{"id":32038,"date":"2016-01-18T17:53:22","date_gmt":"2016-01-18T22:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=32038"},"modified":"2016-02-12T14:21:11","modified_gmt":"2016-02-12T19:21:11","slug":"about-face-nicholas-metivier-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=32038","title":{"rendered":"About Face \/ Nicholas Metivier Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cultural currency of portraiture has stood the test of time, as emerging social media platforms and sophisticated portable cameras, most accessible in the medium of cellular devices or tablets, have injected a sense of immediacy and spontaneity to the practice. The zeitgeist-defining selfie, in all its filtered and ubiquitous glory, has actively reshaped how individuals represent their image and likeness in pictorial form, by providing the most unskilled individual the ability to aesthetically alter and enhance their photographic creations. About Face<\/em>, the current exhibition at the Nicholas Metivier Gallery, presents a series of paintings and photographs that contrast the extemporaneity and ordinariness of contemporary modes of portraiture. The exhibition effectively visualizes an era where capturing an individual in pictorial form required extensive and exhaustive sit-ins with an artist, or a photographer meticulously modifying a setting to create the ideal lighting for an image.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sebasti\u00e3o Salgado, Brazil, 1981, gelatin silver print, Photograph by Sebasti\u00e3o Salgado\/Amazonas Images. Image courtesy of Nicholas Metivier Gallery<\/p>\n

About Face<\/em> offers a variety of artistic endeavors that creates a compellingly varied synthesis of modes of execution. The clarity and focus of Sebasti\u00e3o Salgado\u2019s black-and-white photographs greatly contrasts John Hartman\u2019s thick impasto and partial abstraction. Keita Morimoto\u2019s “Green Girl”\u00a0explicitly recalls the painterly naturalism of the Baroque, while Shelley Adler\u2019s “Zoe one Evening”\u00a0invokes a more expressive and less anatomically correct rendering of forms. Furthermore, a painting from Stephen Appleby Barr\u2019s recent solo exhibition within the same gallery space effectively resurfaces under a newer context within this latest curatorial effort, enabling his idiosyncratic work to speak in a different perspective.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Keita Morimoto, Green Girl, 2015, oil on linen, 48 x 36 inches.\u00a0Image courtesy of Nicholas Metivier Gallery<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Shelley Adler, Zoe one Evening, 2015, oil on canvas, 56 x 50 inches.\u00a0Image courtesy of Nicholas Metivier Gallery<\/p>\n

A thoughtfully heterogeneous mix of media is displayed throughout the venue, from the transcendent oil and canvas of Charles Bierk\u2019s paintings, to the more obsolete daguerreotype process of Chuck Close\u2019s self-portrait series. Coupled alongside an eclectic range of subject matter, About Face <\/em>showcases an artful mix of the quotidian and the surreal, the monumental and the modest. The viewer is encouraged to contemplate the various narratives presented throughout the gallery, as the diverse physiognomies offer a wealth of potential psychological states and perspectives. In the words of Ludwig Wittgenstein, \u201cmeaning is a physiognomy,\u201d a statement About Face <\/em>enlivens.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Charles Bierk, Taylor, 2015, oil on canvas, 70 x 60 inches.\u00a0Image courtesy of Nicholas Metivier Gallery<\/p>\n

David Saric<\/p>\n

*Exhibition information: January 7 – 30, 2016,\u00a0Nicholas Metivier Gallery,\u00a0451 King Street West, Toronto. Gallery hours: Tue\u2013Sat, 10 am\u20136 pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by David Saric<\/strong><\/p>\n

The viewer is encouraged to contemplate the various narratives presented throughout the gallery, as the diverse physiognomies offer a wealth of potential psychological states and perspectives.<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-david-saric","category-features","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32038"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32349,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32038\/revisions\/32349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}