Peter Legris

Curated by: John Armstrong and Moira Cla

9 November 1995 - 23 December 1995
Opening Reception 9 November 1995 8pm

Foyer:

One work…Double Plaza

Peter Legris’ Double Plaza (1994/95) is part of a series of works which investigates relationships between painting and photography. Legris’ procedure is to attach one or two photographs to a larger masonite surface. The relative emptiness of a larger panel surrounding the intensity of a smaller photograph becomes for Legris a suggestive “arena” of possibilities. Using an oil colour and wax painting technique, Legris continues the work by painting both upon and around the photograph – allowing the photograph, in a sense, to become the catalyst of its own transformation through painting.

“I began this project following an afternoon spent cycling along King Street West (in Toronto). I had stopped to observe a succession of parking lots or gaps left from the selective razing of various warehouse buildings. I was struck by the spatial grandeur of these broad spaces – their framing by an irregular wall of remaining buildings creating for me an almost theatrical intensity. I returned with my camera in an attempt to photograph these spaces. This generated a series of prints, which could not render the voluptuous three-dimensionality of what I had experienced, yet still evoked for me enough of an echo or memory to provoke the paintings which followed.”

Born in Winnipeg in 1956, Peter Legris studied at the University of Manitoba, York University, and Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (MFA 1986). He has exhibited in artist-run centres including Plug-In Inc., Or Gallery, and Gallery 44, and has participated in exhibitions at the Glenbow Museum and the Art Gallery of Hamilton. He has won numerous awards and has works in both public and corporate collections. He currently live Toronto and teaches Design at Sheridan College and Media at the School of Architecture in Waterloo.