Critical Review

Directions

The ‘drip-drive’ series by Aaron Hagan isn’t just an exuberant celebration of colour, but a rigorous examination of the process of painting itself.

The exhibition “Directions”, at the Bowman Arts Centre, presents 18 works from Hagan’s ‘drip-drive’ series. The pieces in the exhibition have been executed within the past 14 months, although Hagan has been working on the series for a number of years.

The visitor to the gallery is immediately struck by the almost overwhelming power of the colors in the pictures, bordering on overload. In the initial seconds, with the paintings encompassing your entire field of vision, a sensitive person may feel they are succumbing to the initial paroxysms of Stendhals Syndrome, but the moment quickly passes. The veiwer is left with the opportunity to reflect on the individual works, and interact personally with the pieces.

The drip-drive paintings are constructed by dripping paint from the four edges to create a grid. This grid is then obsessively filled with small swatches of colour. It is an arbitrary process for Hagan, as he responds organically to the slowly coalescing field of color on the canvas. Sometimes he explores the tensions between complementary colors, the unity of monochromatics or the push and pull of warm and cool colours. Decisions about the direction of the paintings are made as the work progresses. The end result is always a sparkling jewel-like surface.

The exhibition “Directions” is accessible and interesting to everyone, from the seasoned art veteran to the individual with no previous exposure to art. They are interesting as an investigation of seriality, where the grid motif becomes a matrix to explore an endless possibility of colour relationships, they are interesting as questions about the compulsive, labour intensive process of art-making itself, and they are interesting as a celebration of the seductive and sensory power of colour.

The exhibition runs until March 7. The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Traveling Exhibition Program has optioned to take the show on the road, and it will be touring the province in the coming year. If you haven’t seen the exhibition, find the time, it is worth it.