LUMEN

Greg Gerla

May 13 - June 12, 2010

Since graduating in 1990 from the Alberta College of Art & Design, Greg Gerla has spent the last 20 years developing a career as both a commercial and fine art photographer.   His work has taken him to exotic locales such as the frozen North of Inuvik to the fashion mecca of Miami. Gerla's innate sense of composition, aesthetic, light, and colour is applied whether his focus is to capture the allure of beautiful young model or presenting the discourse between light and architecture into abstracted elements. Gerla's fashion photography has been published worldwide and recently he was selected as a special judge for a competition for Fashion House International in Moscow Russia. Gerla has exhibited his fine art photography both locally and abroad.

Gerla served on the National Board of CAPIC (Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators in Communications) from 2002-2005. He served as president of the Prairie Chapter of CAPIC from 2004-2007, and remains on the Board today. He also holds an instructor position within the Design/Photography Department of the Alberta College of Art and Design. He continues to be inspired by what's outside his door, or across the oceans. Greg Gerla operates a studio in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Lumen marks his first solo exhibition with Summit Fine Art; the exhibition is comprised of 9 new medium and large scale photographs.

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Red Bar. 2010. Digital Photographic Print. By:Greg Gerla

TERRA INCOGNITA

Gina Stepaniuk

February 4 -February 24, 2010

Summit Fine Art is please to present the solo exhibition of new paintings and a digital video by Los Angeles based Gina Stepaniuk. With a keen awareness of an environment in flux and peril, Stepaniuk draws on the longing of Romanticism, the light and color of Impressionism and the emotional and intuitive aspects of Abstract Expressionism.

With an interest in the similarities of perspective on both a microscopic level and that from space, Stepaniuk sets out to deconstruct that which is familiar in the natural world. Considering the multiplicity of influences found in the natural world, Stepaniuk’s interpretations of her surrounding landscape survey natures ongoing dance between harmony and discord. Life and death, beauty and the sublime simultaneously exist in and out of balance within an ever-troubled environment. It is in these transitional moments of instability that Stepaniuk utilizes perspective as a tool to present an abstracted translation of nature with a more equanimous view.

Gina Stepaniuk, born in Toronto Canada, graduated in 1982 as an Associate of Ontario College of Art and Design. Active in the Toronto art community in the early 80's she exhibited her distinctive paintings in several galleries. Although primarily a visual artist, from 1984-1989 her interests in performance and music led to a period as a back-up singer, where she toured North America and London with singer-songwriter Jane Siberry. In 1989 Gina moved to Los Angeles where she later received her MFA from Claremont Graduate University. She has exhibited in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and in 2009 was nominated for the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. Terra Incognito marks Stepaniuk’s Western Canadian debut exhibition.

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Gina Stepaniuk, Sky High, 2009, 36 x 36 inches.

Tangle

Christine Kuper

January 7 - January 30, 2010

image shown: Christine Kuper: Outgrowth, 2007, acrylic and oil on canvas, 44 x 54 inches

Summit Fine Art is pleased to present the Canadian debut of six new paintings by Christine Kuper. Through painting, Kuper explores both human and natural systems through the depiction of common place objects from both worlds which collide and contradict with their surroundings. Kuper begins the painting process with models made out of craft materials, taking structural cues inherent to the materials, while maintaining the language of paint. Using dramatic lighting and scale juxtapositions Kuper brings the images beyond the conventions of still life. Drawing from cubist and post-impressionist mark-making, Kuper likens her painting process to that of an architectural experience of weaving, building and layering the painted surface. It is through the many layers of process that Kuper’s paintings present an unusual tension, that is at once familiar and out of place.

After receiving her Bachelor of Arts from Yale University in 1993 Christine Kuper spent time at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1993. In 2001, she received her MFA from the University of Texas. She has exhibited across North America in Museums and Public Galleries, such as MOCA Cleveland and Blanton Museum of Art in Austin TX, and in commercial galleries. Christine Kuper lives and maintains her studio practice in San Francisco, California.

