DOUGLAS WALKER: "Other Worlds", Sept. 11 to Oct. 23, 2014, University of Lethbridge Art Gallery

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Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

"Other Worlds"

Douglas Walker, "Other Worlds", 2011, oil on paper, installation view (A-753).

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Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

"Other Worlds"

Douglas Walker, "Other Worlds", 2011, oil on paper, installation view (left to right, A-785, A-804, A-755, A-799).

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Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

"Other Worlds"

Douglas Walker, "Other Worlds", 2011, oil on paper, installation view (A-755, A-799, A-784).

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DOUGLAS WALKER

Other Worlds

Sept. 11 to Oct. 23, 2014

University of Lethbridge Art Gallery

By Portia Priegert

Call him Douglas. And while his great blue-and-white whale won’t tip the scales on Moby Dick, at 43 feet in length it captures something of the cetacean’s behemoth proportions. The whale is part of Toronto-based Douglas Walker’s show, Other Worlds, which also includes a tsunami-like wave that calls to mind Hokusai’s famous woodblock print, and a swirling full moon both eerie and familiar. Walker’s work catches the eye, in part due to its scale, but also because its evocation of antique porcelain overcomes any expected notions about oil painting, making it otherworldly not only in subject but also in its material qualities. 

Walker painted the whale on wallpaper-like strips of paper that are installed in modular units to create the larger image. His remarkable effects come from a subtractive process in which he creates an image in white water-based paint on top of a wet background of blue oil. Oil and water don’t mix, of course, so he is later able to scrub off some paint, allowing the white of the paper to re-emerge in some areas while creating enchanting crackling effects in others.

There’s a certain craft to Walker’s approach – he designed these pieces so they could be folded and shipped inexpensively in small boxes – a practical bent also reflected in his taxonomic style of titling works with a letter-and-number code. His moon, for instance, is identified simply as A-789. But Walker also has a deep interest in the workings of the subconscious mind and says he chose his subject matter intuitively while thinking about ancient archeological sites and the qualities that make us human. “At the very core of our being, the things that shape our consciousness are very basic, very old and very large,” he says.

Underlying grids operate in appealing contrast to the organic qualities of the paintings, which hold a yearning tactility. The whale’s body, for instance, is a forest of dense branches punctuated with circular forms that suggest the weathered textures of the sea, calling to mind bleached nets, undulating seaweed and the scrape of barnacles, visual cues that tweak at the body’s memories of swimming in the ocean. And, of course, there’s the colour – all that profound blue – and the way small wrinkles in the paper reflect light, seemingly opening the depths beneath the splash and tickle of foam and froth.

Walker, who was born in Brockville, Ont., graduated in 1981 from the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. He has shown at major galleries – internationally at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London and the Dia Art Foundation in New York, and closer to home at the Power Plant and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.