DUNCAN REGEHR, "Magic," May 8 to 22, 2008, Petley Jones Gallery, Vancouver

Petley Jones Gallery, Vancouver

May 8 to 22, 2008

By Beverly Cramp

Many different words have been used to describe the paintings and drawings of Duncan Regehr — figurative, representational, theatrical, and work that bends perspectives and stretches space. These are words that the artist himself isn’t necessarily comfortable with. “Certainly figurative,” he agrees but adds that he has worked in a variety of styles since he was a child, when he worked alongside his father, Peter Regehr, who was also an artist. “The focus on myth and transformation is really the key to this show,” says Regehr of his exhibition of 18 oils at Petley Jones Gallery. These new canvases are part of a larger body of work that Regehr has been creating since 2000 that concerns transformation. More precisely, this extended body of work is concerned with “illusion, the unknown, myth, the psyche and prestidigitation” to quote Regehr’s exact words. An actor as well as an artist, Regehr has played Zorro and a variety of heroes and arch villains. It should be no surprise his visual art deals with allusions and mythology too. “Notions of transformation have always been bleeding over the boundaries from theatre, film and painting.”

Represented by: Winchester Galleries, Victoria; Petley Jones, Vancouver; Sylvia White Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; Bella Perla, Portland, OR