Douglas Walker: Other Worlds 

10 September - 6 November, 2011
Opening Reception 11 September 1pm 

Douglas Walker’s paintings are mostly monochromatic, usually executed in ultramarine and cobalt blue, and feature a trilogy of reoccurring subject matter – fantastical, other-worldly landscapes with mutant-modernist architectural structures; portraits of women where, for example, garments and hair morph into plant-like image-fields; sinewy floral tendrils that parallel graphic flourishes from another century. These are Walker’s ‘visitations’ to other places both real and imagined that are then combined with graphic marks and figures suspended in science fiction-like atmospheres. All images and surfaces are then subjected to a top-coat of Walker’s invention that simulates crackled 18th century Delft-blue ceramic glazing – which in itself quotes Chinese porcelain from a far-away and exotic land that was highly valued by the colonial Dutch traders. What makes Walker’s work both intriguing and hard to summarize is his fusing of multiple styles and motifs into a ‘contemporary’ image. Beaux art easel paintings meet the results of Google image searches in Walker’s work.
The anchor piece in this exhibition is a cinematically scaled installation of multiple works by Walker assembled onto a single wall. Through this installation strategy, Walker presents a spatial construction that appears more aligned with the 19th century galleria or ‘picture gallery’ than a contemporary 21st gallery. But it is his mash-up of mutated historical, cultural and social landscapes—viewed through contemporary cracks and wrinkles —that speaks clearest about the complex physical, digital and psychological landscapes that we live in.
Exhibition organized by Dalhousie Art Gallery in partnership with the RMG and the Kelowna Art Gallery.
Curated by Peter Dykhuis and Corinna Ghaznavi