When I can\u2019t get to sleep, I dismantle my world<\/em>, Audrey Gair and Allan Rand\u2019s two-person exhibition at Galerie Eli Kerr, offers another antidote, this time with paintings that subtly hover around the schism between our yearning for both the abstract and the concrete. Curated with a discerning eye by the artists, the show offers allowance for the flowering of imagination. As such, there\u2019s no need to bleat about what the works on display mean, or what au courant <\/em>topics they\u2019re exploring. It\u2019s the specificity of the artworks and the sharpness of their effects that matter here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gair\u2019s paintings, self-consciously abstract, delight the eye through an admixture of form, colour, and texture. Her brushstrokes leave crumbs, traces of the viscosity of oil paint that sinks and spreads and hardens on linen and canvas. Books, acting as physical prompts, layered and angled, sometimes vibrant, sometimes muted in shades of grey and white, give the works a sense of seriality, of a cohering rhythm. And inside this arrangement, there\u2019s room for surprises. In T-Shirt Collage<\/em> (2024), for example, a stripped blue-and-gold t-shirt is threaded onto a painted backdrop that hints at the crumpled and blank pages of a book. Here the proportionality, the considered use of negative space, and the variations on a visual theme suspend the viewer in a delicate balance between familiar and unfamiliar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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$\"Audrey$
Audrey Gair<\/strong>
T-Shirt Collage 2<\/em>, 76,2 \u00d7 101,6 cm, 2024.
Photo: Atlas documentation, courtesy of the artist & Galerie Eli Kerr, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Rand\u2019s work\u200a\u2014\u200amore contained, with hints of figuration, and also showing a distinct preoccupation with texture, form, and colour\u200a\u2014\u200aoffers an interesting counterpoint to Gair\u2019s. His brush isn\u2019t as abstracting. Instead, it bristles with a poetic touch to reach out and caress the viewer\u2019s sensibilities. Yuendumu (Villa, Trapdoor to Underground Bacchanalian Fresco Cycle, Rome)<\/em> (2023\u200a\u2013\u200a24) exemplifies the possibilities inherent in such a painterly approach. The disruptions and rifts in the perceptual field, accentuated through the studied use of blurring reds, and greens, and blues, turns the painting into a puzzle, a mystery to be solved or maybe simply appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Allan$
Allan Rand<\/strong>
Yuendumu (Villa, Trapdoor to Underground Bacchanalian Fresco Cycle, Rome)<\/em>, 20,3 \u00d7 25,4 cm, 2023-2024.
Photo: Atlas documentation, courtesy of the artist & Galerie Eli Kerr, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Allan$
Allan Rand<\/strong>
Tombolo<\/em>, 29,7 \u00d7 40,1 cm, 2024.
Photo: Atlas documentation, courtesy of the artist & Galerie Eli Kerr, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The curatorial approach that situates the artists\u2019 works side by side, from wall to wall, in conversation with one another, encourages viewers to stretch their minds, to wonder or contemplate, to observe similarities and differences. We\u2019re reminded to get comfortable with our imaginations again, maybe even daydream, with two painters who are more than happy to prod us in this direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Galerie Eli Kerr,<\/strong> Montr\u00e9al
<\/br>January 23\u200a\u2013\u200aMarch 1, 2025<\/br>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":268621,"template":"","categories":[884],"numeros":[7491],"disciplines":[],"statuts":[],"checklist":[],"auteurs":[7424],"artistes":[7469,7457],"thematiques":[],"type_compte-rendu":[],"class_list":["post-268623","compte-rendu","type-compte-rendu","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","numeros-114-abstractions-en","auteurs-brian-obiri-asare-en","artistes-allan-rand-en","artistes-audrey-gair-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu\/268623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/compte-rendu"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268623"},{"taxonomy":"numeros","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numeros?post=268623"},{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=268623"},{"taxonomy":"statuts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/statuts?post=268623"},{"taxonomy":"checklist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/checklist?post=268623"},{"taxonomy":"auteurs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/auteurs?post=268623"},{"taxonomy":"artistes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artistes?post=268623"},{"taxonomy":"thematiques","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thematiques?post=268623"},{"taxonomy":"type_compte-rendu","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_compte-rendu?post=268623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}