Stephen Andrews “X-men at Union” 2012 water colour pencil on Mylar 24 x 36 inches
March 2 – 31, 2012
Opening: Friday, March 2, 7-10 pm
Paul Petro Contemporary Art
980 Queen St West
Toronto, ON M6J 1H1
Tel: 416-979-7874
info@paulpetro.com
www.paulpetro.com
Hours: Wed – Sat: 11–5
PPCA is pleased to present X , an exhibition of new paintings and drawings on Mylar by Stephen Andrews that explore the implications of crossroads and intersections, from the molecular to the celestial.
Using images sourced from newspapers, television, film and the internet, Stephen Andrews’ creates hand crafted works in a range of mediums, including oil, latex, crayon, silkscreen and linoleum-cut printing, rubber stamps, and animation. A distinctive feature of Andrews’ art is his interest in creating the look of mechanical reproduction by analogue means. The artist has stated that in his work he renders: “the digital, the dot matrix in print reproduction, film or television technologies…by hand in an attempt to represent both the message and the means by which it is delivered.” While Andrews’ output prior to 1996 tends to be in black and white or monochrome,around this time he introduces colour into his work. The Weather Series (1996) begins the artists’ extended investigation into the processes of colour generation and the four-colour separation printing processes.For Andrews, weather provides an analogy for the quickly changing circumstances of life, likening it to his own experience of living with HIV.The Quick and the Dead (2004), feature stills derived from video footage of the Iraq war. By drawing the viewer’s eye back to the surface of the work, he creates ambiguities of meaning.Considered in relation to the source material Andrews uses, the work has political implications, “suggesting the impossibility of knowing the circumstances and contexts of what they depict.”
Also, the new Trump Hotel in Toronto opens with an art commission by Stephen Andrews that can be seen at street level (Bay and Adelaide Sts.). Here is a quote and a link to a Globe and Mail article on the new tower: “The show stopper, though, is the massive mosaic of 500,000 small porcelain, glass, stone and gold tiles that together create a scene that is quintessentially Toronto: people of all different heritages gathered together, easily visible to passersby.”