Michael Davidson –Thelonious - Gallery Hop
to
Herringer Kiss Gallery 101-1615 10 Avenue SW, Calgary, Alberta T3C 0J7
Michael Davidson, "Jazz Mystic On The Aegean Pier," 2018
oil on canvas, 72" x 72"
Michael Davidson is a Toronto based painter with a BFA from the University of Guelph (1988). He exhibits his paintings internationally with most recent exhibitions in Los Angeles and Singapore. His work can be found in collections in Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia. Davidson’s paintings are included in the acclaimed Carte Blanche 2: Painting – a survey of new Canadian painting (2009) and The 60 Painters exhibition and catalogue in Toronto, Canada (2012). Davidson lives and works in Toronto.
Arts Writer Shannon Anderson wrote of Davidson’s work; “Elemental forces are at work here. Davidson speaks of a desire to convey a unification of opposites in this body of work. He draws from Jung’s notions of individuation: a process of psychological transformation that includes the realization that all of the seeming polarization of the world—us and them, good and evil, strong and weak—are in fact intertwined and interdependent. In these paintings, a delicate balance is sought between figure and ground, dark and light, and abstraction and representation.”
Michael Davidson writes; “1958. Jazz was exploding. Artists, beats, actors and drifters were flocking night after night to the Five Spot in New York City, to hear and hang with Coltrane, Mingus, Miles and Monk. In 1958 Thelonious Monk captured it all in his seminal recording “Live At The Five Spot” with the great ‘Blue Monk’ while Coltrane recorded his now famous ‘Blue Trane’. It seemed as though the world was opening up. Or maybe it was bearing down for the struggle. In ‘58 Billie Holiday recorded her final album. But either way change was coming on fast. There was much to pay attention to. Art was flourishing. In the midst of great exhibitions by Hartigan, Rothko and others, in 1958 the MoMa curated the controversial ‘New American Painting’ exhibition. Cold War tensions and an existentialist crisis called the tune. Then came young lions, Rauschenberg, Johns, and others, breaking down the doors, making room for the next movement Pop. In Canada the Painters Eleven were in full swing and campuses across both nations were embracing DT Suzuki, John Cage and a thing called Zen Buddhism. Out from Lowell, Massachusetts in 1958, French Canadian Jack Kerouac released his legendary Dharma Bums, while Esquire magazine in their March issue, published ‘The Philosophy of the Beat Generation’.
Years later the National Gallery of Canada would publish an extensive overview of the 1950’s called ‘The Crisis Of Abstraction In Canada’. It can be said that abstraction in painting, in its auspicious beginnings, had the ability to reflect the mystery, the chaos, the beauty and the tragedy of its time. The paintings in this exhibition centre around this particular focus, a moment in time and a volatile moment of creation.
In the sweep and swirling kinetic energy of this heady past, and infused with later personal memories and related events, ‘Thelonious’ is a suite of paintings, fresh in 2019, as a tribute to the legacy of those times and as a reinforcement of the gift of abstraction in painting as it stands today, 60 years later. “
The Calgary Member Galleries of the Art Dealers Association of Canada will be hosting a Spring Gallery Hop on May 11th from 11 am to 6 pm.
The Gallery Hop will include brief talks at each location by leading artists, curators and critics as well as refreshments at each location. This event has grown over the years to host crowds of people who have become knowledgeable about the local visual art scene. Join us for a fun and informative day of art!
Gallery Hop: Schedule of Galleries
11:00 Herringer Kiss Gallery 1615 - 10 Ave SW
11:45 VIVIANEART 1114 - 11 St SW
12:30 TrépanierBaer Gallery 105, 999 - 8th St SW
1:15 Newzones Gallery 730 - 11th Ave SW
2:00 Paul Kuhn Gallery 724 - 11th Ave SW
2:45 Wallace Galleries Ltd 500 - 5th Ave SW
3:30 Loch Gallery 1516 - 4th St SW
4:15 Masters Gallery 2115 - 4th St SW
5:00 Jarvis Hall Gallery 3338 - 36 Ave SE