Arvid Wangen |
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Arvid Wangen
Arvid Wangen est un artiste canadien né à Winnipeg mais élevé à Calgary où il va à l'Alberta College of Art and Design. Il étudie à la Faculté de dessin de son école mais ce n'est qu'à partir de 2001 et de son arrivée à Vancouver que Arvid Wangen réussit à définir son esthétique propre en tant qu'artiste. C'est alors qu'il s'éloigne de ses grands mouvements gestuels initiaux pour explorer des techniques plus complexes d'application de la peinture à l'aide d'un couteau à palettes, technique qui est devenue sa marque de fabrique. |
My 'scenes of abstraction' reflect the strained dynamic between the hectic cadence of the urban landscape with our seemingly nostalgic desire to find singular focus and meaning in these surroundings. This 'constant flicker', this muse, is filtered through a lens of abstraction, of detail and form and the joy of moving paint across a canvas.
I paint primarily with palette knives, one in each hand, overlapping marks, echoing the complexity of the structured world around us... we tune out so much (all of it having been built, planted, made by people) these beautiful forms stacked on top of each other to the point that it becomes nearly impossible to view anything alone.
Much of the time I find it difficult to actually see what I am looking at, to know what a 'thing' is but instead have take to seeing things in form and negative space, feeling as if am in constant dialogue, not only with the world of painting but also with the literary works that have informed my aesthetic. Living and working in Vancouver for the past decade, I was born in Winnipeg and raised in Calgary where I attended the Alberta College Of Art And Design (1988-1992), studying in the Drawing Faculty and defining my aesthetic.
I paint primarily with palette knives, one in each hand, overlapping marks, echoing the complexity of the structured world around us... we tune out so much (all of it having been built, planted, made by people) these beautiful forms stacked on top of each other to the point that it becomes nearly impossible to view anything alone.
Much of the time I find it difficult to actually see what I am looking at, to know what a 'thing' is but instead have take to seeing things in form and negative space, feeling as if am in constant dialogue, not only with the world of painting but also with the literary works that have informed my aesthetic. Living and working in Vancouver for the past decade, I was born in Winnipeg and raised in Calgary where I attended the Alberta College Of Art And Design (1988-1992), studying in the Drawing Faculty and defining my aesthetic.
His palette knives (one in each hand), slash and gash onto his canvas with dangerous gusto, powered by an unknown source that makes plutonium seem weak. Is Wangen mocking chaos, or using it to advantage?
I turned to his artist statement for answers, where he claims that his "mark making is purposeful" and is used to create an "experience."
He further refers to "complexity of our surroundings," all underscored by his personal sacrifices of working in his "cold, messy studio" where he spends "hours upon hours alone" because for him it is the "only way to create this kind of body of work - to do it honestly."
I am sorry to know that Wangen has to be cold and lonely to do it 'honestly', but as for the results of all these hours and hours of work, they are an energized blender drink of action painting, cubism, and futurism after hitting the chop button.
In all paintings, the eye is teased and tricked into finding futuristic empires, shards of distorted rubble, steely heaps of eviscerated computers, kitchen utensils and other chaotic assemblages. They dance just beyond the grasp of reality. I bristled a bit at Wangen's referral to brushwork as "the trap of the passionate mark" when his own palette knife work screams of passion, too. Choose your weapons. So although I sensed some conflicting messages in Arvid Wangen's artist statement, I enjoyed the show because it made me think about the many unexplored frontiers that painting can take, as if it was just discovered. Wangen's own coup d'etat finds him slashing through art history and hacking out a new path, while his esthetic is revved to full throttle in that cold, messy studio.
So everybody just stand back, please, when Arvid Wangen is painting.
- Source: From the article "CHOOSE YOUR WEAPONS - Vancouver artist slashes through art history, hacking out a new path prompting consideration of other possibilities" BY MARSHA DAY, THE STARPHOENIX
I turned to his artist statement for answers, where he claims that his "mark making is purposeful" and is used to create an "experience."
He further refers to "complexity of our surroundings," all underscored by his personal sacrifices of working in his "cold, messy studio" where he spends "hours upon hours alone" because for him it is the "only way to create this kind of body of work - to do it honestly."
I am sorry to know that Wangen has to be cold and lonely to do it 'honestly', but as for the results of all these hours and hours of work, they are an energized blender drink of action painting, cubism, and futurism after hitting the chop button.
In all paintings, the eye is teased and tricked into finding futuristic empires, shards of distorted rubble, steely heaps of eviscerated computers, kitchen utensils and other chaotic assemblages. They dance just beyond the grasp of reality. I bristled a bit at Wangen's referral to brushwork as "the trap of the passionate mark" when his own palette knife work screams of passion, too. Choose your weapons. So although I sensed some conflicting messages in Arvid Wangen's artist statement, I enjoyed the show because it made me think about the many unexplored frontiers that painting can take, as if it was just discovered. Wangen's own coup d'etat finds him slashing through art history and hacking out a new path, while his esthetic is revved to full throttle in that cold, messy studio.
So everybody just stand back, please, when Arvid Wangen is painting.
- Source: From the article "CHOOSE YOUR WEAPONS - Vancouver artist slashes through art history, hacking out a new path prompting consideration of other possibilities" BY MARSHA DAY, THE STARPHOENIX
