![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Echo_Eggebrecht_Bird_Oil_on_panel_12_x_9_inches_2012.png\" "\\"Echo_Eggebrecht_Bird_Oil_on_panel_12_x_9_inches_2012\\"")
<\/a>Echo Eggebrecht, Bird<\/em>, 2012, oil on panel, 12 x 9 inches. Courtesy of Angell Gallery<\/p>\nThen, perhaps, the mark of a good show is simply one that elicits engagement. This show does that, with the sectional space of Angell Gallery beautifully utilized to present the work. Not all of the pieces were admired equally by the guests, but that is to be expected from a group show that gives you a\u00a0bit of everything. Individual tastes to be accounted, the venue was bustling with people in the opening reception.<\/p>\n
Kim Dorland’s work is easy to identify, and one of the most visually arresting. The smeared body, leaps from the grey toned background, anchored by small static rectangular frames. The raised hand somehow possesses a soulful dimension that breaks out of the pictorial field as if protecting an intimate part of the figure.<\/p>\n The highlight of the evening was the possibility to speak with the artists in person and debate with a wide array of people ranging from fellow art enthusiasts to wanderers from the street. A random comment spurred a lengthy debate with artist Bradley Wood about art fairs and the changing landscape of the art business. Wood is delightfully exuberant and surprisingly honest. He has been in the business for a long time and it shows; his work does exactly what he says it does. He paints\u00a0two figures reclining in leather chairs, one of them is\u00a0smoking a cigar, in a space of traditional masculine antiquity.<\/p>\n Bradley Harms’s work inspired a discussion\u00a0about the alchemy of painting. His pieces focus on linear plane motions.\u00a0To interpret\u00a0them the viewer is shifting between accepting clear abstraction\u00a0or making anthropomorphist connections. When asked about his method, Harms led\u00a0me to the back of the\u00a0gallery to his sculpture, tucked in the corner. While not strictly in the show, the sculpture was the physical manifestation of his intent; the layered lines produce a density that can\u00a0only be untangled by moving around it in the space.<\/p>\n<\/a>Kim Dorland, Bay Blanket #2<\/em>, 2014, oil and acrylic on linen over wood panel, 40 x 30 inches. Courtesy of Angell Gallery<\/p>\n<\/a>Bradley Wood, Cigar Room<\/em>, 2014, oil on canvas, 65 x 63 inches. Courtesy of Angell Gallery<\/p>\n<\/a>Bradley Harms, Mini Scrambler,<\/em> 2014, acrylic on canvas over wood panel, 12 x 16 inches. Courtesy of Angell Gallery<\/p>\n