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Get It On Paper

A Group Exhibition

Nov.28 - Dec.19th 2009

image shown: Andrea Williamson: Crowd # 8, 2009, watercolour, 9 x 12 inches

In the spirit of Gift giving, Summit Fine Art was pleased to present its first annual group exhibition: Get It On Paper! The exhibition presents one of the widest selections of works on paper with over 15 artists, in an informal presentation of framed and unframed artworks. Watercolors, drawings, original lithographs and paper sculpture are all presented salon style.

Matt Crookshank             Marc Chagall

Brandan A. Dalmer         Joan Miró

Richard Edwards             Henri Matisse

Marcia Harris                   Pablo Picasso

Erik Olson                        William Silk

Les Pinter                        AND MORE...

Terra McDonald

Bob Stowell

Andrea Williamson

MARY ANN WILSON

October 29 - November 28, 2009

Mary Ann Wilson -South of Bragg Creek #2. 32 x 40 inches, oil on masonite board, 2009

Summit Fine Art is pleased to present its first solo exhibition of small to large scale paintings of the surrounding landscape of Mary Ann Wilson's southern Alberta home.  With a penchant for hiking, Wilson continues the tradition of Canadian landscape painting by exploring an area by foot, capturing the immediacy and elements of time in nature through small en plein air paintings.  Wind rustling through prairie grasses, clouds rapidly moving across the sky, and the recurring patterns of activity found in nature are all subject matter within the landscape. These transitory moments that Wilson explores through paint express more than just the visual accuracy of Canada's plains and foothills, but also evoke the solitude and tranquility of walking amongst this vast landscape known as "big sky county".

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Momento

Osheen Harruthoonyan

Sept.19 - Oct. 17th 2009

Boy Vs Roy Rogers. 40 x 30 inches. Sepia selenium split toned lith print. By Osheen Harruthoonyan

Summit Gallery of Fine Art is pleased to present its first solo exhibition of large format hand-developed photographs by Osheen Harruthooyan. In the era of omnipresent digital photography, where cell phone’s operate as both camera and picture albums, hidden surveillance and paparazzi prevail, and social utilities such as facebook and flickr offer a cornucopia of images; the frequency of the candid snapshot today can sometimes seem more about the preoccupation with the activity of taking pictures rather than a tool for preserving memories. In contrast to this current trend of over documentation of personal events, Harruthooyan explores the complex relationship between clarity of photo documentation, personal interpretation of events, and the human memory which has the capacity to deconstruct and over time reconstruct with altered or faded details. Utilizing large format negatives, Harruthooyan combines chemistry and various hand-held tools to manipulate the negative removing details such as faces, backgrounds, and superfluous details, followed by traditional dark room developing. The resulting photographs more resemble a glimpse from a dreamy recollection of an event than a tangible souvenir of one. In this way Harruthooyan distills the photographic imagery enough, to speak to a set of collective experiences of childhood, ceremonies, events for which we all have associations with and can fill in the individual details of our own memories.

The symbiotic relationship between the vanishing techniques of darkroom photography in the digital age and Osheen’s interest in memory as subject presents an interesting discourse between the tangible objects of 20th century photography depicting people, objects and events for posterity vs. the 21st century insubstantial digital file pervasively documenting the minutiae of our lives.

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Floating World

Jo Darbyshire

May 23 - June 20th 2009

Johnson Lake, 2008. 36 x 36 inches. oil on canvas

Summit Fine Art is pleased to present the Canadian debut of Australian artist Jo Darbyshire. Floating World is an exhibition of new paintings inspired and informed by two very different landscapes - the glacier fed lakes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and the coral reefs off the coast of Western Australia, warmed by the Leeuwin Current - her work is ultimately linked by exploration of figure in the landscape and notions of sensuality, immersion and imagination. Although abstract in nature her paintings reference bodily experience.

