Jay Senetchko

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Jay Senetchko, “In the Backyard – exterior,” 2021

oil on handmade cedar panel, 59” x 59” (courtesy of the artist, photo by Rachel Topham)

The war in Ukraine has only intensified since the Russian invasion in February, and we tragically read daily about the loss of life, the refugee crisis, the destruction of vital infrastructure and other massive impacts. It is devastating.

Unlike previous wars in the West, social media makes us more alert to breaking news, whether by official or informal channels. The vast flow of information has increased our attention on this war, yet there is a disjuncture that points to how we witness ongoing atrocities while carrying on with the mundane pleasures of daily life. We have the luxury of choosing which information – and how much of it – we want. 

Vancouver artist Jay Senetchko’s exhibition, The Great Refusal, on view at the Pendulum Gallery in downtown Vancouver until June 16, responds to this peculiar simultaneity – that we can at once enjoy our day while disaster occurs elsewhere.  

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Jay Senetchko, “In the Backyard – interior,” 2021

oil on handmade cedar panel, 59” x 118” (courtesy of the artist, photo by Rachel Topham)

Edmonton-born Senetchko’s Ukrainian ancestry deeply informs his work. He inserts himself, along with family and friends, into scenes of Western ease: a dinner party at home and convivial meals in a backyard, in a restaurant, and in the country. The paintings are in the style of traditional Christian altar pieces. Images of leisure enclosed in two gilded frames hinge open like French doors, to reveal interior landscapes of war-torn chaos. All four works were completed in 2021, before the current hostilities in Ukraine.

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Jay Senetchko, “In the City – exterior,” 2021

oil on handmade cedar panel, 59” x 59” (courtesy of the artist, photo by Rachel Topham)

Senetchko’s beautiful, richly detailed oil paintings have long lines of connection reaching back to 13th-century religious panel paintings, as well as to contemporary figurative artists such as Kent Monkman and Kerry James Marshall, who map contemporary racial trauma using traditional painting techniques and images drawn from art history. I also see echoes of a  2018 photographic series, For Freedoms, by Hank Willis Thomas, Emily Shur and Eric Gotesman, that recreates Norman Rockwell’s iconic 1943 Four Freedoms illustrations of American life to reflect on racial complexity and diversity. 

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Jay Senetchko, “In the City – interior,” 2021

oil on handmade cedar panel, 59” x 118” (courtesy of the artist, photo by Rachel Topham)

Black and white collages that accompany the paintings seem to function as studies for the interiors. Composed of documentary images both historic and contemporary, they are recontextualized to consider the Ukrainian situation. The gallery’s street-facing windows show didactic panels that describe Senetchko’s process, influences and ancestry, along with providing key information on Ukraine. The works are very personal, and Senetchko uses this opportunity to teach and share. Unfortunately, the curated information, together with a certain obviousness of approach, is not completely successful. The exhibition lacks mystery because it does not allow viewers to make connections on their own. 

The show is titled after German American philosopher Herbert Marcuse’s call to refuse the abiding consumerist order in favour of art’s liberating potential. Senetchko’s didactic approach shows his alignment with Marcuse’s strategy. However, “the great refusal” was first coined by Alfred North Whitehead, a philosopher who embraced imagination and creative process over the facticity of “things as they are.” I would like to see Senetchko breathe more room into his work, opening space for imagination and play that might engender more creative relations – no less informed – between viewer and subject matter. ■

Jay Senetchko: The Great Refusal at the Pendulum Gallery in Vancouver from May 16 to June 17, 2022.

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