Concordia alumnus Luke Painter choreographs movements within and outside the frames 

“Junk Mail at Dracula's Castle,” is a handmade ink on paper work by Luke Painter on display at Patel Brown Gallery in Montreal. The piece illustrates a fictional space incorporated with his found images. Photo by Patel Brown
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After a quiet summer for art lovers, Montreal galleries are slowly reopening their doors with numerous shows. Patel Brown Gallery started its fall season with Concordia alumni Luke Painter’s works in its current exhibition Moving Images

“Luke Painter’s practice explores a wide range of historical and contemporary subjects in relation to pattern, ornamentation, technology and his own personal history,” wrote curator Alex Bowron in the exhibition text. “He creates atmospheric, fictional spaces that sample and purposely reimagine these subjects in surreal, humorous and narrative ways.” 

Moving Images is hosting a number of Painter’s series such as Scenography, Hermes Sample Sale and Magic Show, and Squash, Stretch, Splash. According to the exhibition text, each of these works display Painter’s practice using “a series of compositions […] that draw from the tropes of film, theater, fashion, and animation.” In most of his pieces, Painter incorporates animation tools such as squashing and stretching. 

Moving Images conveys a sense of the overlapping of the past and present with an entangled presence of the absent. Painter’s series suggests sets of different sceneries, from theater scenes to urban architectures, as well as domestic and dreamy settings. In Bowron’s words, “each piece addresses theatrical tropes of anticipation and dramatic effect.”  

Throughout the exhibition, it becomes obvious to the viewers that Painter’s use of archival images in his work is not an attempt to hide the original sources, but rather to collaborate with the style of the primary creators. 

“He reworks his collection of black and white theater sets, design plans, and domestic spaces to not only suggest a dramatic feeling towards an existing atmosphere but to introduce the decors as existing characters,” said Roxanne Arsenault, Patel Brown Gallery’s director. 

According to Arsenault, German designer Karl Leuth’s walls and ceilings painting designs in his book “Modern Wand and Decken Dekoration” (“Modern Wall and Ceilings Decoration”), is Painter’s inspiration behind the patterns he uses to compose his interior space and the choreography of these patterns’ movements. Using his collection of sources, Painter revives the illusion of movement that is present in the patterns of Leuth’s works.
Moving Images is on display until Oct. 5.

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