NYAB Event - Kim Dorland "For Lori"

Kim Dorland "For Lori"

Mike Weiss Gallery

This event has ended.

Over the past decade, Kim Dorland’s wife, Lori, has been the subject and inspiration of countless paintings. Consisting of eight paintings and three works on paper dating from 2008 to present, this show is a mere snapshot of a much larger oeuvre.

Often the trajectory of an artist’s career is mapped and elucidated by a closer study of the repeated and constant in the work. Known for his paintings of graffitied landscapes, the suburban mundane, and most recently, phantasmagoric woods with ghostly inhabitants, Dorland has always painted that with which he is closely acquainted. For Lori is a historical examination of the artist’s adoration for his lifelong partner as seen through a collective narrative typified by as much richness in paint as emotional weight.

Redolent of the physical force and rich expression in a de Kooning Woman, the medium in Dorland’s works is every bit part and parcel of the subject matter. The paint’s presence is emphatic and ineluctable, imbuing the paintings with an additional sense of reality and in some cases, dimensionality. In works such as For Matisse, Coy Girl, Lori and Silly Smile, the thickly textured surface is a recreation of the muse’s flesh and ultimately, presence — bringing an immediate sense of palpable corporeality to the works. While the paintings could initially be seen as aggressive and grotesque, Dorland insists they reflect a simple, honest adoration. It is impossible not to sense the energy, passion and profundity of the artist’s feelings for the subject and his desire to evoke her presence.

Collectively, the works in this exhibition are akin to a discovered chest of old love letters, revealing an evolving emotional narrative that is tightly held by the one recurring theme, love. While a relative newcomer to the gallery and on the heels of a debut show with Mike Weiss, For Lori is an earnest, fresh look at a uniquely personal and idiosyncratic devotion to a single source of inspiration.

Kim Dorland was born in Wainwright, AB and currently lives and works in Toronto, ON.

[Image: Kim Dorland "Untitled" (2011) Oil on wood panel 96 x 96 in.]