AMY SCHISSEL | HIGH FREQUENCY | ACRYLIC, WAX OIL, INK ON CANVAS | 92 X 62 INCHES | 2012


PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY PRESENTS AN EXHIBITON OF NEW PAINTINGS BY 2011 RBC CANADIAN PAINTING COMPETITION FINALIST AMY SCHISSEL

AMY SCHISSEL
NEW PAINTINGS

APRIL 18 TO MAY 28, 2012

ARTIST RECEPTION:
FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012
5:30 P.M. TO 9 P.M.

PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by 2011 RBC Canadian Painting Competition Finalist AMY SCHISSEL. The exhibition opens on April 18, 2012, with an artist reception on Friday, April 20, 2012. To view preview images of selected available works, please contact the gallery.

Amy Schissel's work negotiates hybrid moments where paint and modes of digital representation collide, giving rise to contemporary imagery that flips between abstraction and representation. Multifaceted networks of lines and marks give rise to immersive swirling schemata of notational systems which visualize information flows and emphasize the adaptation of the human imagination to virtual and synthetic imagery.

Schissel's paintings evolve through obsessive, repetitive mark making where paint and other media are built up and then worked back into, to almost mysteriously find' the resulting images. Materials are layered to construct a working surface; a collage of plaster, recycled drawings, various weights of paper, charcoal, graphite, inks, acrylic paints, oil stick, crayon, markers, and colored paper shreds. The surface is then worked back into by cutting or peeling away at the various layers, which are replaced on the surface once spatial shifts begin to emerge. This regenerative process allows Schissel to invent, find, and react to emerging forms and sequences that command her investigation and inform the evolution of linear networking.

Amy Schissel was a finalist in the 2011 RBC Canadian Painting Competition. Her work can be found in the collections of the Canada Council Art Bank, the Department of Foreign Affairs Canada, the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, and the Gotland Museum of Fine Arts, Sweden, in addition to numerous private international collections. She completed her BFA in 2002 from the University of Ottawa and her MFA from the University of Ottawa in 2009. She was Canada's 2009 recipient of the Brucebo Fine Arts Award, and has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions at the University of Brussels Gallery, Belgium, the Karsh Masson Gallery in Ottawa, and at Centre d'art Imagier in Gatineau, Quebec. She is the recipient of various grant and awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and City of Ottawa. In November 2010 she was featured in the exhibition 4 Ottawa Painters at Carleton University Art Gallery. Schissel lives and maintains her practice in Gatineau, Quebec.




JESSICA AUER | MEADOW | C-PRINT MOUNTED ON DIBOND | DIMENSIONS VARIABLE | 2012


PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY PRESENTS AN ARTIST RECEPTION AND ARTIST TALK FOR "MEADOW," BY MONTREAL ARTIST JESSICA AUER

JESSICA AUER
MEADOW

MARCH 7 TO APRIL 17, 2012

ARTIST RECEPTION
FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012
5:30 P.M. TO 9 P.M.

ARTIST TALK
SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 2012
2 P.M.

PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY is pleased to present MEADOW an exhibition of new photo-based works by Montreal artist JESSICA AUER. The exhibition runs from March 7 to April 17, 2012. There will be an official Artist Reception this Friday, March 23, 2012, from 5:30 to 9 p.m., followed by an artist talk on Saturday, March 31, 2012.

In MEADOW, Jessica Auer presents a photographic installation that questions our perception of nature. In this body of work, Auer looks at the simulated environment of the meadow from multiple perspectives.

Created in part on a journey throughout Europe, MEADOW begins as a personal exploration of the artist's family name and history. Auer, whose name translates as "from the meadow," embarked on a search for places that bear this description. Observing that these idyllic sites are mostly an illusion of nature; often the trees have been cut down and trails have been blazed, Auer recognizes that as human beings, we also impose our own cultural impressions upon the meadow. Figured throughout the history of painting and photography, and used as a stage in literature and cinema, the meadow cannot help but bear the nuances of a tranquil paradise. Reality and imagination interweave throughout this installation of large-scale photographs. Although the meadow is offered as the setting for Auer's own personal mythology, she invites the viewer to bring his or her own reveries to the MEADOW.

Jessica Auer is a documentary-style landscape photographer from Montreal. Drawing inspiration from history and archeology, her work is largely concerned with the study of cultural sites. From the beaten track to the frontier, Auer explores places where history and mythology are woven into the landscape, and where contemporary landscape issues emerge. Auer received her MFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University in 2007 and is the recipient of several grants and awards such as the W.B. Bruce European Fine Art Travel Fellowship and the Roloff Beny Prize. Her work has been exhibited in Canada and the United States and is held in various private and public collections, including the Musée des Beaux Arts du Québec and the Canada Council Art Bank. She is a co-founder of Galerie Les Territoires in Montreal and currently holds the position of Assistant Professor in Studio Arts at Concordia University.


For more information:

PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY
2401 Bank Street
Ottawa Canada K1V 8R9
Tel. 613.746.0690 TF: 1.800.388.3298

E-mail: gallery@patrickmikhailgallery.com
Web: www.patrickmikhailgallery.com