October 28 – November 27, 2011
Opening October 27, 6 -9 pm
PENTIMENTO FINE ART GALLERY
1164 Queen Street East
Toronto, Ontario M4M 1L4
T: 416-406-6772
Email: rockinrolland@sympatico.ca
Hours: Wed – Sunday 12 – 6 pm
The new series entitled “Colossus” is based around the poetry of Sylvia Plath and the oil on canvas images are all portraits of women. As Troy states, “I am a painter of women’s stories and each painting in this series is a character that surfaces for me in the lines of her poetry. Each is a distinctly different character, but the through-line is that these are all women who have built a passionate choreography out of dancing with their demons. Another interesting element of these characters is the conflict of identity. They are the persona of a delicate young blonde woman in simple settings but wrestling with a savage intellect riddled with complex dark ruminations at a time when young women were supposed to be demure and uncomplicated. They are at once expanding and in the process of imploding.”
In an August 2010 review, R.M. Vaughan of The Globe and Mail stated that “Troy Brooks’s gender-questionable, powdery oil paintings of pin-thin (and pinch-faced) “ladies”, are malicious matrons who appear to have walked out of an Edward Gorey illustration after raiding Johnny Depp’s Alice in Wonderland costume rack.”
Troy Brooks inspiration may be the writing of Sylvia Path but his talent lies in the way he is able to work the fine details using watercolour brushes within the oil on canvas.