Resampling George Gordienko

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George Gordienko

Courtesy of the Gallery.

Opening Reception:  August 5 from 2-4pm.

Outsiders and Others is excited to present Resampling George Gordienko who was a Canadian artist and wrestler. This collection is a sample of a life-long adventure that led Gordienko from surrealism to cubism and abstract. The symbolic and surrealistic depictions of the narratives in vibrant colours take the viewer to the depth of Gordienko’s fantasy world. He pursued his passion for art through delicate and whimsical illustrations by adopting different techniques and materials.

This collection of work is being presented in conjunction with his estate.

Born in 1928 of first-generation Ukranian and Cossack-Canadian parents in North Winnipeg, Manitoba, by age 17 Gordienko received numerous awards for his physical prowess. However, recognizing his penchant for art, his father gave him his first oil paints and brushes at age 12, a few years before he constructed his son's first weight-lifting equipment. Art always came before wrestling, even at the beginning of Gordienko's career and world travels.

His training in London was traditional and academic, while his studies in Paris were probably more modernist and even avant-garde. The history of his art reveals an artist who quietly and quickly absorbed the lessons he had with great European modernists like Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro. From 1976 to 1990, he lived in Italy. Gordienko died of melanoma in 2002.

In addition we will be featuring paper-cuttings by Elijah Lake Holstein, a self-taught multi-media artist. Through paper-cuttings, printmaking, painting, and poetry, Elijah's work explores the spaces between community and alienation, the ordinary and the mystical, and illness and health.