{"id":27655,"date":"2015-03-16T14:02:02","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T18:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=27655"},"modified":"2015-03-16T14:49:00","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T18:49:00","slug":"james-nye-at-project-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=27655","title":{"rendered":"James Nye at Project Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>James Nye, Sleepover #2, 2015, oil on canvas, 33.5\u201d x 47.25\u201d. Photo: Courtesy of Project Gallery\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first thing that catches your eye in James Nye\u2019s show at Project Gallery is a large painting featuring two empty beds. There\u2019s something strange about it \u2014 something not quite right. The title is \u201cSleepover #2\u201d but it doesn\u2019t seem to be a sleepover. It\u2019s more like a hotel room and the two beds are rumpled but empty. It looks like it\u2019s night, as there\u2019s a lamp on and it seems to be dark outside. That\u2019s when you notice something odd about what\u2019s going on in the image. Even with the lamp clearly on it doesn\u2019t light the whole room. The right side of the painting looks like the inside of a room with the expected perspective: walls, a painting hanging there, the beds \u2013 light and shadows. However the left side of the painting is in a different kind of darkness. Instead, the wall disappears and the outside comes into the room in the form of city lights and an outline of the mountain. It is hard to decide where we are, what is inside and what is out. Another painting with similar imagery, \u201cCome to rest,\u201d depicts the same room but here the boundaries of inside and outside are completely broken and the landscape becomes part of the room. Both paintings show bedrooms that should be occupied but there are no people in them. They are represented by their absence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>James Nye, Come to Rest, 2015, oil on canvas, 27.5\u201d x15.75″. Photo: Courtesy of Project Gallery\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nye\u2019s paintings look realistic and he applies traditional oil painting methods. He uses a camera to document scenes and moments he finds interesting and follows those pictures as guides when he paints. However the paintings are not realistic, they are lean to the abstract or surreal. \u201cSentinel\u201d shows the inside of a studio in its everyday banality: beer bottles on the counter, storage boxes on the shelves, a cat \u2013 but then suddenly a reflection of an otside building breaks the composition. How did it get there? This method is typical of Nye and through it \u201cwhat might be a banal and ordinary scene is transformed into something more,\u201d as Project\u2019s website states.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>James Nye, Sentinel, 2015 oil on canvas, 49.25\u201d x 27.5\u201d. Photo: Courtesy of Project Gallery\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nye\u2019s paintings are heavy with possible narratives but as he writes, \u201cIn my paintings the beauty is in looking and not necessarily what you are looking at. So whether they consist of clouds, graffiti or people, means little. What matters to me is how these things are given shape through the fundamental principles of light\u2026Fleeting moments of light. Quick glances\u2026.\u00a0 What is uninteresting and what is beautiful are the questions I pose to viewers.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is a pleasure to explore those questions, even you can never be sure you got the answer right.<\/p>\n

Emese Krun\u00e1k-Hajagos<\/p>\n

*Exhibition information: Cate McGuire\u00a0&\u00a0James Nye: Echoes<\/em>, March 5 – 18, 2015,\u00a0\u00a0Project Gallery, 1109 Queen Street East, Toronto. Gallery hours: Tue \u2013 Fri, 2 \u2013 8; Sat \u2013 Sun, 12 \u2013 6 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Emese Krun\u00e1k-Hajagos<\/strong><\/p>\n

“In my paintings the beauty is in looking and not necessarily what you are looking at….What matters to me is how these things are given shape through the fundamental principles of light.”<\/p>\n

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