochure.
Image credit: Summer Self, Les Graff, 2007, (detail).