Black

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Attila Richard Lukacs, "Voyager," 1998-2000

oil on canvas, 79" x 94"

With winter being a time when some commercial galleries package cheery group shows with splashes of colour and easy-to-digest content, it’s a revelation to find a venue embracing the season’s short days with a focus on darkness. Black is one such foray, a major group exhibition on view until March 16 at the recently expanded and relocated Herringer Kiss Gallery in Calgary.

Inky hues and the weight of spectral implosion may sound overly sombre, but of course black is invariably counterbalanced with white, and with it a pathway to shedding light on mood, reflection and contemplation. A sterling example comes via the recent addition of Vancouver-based international star Attila Richard Lukacs to the gallery’s stable.

His Voyager, from 1998-2000, is the largest work in the show, and also one of the most illuminating and meditative. Embodying the precarity of life and a shadowy reclining male nude, seemingly floating or hinged in a world of mortal epiphany, the painting offers a journey towards either a netherworld, or an otherworld of endless liminality.

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Shelley Adler, "Faraway," 2018

ink on paper, 80" x 45"

Monochromatic tendencies are often tied to reduction and abstraction (think Bridget Riley, Mark Rothko, Mona Hatoum or Anish Kapoor). But Black offers a balance of notable figurative work, particularly by Toronto’s Shelley Adler and Montreal’s Dennis Ekstedt. Both have a trio of paintings and ably demonstrate how to break the schoolteacher’s rule to never apply pure black paint.

In Adler’s 2018 Faraway, a larger-than-life girl holds your gaze with her captivating black pupils, pigtails and lips, offset by clothes of pale grey and light blue. Smaller portraits command equally piercing stares, both uneasy and enchanting, balanced with blocks of colour.

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Dennis Ekstedt, "Cluster 2," 2007

oil on wood, 35" x 29.5"

Meanwhile, Ekstedt’s elevated nocturnal cityscapes oscillate with myriad twinkling lamplights, filtered through evocations of windows or, in one instance, perhaps a car’s windshield. There's a sense of ubiquity, yet distilled moments of suspended animation offer transport beyond one’s conscious self.

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Michael Davidson, "Distant Shore," 2008

oil on canvas, 84" x 96"

Sculptures and abstract art build out the show, with Calgary-based artist Curtis Cutshaw’s Horizon and Toronto artist Michael Davidson’s Distant Shore providing two examples of hypnotic planes comprising well-balanced and rhythmic tableaus. Notably, Black includes a healthy roster of non-Calgary artists, indicating the breadth, depth and all-round success of the gallery’s program.

Naysayers may opine that black is a hackneyed calling card for art chic. Or that large-scale conceptual endeavours function effectively only in the confines of a white-cube gallery. On the first point, black functions credibly in many settings, so I won’t get enticed into debating a solution in search of a problem. On the latter, Black is testament to the viability of a well-curated space offering a transformational experience: something that should be an aspiration for everyone. ■

Black is on view at the Herringer Kiss Gallery in Calgary from Jan. 12 to March 16, 2019.