Ian McLean at Transit Gallery
By Ola Wlusek
"Arts Beat": a publication of Arts Hamilton
July/August, 2005
p. 8
The Transit Gallery represents the "here and now" of mid-career and established artists working in various mediums. Most of the artists are Hamilton residents with a few artists from Toronto and surrounding environs.
The two artists currently featured at the Transit Gallery are Gary Michael Dault, noted art critic from the Globe & Mail and an artist in his own right, and painter Ian McLean. Feeling that McLean's work carries a stronger impact when viewed in complete solitude, I decided to focus on his work.
In an ultimate way of experiencing the brutal honesty of McLean's work, I felt that uncertainty, loneliness, and even discomfort are necessary states in order to translate his images of everyday objects into truly disturbing observations about society and its individuals.
Presented before me were unapologetic renderings of dense objects, which are consumed by society as symbols of the familiar and comfortable with its assigned aesthetic qualities. The furniture presented in his paintings is striking with its heaviness of burden, as if it bore the heavy load of human emotion transpired upon its surfaces during its owners' daily activities. The prominence of the furniture suggests its cohabitation rather than a thoughtless placement among the humans in the household it occupies. An example of such is presented in Remote Control, 2004, where a couple is rescued from conversation with one another by a television set. The shape and pattern of the chairs each of them occupy signify the character of the user even if there was the lack of their presence inside them.
The use of bubblegum pink and lime green colours strategically fail as distractions from the black depths of the paintings' interiors. The tension arising from the contrast between objects and their background allows a feeling of mystery and hesitation to overwhelm myself and provide a debate on the significance of McLean's Living Arrangements . The paintings offer me a chance to reevaluate the emotional state of my immediate surrounding as well as reflect upon the private, the secret, and the taboo that presides in my personal space. McLean fulfills the role of the provocateur as he places the element of doubt into the usually familiar and predictable conditions of everyday living.
Sarnia-based Ian McLean lured me inside of what I thought would be a reiteration of the familiar. Instead, I found his oils to be unforgivable reminders of my personal preoccupation with the material. The individual need to fill the physical voids of our surroundings with mass-produced objects is an anticipated outcome of our role as consumers. Until July 17th, one will be able to explore the significance of the shared impulse to fill our homes with the luxury of distraction, which comes in the form of technology, fabrics, plastics, and wood. Abandoned in the domestic environment, the viewer becomes an intruder, where the recognizable objects become sublime. The Transit Gallery showcases an artist with a quiet approach to universal observations about human nature.
By Ola Wlusek
"Arts Beat": a publication of Arts Hamilton
July/August, 2005
p. 8
The Transit Gallery represents the "here and now" of mid-career and established artists working in various mediums. Most of the artists are Hamilton residents with a few artists from Toronto and surrounding environs.
The two artists currently featured at the Transit Gallery are Gary Michael Dault, noted art critic from the Globe & Mail and an artist in his own right, and painter Ian McLean. Feeling that McLean's work carries a stronger impact when viewed in complete solitude, I decided to focus on his work.
In an ultimate way of experiencing the brutal honesty of McLean's work, I felt that uncertainty, loneliness, and even discomfort are necessary states in order to translate his images of everyday objects into truly disturbing observations about society and its individuals.
Presented before me were unapologetic renderings of dense objects, which are consumed by society as symbols of the familiar and comfortable with its assigned aesthetic qualities. The furniture presented in his paintings is striking with its heaviness of burden, as if it bore the heavy load of human emotion transpired upon its surfaces during its owners' daily activities. The prominence of the furniture suggests its cohabitation rather than a thoughtless placement among the humans in the household it occupies. An example of such is presented in Remote Control, 2004, where a couple is rescued from conversation with one another by a television set. The shape and pattern of the chairs each of them occupy signify the character of the user even if there was the lack of their presence inside them.
The use of bubblegum pink and lime green colours strategically fail as distractions from the black depths of the paintings' interiors. The tension arising from the contrast between objects and their background allows a feeling of mystery and hesitation to overwhelm myself and provide a debate on the significance of McLean's Living Arrangements . The paintings offer me a chance to reevaluate the emotional state of my immediate surrounding as well as reflect upon the private, the secret, and the taboo that presides in my personal space. McLean fulfills the role of the provocateur as he places the element of doubt into the usually familiar and predictable conditions of everyday living.
Sarnia-based Ian McLean lured me inside of what I thought would be a reiteration of the familiar. Instead, I found his oils to be unforgivable reminders of my personal preoccupation with the material. The individual need to fill the physical voids of our surroundings with mass-produced objects is an anticipated outcome of our role as consumers. Until July 17th, one will be able to explore the significance of the shared impulse to fill our homes with the luxury of distraction, which comes in the form of technology, fabrics, plastics, and wood. Abandoned in the domestic environment, the viewer becomes an intruder, where the recognizable objects become sublime. The Transit Gallery showcases an artist with a quiet approach to universal observations about human nature.