The Other Side of Colour

Newzones is pleased to announce The Other Side of Colour, a solo exhibition by Jonathan Forrest.

The Other Side of Colour is the result of a six-month studio search. Seeking to develop ideas conceived in 2018, this new series displays heightened colour, created by successive, thin layers of dragged and pulled translucent paint. Multiple layers push through the surface, visually breaking through to the other side of colour. Contrary to Forrests’ typical practice of playing distinct colours off one another, the colours in these paintings emerge out of the many accumulated layers.

Of this series, Forrest states: “There is a sense that the painting just came together with the last pass…that up until that point, it was just the materials, with no end in sight.”

Forrest embraces the unknown, without an ‘end goal’, allowing the developing painting to evolve within the layering process. Shifting, overlapping edges, and the mysterious atmosphere created by the translucent paint layers portray a confrontational blankness. Yet, for Forrest, everything comes together as a responsive approach to making paintings; responding to how the painting itself is made, the environment that surrounds the creation process, and as the artist states, “responding to the whole history of painting”.

Jonathan Forrest received both his Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts from the University of Saskatchewan. He attended the Emma Lake Workshops several times and became an organizer in 2001. His work has been privately and publicly collected world-wide, including Canada Council Art Bank, Art Gallery of Alberta, Bank of Montreal, Glenbow Museum, Keg Restaurants Ltd., Remai Modern and Nordstrom, to name a few.