TRANSCENDENT SPIRIT - Debra Van Tuinen

May 24th - June 21st, 2008

"Mark Rothko’s atmospheric abstractions of the 1950's and 60"s are a modern precedent for Debra Van Tuinen’s ephemeral approach, emphasizing the sensory experience of color and light, dematerializing form.

- Quote from Doug Meyer’s essay, critic, Los Angles 2003

Following a five week exploration of landscape and concentrated studio placement in Banff, Alberta, Debra VanTuinen captures the essence of her surroundings in a new series of encaustic paintings. Influenced by her experiences while temporarily residing in Banff, VanTuinen evokes the emotional and experiential qualities of the natural world as she encounters the elements.

With a colour palette flowing with organic hues of vivid crimson, deep blues, and tranquil greens Van Tuinen juxtaposes metallic leaf of copper, silver and bronze. The textured layers of oil and wax merge in visions of glacieral rivers, electric sunsets amongst turbulent skies, and mountain rock. Tracing the movement of light through layers of translucent colour, VanTuinen entrances the viewer, enveloping them in meditative moments of quiet reflection that are cherished in the natural world.

Van Tuinen received a comprehensive education that includes Byam Shaw School of Art, London, England, her BFA from Hope College, Holland, MI and her MFA from University of WA, Seattle, WA. Debra VanTuinen lives and works in Olympia, Washington, the sate Capitol tucked into a valley at the foot of Puget Sound. Her work has been included in several international and national exhibitions: The Biennale Internationale Dell'Arte Contemporanea in Florence, Italy: Site Sante Fe, Agart World Print Exhibition in Slovenia and the AFF Art Fair in New York City.

View Artist Page

EARTH, AIR and LIGHT - Dale Kirschenman, April 5th - 27th, 2008

Summit Gallery of Fine Art is pleased to present its first solo exhibition of Dale Kirschenman paintings. The exhibition consists of new medium to large format paintings, depicting the intensity and dynamic energy found within the Southern Alberta region.  Changing the familiar composition of landscape paintings which predominately depict terrain to one which is primarily sky, Kirschenman focuses on the transitory moments of an atmosphere in a state of flux.

Dramatic sunsets, broody skies of oncoming storms, and shifting clouds devoid of all reference to land are all subject for Kirschenman. His tremendous facility in paint handling, and sophisticated use of colour are a culmination of years of experience, but also from a deep-rooted connect to the characteristics of the region.  Kirschenman sense of place is evident in his paintings; his passion for hiking and cross country skiing combined with a lifelong history of living in the Southern Alberta expanse, provides a platform for which he is immersed in the environment and is clearly articulated to the viewer.

After years of being a painter, Dale Kirschenman decided to pursue his Bachelor of Fine Art in 1994; he graduated with distinction from the Alberta College of Art and Design. Kirschenman has been the recipient of several awards including the Simon Chang and Phyllis Levine Foundation Scholarship and the Illingworth Kerr Scholarship. Exhibiting across Western Canada, Dale’s paintings can be found in numerous corporate, private and public collections including the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Dale Kirschenman lives in Calgary Alberta, and has a studio in the artistic community of the Cannery Row building.

Diane Colwell & Barry Underwood- The Altered Landscape - February 9 - March 2, 2008

Diane Colwell's photographic drawings developed from notions of degeneration, alteration and manipulation as evidence of the artists' involvement. Depicting the typical landscape as it naturally occurs, Colwell creates quick gestural marks using pastels and scratches, on-site as the Polaroid photograph instantly develops. These intuitive marks are a decisive response to the landscape in the same fashion as the definitive moment in taking the photograph. The hybrid artwork is then re-photographed, solidifying it in the large-format photographic realm.

As Colwell is engaged with the landscape through her alteration of its photographic representation, Barry Underwood is engaged in its physical existence.

Barry Underwood's pre-production involvement positioned within the landscape itself disrupts its documentary qualities. Redefining the viewers' notions of the traditional landscape as an unaltered representation of natural beauty. Underwood's large colour saturate prints are conspicuously striking. In fact, a fiction is being created here with light, colour, and composition, pulling the viewer into a new somewhat mythical environment. Supporting the increasingly blurred boundaries in contemporary art practices, Underwood nudges notions of painting, photography, performance and installation. Characteristics of all these mediums come into play as the artist considers illusion, imagination, and narrative, in the potential to transform the ordinary into the ethereal extraordinaire.

Barry Underwood is currently an Assistant Professor and Chair of the Department of Film, Video, and Photographic Arts at the Cleveland Institute of Art. His work was recently on a thematic residency "Imaginary Places" at the Banff Centre, exhibited a solo exhibition "Light" at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was in a group exhibition "Side by Side" at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland.

Diane Colwell is a graduate of the University of Calgary with a double major in photography and painting. She has been widely collected throughout Canada. As an avid hiker, Diane Colwell is influenced by the landscape of western Alberta and British Columbia.