Ann Kipling: Gestural Terrain

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Ann Kipling, "Maxine Dec 2/86," 1986

pastel, conté on Rives paper, Collection of the Kamloops Art Gallery, Gift of the artist

Exhibition Tour with Adrienne Fast, Interim Curator of the Kamloops Art Gallery // Saturday, January 14, 5:30 pm

Opening Reception // Saturday, January 14, 6:30 to 8:00 pm

Ann Kipling lives and works in Falkland, BC. Her work is imbued with the beauty and quiet of this rural area. Focusing primarily on portraits, animals and the landscape, Ann Kipling’s process includes drawing similar subjects over long periods of time, recording subtle changes and shifts in expression within these subjects. This prolonged scrutiny gives Kipling's work an unmistakable intensity, fluidity of line and graphic complexity that approaches abstraction. Her portraits are psychologically revealing, retaining evidence of a closely observed encounter between subject and artist. Kipling admits to becoming obsessed with a subject, forming a bond, then interpreting it repeatedly until she exhausts its visual possibilities. Through her repetitive mark-making Kipling suggests that one view cannot capture the complexity and changeability of a person or animal—these fields of reference are variable and constantly shifting.

This selection from the Kamloops Art Gallery’s permanent collection is drawn from a recent substantial donation of work from Ann Kipling to the Gallery and builds on previous donations of drawings and prints from the artist, establishing the Kamloops Art Gallery as a primary long-term home for her life’s work. Ann Kipling's drawings are remarkable in their skill, rigour and complex beauty. Representing the span of her career and the dominant themes of her work, this selection reflects Kipling’s enduring focus on expressive mark-making and the depiction of everyday subjects from her life. This companion exhibition to Becoming Animal/Becoming Landscape: From the Collection of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery similarly addresses the transformation of animal/human/landscape.

Curated by Charo Neville, Curator, Kamloops Art Gallery.