JAYNUS O'DONNELL: "Pioneers," November 16 to December 15, 2012, The New Gallery, Calgary

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"Northern Lights"

Jaynus O’Donnell, "Northern Lights," collage, watercolour, acrylic on paper.

JAYNUS O'DONNELL , Pioneers

November 16 to December 15, 2012

The New Gallery, Calgary

By Jill Sawyer

Jaynus O’Donnell’s odd landscapes are devised of a mix of collage and painting, bringing up a sense of sci fi nostalgia layered with imagination. She begins with vintage and contemporary depictions of discovery, culled from science texts, magazines, nature guides, technical manuals, and encyclopedias, and creates surreal, pseudo-scientific worlds around them. They’re mythic, modern, and portray an industriousness and trust in the future typical of mid-century scientific literature. The twist to O’Donnell’s series is in the found drawings layered into the work — scribblings left behind by previous readers, tracing individual ideas into the images. The gallery refers to these drawings as “interruptions”, representing “highly personal and autonomous forms of discovery.” O’Donnell studied in Vancouver before getting her MA at Concordia in Montreal, where she now lives and works. She’s had previous solo shows at galleries including the Fifty-Fifty Arts Collective in Victoria, and the Bob Prittie Library at the Burnaby Art Gallery.