August 15th – 26th, 2012
Reception: Saturday, August 18, 2012, 2-5 PM
Don Allain is an abstract painter currently based out of Toronto, Ontario, (b. Summerside, P.E.I.) whose studio practice and theoretical research focuses on evolving temporal states and overall spatial cognition. Allain explores multi-dimensional contemporary understandings of physical and cognitive reality by investigating various concepts from the frontiers of theoretical physics and neurological scientific research. They both serve as points of artistic departure and are echoed throughout his paintings, ie. (CERN’s LHC, the large hadron particle accelerator and collider in Geneva, Switzeland). Specifically, this research motivates an expressionistic studio practice and style that explores offshoot trajectories of the drip, line, geometry and colour theory by layering many different optical and abstract strategies. He engages in this method as a way of potentially discovering, re-envisioning and collapsing historical abstract wave functions towards new vistas of thought. To translate and articulate this discursive formation he has been considering and maneuvering via multiple routes so as to not consider things in a similar manner while simultaneously opening potential for visual growth. Allain does this via an interdisciplinary blend of art, philosophy, physics, neuroscience, and mathematics with the psychology of colour, optics and perception.
"I have been investigating the drip technique for over 10 years now and extensively as a form of expression over the last 5 years since graduating from the MFA program at York University in 2007. The paintings that make up this exhibition are examples of some of the experiments and discoveries that I have made along the way working in this style. They are formatted to echo and mimic HD flat panel televisions and engage the viewer in experiences of varying optical energies and resonances of hi-def colour, depth, and navigationally diverse visual trajectories encompassed within the cultural phenomena of electronic visual entertainment. Simultaneously, I have activated discoveries from the frontiers of theoretical physics as points of cognitive departure while maintaining an abstract visual vocabulary towards a means of conveyance and invites viewers to engage in an experiential menage of painting, optics and physics. Vestiges of past painterly tropes are strategically employed so as to arrive at a final abstract synthesis that is both contemporary and referential towards various historical abstract formations and artists.” - Don J. Allain
‘anti-gravitational particle acceleration' opens on Wednesday, August 15th, followed by the opening reception on Saturday, August 18th, 2-5pm.
Image: Don Allain, anti-gravitational particle acceleration - lime rickey green, acrylic on canvas, 44.25" x 24.50", 2012.
