Here, Then and There
Ian McLean with Colin Carney at Forest City Gallery
November 4 to December 10, 2011
opening reception - November 4 at 7:00pm
Ian McLean is interested in imagery that explores the relationship between social and natural worlds. His paintings often reveal efforts to contain, control, manipulate, or avoid circumstances of nature as evidenced in highly groomed and domesticated environments reflecting a deep-seated desire for comfort or beauty or distraction. The residential environments in his paintings are sometimes real and sometimes imagined, enhancing discrepancies between setting and mood through an emphasis on ornamentation. The exaggeration of certain decorative elements of comfort is intended to both lure viewers into familiar environments and unsettle them once they are there. Efforts to keep elements of dissolution or entropy at bay are evident in these settings. Sarnia-based Ian McLean studied at the University of Guelph. He is represented in Toronto by Loop Gallery.
Forest City Gallery
258 Richmond St.
London, ON
Ian McLean gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council
