Exhibitions

JOHN KISSICK: A Nervous Decade

November 18, 2011 - December 10, 2011 at The Prairie Art Gallery

Opening reception: Friday, November 18, 2011 at 7:00 pm

John Kissick’s work has enjoyed acclaim over the past decade for its ongoing attempts to position itself in a viable, if highly critical, dialogue with the historical conventions of abstract painting. What Kissick does with such agility is weave the familiar (the supergraphics on 1960’s civic architecture and contemporary popular music are just two examples) into a much more expansive conversation about circuitous quotation and the institutionalization of artistic processes. Cynicism and sentimentality (often associated with pastiche and contemporary abstraction respectively) are abandoned in favour of a knowing – and constantly evolving – body of work.

A Nervous Decade brings together over twenty paintings on canvas and panel from public and private collections throughout Canada. Originally conceived as a mid-career survey, this exhibition traces Kissick’s early exploration and re-assembly of an abstract expressionist lexicon, through a current immersion in hybrid painting derived from tropes gleaned from popular culture. His focus on complicating the interpretive procedures at play in viewing painting has evolved into a current interest in sentiment in the supposedly raw experience of looking. A Nervous Decade is just a glimpse into Kissick’s intelligent and dynamic practice.

View the Interpretive Guide online!