Patterned After
Patterned After: Ornament Repetition and Pattern in 20th Century Art
Featuring selections from the University of Lethbridge and Private Art Collections.
Curated by Jeffrey Spalding
Pattern and ornament are making a surprise resurgence in current art practice. It is apparent that today much of the critical community is dedicated to the support of art which addresses larger world issues, often with dour seriousness of intellectual purpose. The timing then would seem rather inopportune to evolve an art which embraces the decorative impulse and the playful joyful investigation of form. Yet, new works by artists such as Ron Moppett, Chris Cran, Carroll Moppett, Richard Kerr, Will Mentor and others take just such a path and burst forth with unbounded visual exuberance, flair and panache. Surprising too is the fact that so many of these artists, have returned to incorporate the seemingly anarchronistic, retardaire devices and elements of decoration and pattern into their new work after long and distinguished careers associated with other progressive innovations. Their unabashedly glorious visual displays raise hopes that we may at long last be breaking out from under the wraps and dulling effects of our artistic nuclear winter. Pattern and repetition of modular units has re-surfaced once again as a key compositional strategy in the creation of intricate, compelling visual effects and stunning objects of great beauty.
– excerpt from Show Description by Jeffrey Spalding
(images: U of L Art Collection Archives)