The experience of 'moving over' a landscape, 'flying' over mountains or 'floating' through underwater reefs can also reference the body giving way to a transporting movement, a physical 'letting go'; a state of connectedness, agility and pleasure. Influences of master Japanese printmaker Katsushika Hokusai's erotic print's describing a sophisticated world of urban pleasures animated by the traditional Japanese love of nature are present in Darbyshire's newest abstract series.

The ethereal paintings of Jo Darbyshire explore an imagined spatial environment. Darbyshire's paintings have been described as landscapes without boundaries. Often absent in Darbyshires paintings are the presence of obvious horizon lines, contributing to the spatial disorientation in which the viewer's sense of field and orientation is blurred; perspectives could be looking down through the water from high above, or seen as submerged in deep waters and looking up. Darbyshire's painted surfaces are fully saturated in colour; the dark areas are richly built up with an abundance of finely layered oil paint that contributes to the spatial qualities of her paintings.

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     NATURAL LINES

    Stefany Hemming, Leszek Wyczolkowski

    April 4 to May 9, 2009

Saga By Leszeck Wyczolkowski, Etching. Edition of 50

Vestige By Stefany Hemming, 2008, oil on board. 48 x 48 inches

Summit Fine Art is pleased to present the work of Stefany Hemming and Leszek Wyczolkowski in an exhibition that explores the influences of drawing through reductive mark-making methods. The activity of drawing is significantly represented in the process based art of both Hemming and Wyczolkowski. Through this exhibition of large format painting and traditional printmaking both artists demonstrate a shared fascination in the technical aspects of their art practice while gathering inspiration from nature.

The intaglio etchings of master print-maker Wyczolkowski are geometrical interpretations of a landscape which is recognizable yet engages the imagination. Exploring trees as sculptural forms Leszek distills his subject to the essence of the forest, devoid of leaves and decorative foliage he reveals branches as veins or anatomy. Using the ancient intaglio print-making technique aquatint, Wyczolkowski acid etches fine lines into zinc plates to create these ethereal landscapes.

Painting within formal parameters, Hemming uses only one colour, one tool, one layer of paint, and one block of time. The process of limiting her choices challenges Hemming to focus on the hand/nervous system connection without distraction. In this method of working the activity becomes as much a part of the story as the subject. Gestural marks made in a reductive manner, are not conscious decisions but rather occur as spontaneous movements or raw actions. Through this process Hemming imparts the viewer with the opportunity to decipher her activity.

In 1989 Stefany Hemming graduated from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, followed by attendance at Concordia University from 1991 - 1994. Hemming's paintings can be found in collections across Canada and the United States. Stefany Hemming currently works and resides in Vancouver, Canada.

Leszek Wyczolkowski was born into a family of artists in Zielonka, Poland in 1950. Leszek began his formal education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland in 1977. After immigrating to Canada in 1978 Wyczolkowski continued his education at the Ontario College of Art, graduating with honours. He has exhibited in Austria, Canada, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the United States. Wyczolkowski's work appear in important collections internationally in museums, as well as corporate and private collections.

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 the WATERSHED series: part 1

Continuing with it's mandate of exhibiting contemporary art informed by nature, Summit Fine Art throughout 2009 will present The Watershed Series , consist of three separate exhibitions which explore water as subject. With our blue planet being comprised of 71% water surface, it is little surprise that the meditative life-source is an inspiration for artists all over the world. At a time when water issues are at the forefront of discussions with environmentalist and scientists, due to declining fresh water supplies, rising sea levels and rapidly melting glaciers and polar ice caps, a visual dialog can also be added to the discussion through artists. The Watershed Series explores the artists connect to the beauty and tranquility of bodies of water via various art practices, while reinforcing an ongoing dialogue and concern for our changing planet's greatest resource.

