The traditional meets the technological as Crookshank employs watercolour and oil to the canvas in layered lines that appear digitally rendered. These works call to mind the compositions I would create with Microsoft Paint as a child on the family desktop. Colourful gestures collide in an unconscious manner, pointing to the effects of randomness and chance in the artists practice. The “Fever\/Fervour Resonance” exemplifies this childlike whimsy well. Consider the imprecise nature of Crookshank\u2019s scribbles, the interchanged opaque and translucent media, and the bits of canvas left untouched by paint entirely.<\/p>\n Violence is also discernible in this body of work, which I presume stems from an equally violent process. It would seem as though Crookshank attacked the surfaces with his technological lines, as in “Awesome Cheesecake” where red shapes meet belligerent black markings to establish a sense of bloodshed. Crookshank turns to other unconventional material which he applies to the works with similar vigour. In No “Snacks\/Broken Rhymes,” for example, shards of resin and entire rocks are trusted onto the canvas and in “Dark Triangle” a variety of textured papers overlap chaotically.<\/p>\n When I look at Crookshank\u2019s works I cannot help but see organic entities before me. This is particularly true of “Risk and Reward 7” which is displayed in the gallery\u2019s lower level. Resin, rocks, paper, and paint collide to create what I perceive as a dynamic, abstract flower.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/rsz_matt_crookshank_istallation_view.jpg\" "\\"rsz_matt_crookshank_istallation_view\\"")
<\/a>Installation view of\u00a0Matt Crookshank\u2019s\u00a0Violent Whimsy<\/em>, main floor<\/p>\n<\/a>Installation view with Matt Crookshank, Deadlines & Strategies, oil on canves, 72″ x 192″<\/p>\n<\/a>Matt Crookshank, Awesome Cheesecake, oil and watercolor on canvas, 36″ x 48″ diptych<\/p>\n<\/a>Matt Crookshank, No Snacks\/Broken Rhymes, oil and collage on canvas, 48″ in diameter<\/p>\n<\/a>Matt Crookshank, Dark Triangle, Redux, mixed media<\/p>\n