Looking at the sculpture makes me feel things. Some of these feelings let themselves be known by way of little stories, like daydreams. They might not even involve the building itself, but happen in the vicinity of where the building might exist. - Stephen Appleby-Barr
Stephen Appleby-Barr (b. 1981, Toronto, Canada) is known for his paintings of everyday objects and portraits that are imbued with fantastical qualities, conjuring a dreamlike world that verges on the uncanny. His sensitive and masterly use of the traditional medium of oil paint, recalls the work of Old Masters, contrasting with his modern sensibility.
This exhibition for Canada Gallery presents a series of remarkably detailed new paintings, rendered in a grisaille technique that pays homage to Breugel’s painting, Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery, in the collection of The Courtauld Gallery. Échelle, referencing Appleby-Barr’s evolutionary approach in his practice, places his creative process on full display. For the first time, his intricate three-dimensional world of plaster and wire sculptures are seen in conversation with the paintings they conceived.
Échelle is accompanied by Correspondence, a new catalogue published for the occasion of this exhibition at Canada House as well as his recent survey exhibition at Grinnell College Museum of Art, Grinnell, Iowa.
