Five Hole

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Curtis Cutshaw, “Hollowell,” 2019

oil and enamel on birch panels, 19” x 15” (photo courtesy of Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary)

Five Hole, the title of an exhibition by Calgary-based artist Curtis Cutshaw, is the nickname for the space between a hockey goaltender’s legs. 

Why the reference? Cutshaw has just completed a hockey-themed commission for the lobby of the Marriott hotel in Edmonton’s downtown Ice District and his latest assemblages, on view at the Herringer Kiss Gallery in Calgary until Dec. 21, continue to use hockey symbols to playfully push the boundaries between painting and sculpture, as well as figuration and abstraction.

Assemblage is an art of accumulation, whether it’s piled-up castoffs or collected oddments. But in this case, Cutshaw’s materials are recycled tidbits of his own making that he uses to create a study of meticulously assembled excess. 

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Curtis Cutshaw, “Murrieta,” 2019

oil and enamel on birch panels, 59” x 42 x 7” (photo courtesy of Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary)

Cutshaw begins by painting various images, such as targets, patterns or text, in enamel and oil on birch panels. He distresses their surfaces by scratching, rubbing and sanding them and then cuts each panel into smaller tiles that vary in size and shape, reassembling them into new compositions. It’s both clever and compulsive.

Through his artifice, Cutshaw sets up a false history or narrative that allows him to create alternative scenarios that reverberate with possibilities and potential revelations. While the works have an intuitive quality, every move is intentional. The compositions, predominantly black and white with odd bits of colour, are at once sculptural and painterly, almost like striking 3D jigsaw puzzles. 

At the root of Cutshaw’s practice is a form of thinking that translates into creating assemblages with intuitive topographies. The cumulative effect is to activate the eye through optical shifts, prompting the viewer’s curiosity. Subtle equations unfold or erupt, both individually and collectively. 

For example, one might spot tiles across various works that fit together: a piece of target over here, and a piece of target over there. That’s a fun discovery, but it also triggers thoughts about how such pieces can be more dynamic within new settings.

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Curtis Cutshaw, “Cadence,” 2019

oil and enamel on birch panels, 42” x 26” (photo courtesy of Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary)

For example, in Cadence, the rhythm between the abstract forms is action-packed, moving from small black snippets to one large sweep in the upper right. But embedded within the sea of black is a yellow square that glaringly stands out as a yield sign. Similar squares can be found in two other pieces.

Another riveting quality is how scratched enamel surfaces combine with graphics to evoke puck marks and the lines skates engrave on ice. Alternately absurd and poetic, the piece invites wonder using minimal means.

All Cutshaw’s works can be described as simultaneously precise yet hurried, smooth yet rough, and graceful yet clumsy. Other wonderments include optical effects that use basic push and pull, or where the artist makes flatness appear sculptural or sculptured elements seem flat.

Beyond this, other poetic absurdities include a play on symbolic language through mark making, cursive gestures, fragmented images, and an emphasis on abstract forms. The work simultaneously conjures thoughts about topography, typography, cartoons and abstract painting. 

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Curtis Cutshaw, “Andover,” 2019

oil and enamel on birch panels, 17” x 21” x 2” (photo courtesy of Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary

For example, in Andover and Flat Shoals black graphics against a white background take on a cartoonish quality that hints at both optical illusions and skating rinks. The two pieces can be read as flat planes from a certain angle, but reveal layered tiles from other perspectives.

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Curtis Cutshaw, “Moba Way,” 2019

oil and enamel on birch panels, 28” x 37” (photo courtesy of Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary)

In contrast, tiles appear to be piled atop each other in the centre of Moba Way. That, however, is an illusion created by clustering small tiles next to larger ones, an effect that is crafty yet visually exciting. It is echoed in pieces like Stook and Rlndge. 

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Curtis Cutshaw, “Rlndge,” 2019

oil and enamel on birch panels, 43.5” x 63” (photo courtesy of Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary)

The arrangement of tiles in all the works in Five Hole is both confounding and mesmerizing. While hockey may have inspired the work, Cutshaw ultimately provides us with an opportunity to gaze into a complex puzzle of shifting liminal perceptions, as well as cognition and consciousness. ■

Curtis Cutshaw: Five Hole is on view at the Herringer Kiss Gallery in Calgary from Nov. 9 to Dec. 21, 2019.

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