CKG | CHRISTINE KLASSEN GALLERY
200, 321 50 AVE SE
403.262.1880
christineklassengallery.com

Special Events

Teresa Posyniak: Drifters & Blooms

  • September 5 – October 14, 2017
  • Reception: Saturday, September 16, 1-4 pm | Artist Talk at 2 pm
Aron Hill: Drawings & Paintings
  • September 5 – October 14, 2017
  • Reception: Saturday, September 16, 1-4 pm
Introducing: Heather Close
  • September 5 – October 14, 2017
  • Reception: Saturday, September 16, 1-4 pm | Artist Talk at 2 pm

The Exhibition

Teresa Posyniak : Drifters & Blooms
Inspired by the beauty and complexity of nature, Teresa Posyniak’s richly textured paintings pay homage to an unsung hero of our environment—plankton. A collective term, plankton refers to a range of single to multi-celled organisms that live in water, but are either too weak or small to swim against a current, and therefore exist in a drifting state. In spite of this fact, these hardworking “drifters & blooms” form the building blocks for both marine and freshwater ecosystems, and produce over half of the earth’s oxygen.
For over ten years, Posyniak has been drawing inspiration from these gorgeous and diverse organisms, using her skills as an artist to move them out from under the microscope and into the spotlight. Her latest large-scale paintings have a palpable energy which captures the magnetism of these fascinating micro-organisms and heightens our connection to them. As our eyes trace the sinuous lines and shapes across each canvas, we are lured in, feeling the push and pull of the work just as the plankton feels the current.
Teresa Posyniak is a Calgary artist with a career spanning nearly 40 years. Her work explores themes of vulnerability and resiliency in contemporary society.
image: Teresa Posyniak, Microbial Graffiti, oil and cold wax on canvas, 60 x 48 in.
Aron Hill : Drawings & Paintings
Aron Hill is a multidisciplinary artist based in Calgary known for his minimalist approach to drawing, painting, and installation. His recent graphic paintings recall aspects of minimalism and colour field painting, finding conceptual company in the late Modernist works produced particularly in Canada. Using the figure as a departure point for his compositions, Hill purposefully limits his media to acrylic ink washes on prepared raw canvas, which emphasizes the flatness of the paint and produces an illustrative quality similar to drawing or printmaking.
Hill holds a BFA from the Alberta College of Art + Design and MFA from Goldsmiths College, University of London, and his work has been exhibited internationally.
image: Aron Hill, Colour Blocks 1, ink & paint on prepared raw canvas, 30 x 24 in.
Introducing : Heather Close
CKG is pleased to welcome emerging local artist Heather Close to the gallery. Bridging the gap between painting and sculpture, her meticulous handcrafted assemblages made from wood, paint, felt and embroidery are lovingly crafted metaphors for the human mind, or more specifically, our memories. At once delicate and bold, her depictions of nature overtaking domestic settings reveal a powerful series of contrasts: man-made and natural; strength and vulnerability; growth and decay.
In the artists words: “This overgrowth mimics the alteration that memories go through. Every time a memory is revisited, it is changed, altered or remembered differently. Memories are affected by outside influences that change and even create new details that may not have been there to begin with.”
 Heather Close holds a BFA with Distinction from the Alberta College of Art + Design and has exhibited her work at Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Pith Gallery and Studios, and Truck Contemporary Art in Calgary +15 Window Space.

image: Heather Close, Climb, mixed media sculpture, 10 x 8 x 7.5 in.