The first presentation in The Watershed Series is Crystallize a solo exhibition and debut of Ciara Hossak, a recent graduate from the Alberta College. Crystallize is a cohesive series of new work in ceramic, hand-blown and fused glass. Exploring the meditative qualities of water, Hossack draws inspiration from the energy that is inherent to it's ability to change state from liquid to solid; ice or steam, as well as it's ability to reflect and refract light. Through experimentation with glass and light, Hossack captures a single moment in the life cycle of water. Hossack's work is as much about beauty as it is about the calming properties of water as it takes all forms.

As dynamic as her chosen subject matter, Hossack fluidly moves from glass to ceramic as medium. Illuminated fused glass installations inspired by the Columbian ice fields, depict the translucency and motion of water captured by temperature; while glacial rocks created by hand-formed ceramics and hand-blown glass exemplify the indelible imprint of their reaction with water. Each hand-blown rock has been sandblasted and cold-work giving the appearance of rock projecting its memory through its interior soul.

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 ASSEMBLAGES

   Erik Olson
   January 10 to February 14, 2009

L. 2008. oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches
By: Erik Olson

Following his recent exhibition at the Art Gallery of Calgary, painter Erik Olson turns his gaze from the mountain pine beetle infestations in western Canada to the increasingly complicated architecture of a surging human population. Olson's latest paintings are projections of a nature transformed by human activity articulated in thick oil. Over the past three years the artist has traveled to various locations around the globe gathering impressions of the built environment to inform his paintings. From rickety shacks in Honduras to construction sites in New York City to mega-structures in Beijing, Olson creates sculptures in paint as part of a search for the systems underlying human development. These mega-structures, sprawling crowds, and buzzing cityscapes swarm the surface of the canvas, capturing populations expanding exponentially, seemingly beyond control. Viewed as a whole, this body of work is an attempt to synthesize the often overwhelming complexity of a rapidly assembled human ecosystem.

For more information email Emily at info@summitfineart.com or call 403.457.5477

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 COLONY

    Marcia Harris

    November 22, 2008 - December 19, 2008

Where We Live Is Where We Work. 2008. 48 x 72 inches. Acrylic on canvas.

By: Marcia Harris

In this series of eight paintings, Harris continues her interest in the changing landscapes in the face of climate change and modern life. In Colony, Harris shifts her focus away from the voracious pine beetle and its altering effects on the landscape, and redirects onto the world’s vastly declining population of bees known as colony collapse disorder. Exploring notions of ecosystems, colonialism, monarchy and community, Harris draws visual comparisons of the similarities between human’s social structures and that of bees.

Marcia Harris’ ongoing awareness of environmental issues continues to resurface in the basis of subject matter. Informed by her research on Canada’s changing landscape due to human’s ecological footprint and the effects of our pursuit of growth, consumption and globalization, Harris draws upon the Canadian tradition of landscape painting as her modus operandi. Depicting a landscape dealing with an influx of people and urban expansion, Harris depicts the beauty within change, growth and life cycles.

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Sources

Michael Cameron

October 25 - 15, 2008

In his newest series of work Michael Cameron continues to aim his reflections on a society which deals with economic turn falls, political power, the changing landscape due to environmental and man made issues. Inundated with a daily barrage of media images that speak to the world’s stability, yet are designed to frighten, provide optimism and ultimately sell products, society on an individual basis must process these conflicting messages. Inspired by these images yet not bound by painting what he sees, Cameron creates paintings that source CNN, the internet, literature and historical landscape paintings such as Turner and the Group of Seven to juxtapose notions of the romanticism of the painted landscape with the modern day realities of the world we live in.

Continuing to utilize the dog as metaphor for the human condition, Cameron reveals a painted surface which is visceral and uninhibited. Not limiting himself to one particular style of mark-making Cameron delves into a plethora of paint surfaces within a single canvas which include inscribing into the paint, spattering, covering some areas with a rich build up of thin oil washes, and other areas with broad, paint laden brush work. The resulting paintings are that are at once luminous and vigorous.

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