Jonathan Forrest | Momentum

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Jonathan Forrest, “Fingers Crossed,” 2024

acrylic on canvas, 66x48 inches (courtesy of the Gallery)

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 11th from 2-4pm.

Newzones is thrilled to announce Momentum, a solo exhibition of new work by Canadian contemporary colour-field painter, Jonathan Forrest.

Featuring new large-scale works painted in early 2024, Momentum focuses on Forrest’s ongoing interest in colour, paint application and touch. It additionally explores Forrest’s ongoing conversation with his own formative years developing as a painter, and with the artists who offered insights along the way. Forrest was introduced to abstraction by artist and teacher Robert Christie in the early 1980s. Through Christie, he was exposed to artists’ work such as Canadian painter Jack Bush and closer to home, Saskatoon painter William Perehudoff, as well as Christie’s own work. This exposure imprinted on the young artists and the introduction of colour, scale, and paint process formed the groundwork for his later developments and explorations.

Canadian artist Jonathan Forrest paints with an exuberance of colour and full shapes which fill his canvases. His artwork displays a unique colour sensibility and painting process which build upon lessons learned over forty years of studio work. The paintings in Momentum feature four, five, or six vertical columns of pulled paint that jostle and nudge each other across the surfaces. Starting with a raw canvas background, the applied colours become translucent and filled with light, an effect heightened by the added use of acrylic washes.

Jonathan Forrest received both his Bachelor and Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Saskatchewan. He attended the Emma Lake Workshops several times and became an organizer in 2001. Forrest has exhibited extensively in Canada and abroad and his work can be found in numerous public and private collections, including Canada Council Art Bank, Art Gallery of Alberta, Bank of Montreal, Glenbow Museum, Keg Restaurants Ltd., Peloton, Calgary, Remai Modern and Nordstrom, to name a few. He recently had a mid-career museum survey show at the Art Gallery of Swift Current in 2021 which travelled to the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery in early 2023.