Jakub Tomáš

The principal motif of Tomáš’s paintings is the unmasking of painterly illusion achieved by purposely selected means. He disempowers the role of objectivity (but also of digital templates!) by literally acknowledging it as substitutionary. Cut-outs of figures, situation settings, mock-ups of objects, construction kit parts, paper boxes, table boards, paper pads, skewers, scissors, glue etc. appear in the paintings. Figuration representatives remain in a playful, model association plane and suppress the automatically appearing plausible semantic connotations. At the same time, the DIY procedures through which the quasi-objects-heroes are created are acknowledged.

On the one hand, all the images composed of substitutionary figuration can be perceived as still life compositions, in which, however, there is something inappropriate, subversive and almost irritating (palimpsest). On the other hand, the images are the result of the artist’s abstract mental opera- tions assembled following a specific pattern. In such inconsistency the basic methodical tools of art science fail, it is hard to establish the line between objectivity and abstract expression; it is not even possible to speak about collage, even though the works are methodically close to it. It evidently is the artist’s conceptual plan. Objectivity is dematerialized while the author’s critical thinking materializes by getting specific outlines. In such dialectically set conditions for expression a lively social topic can be uncovered without this effort turning into a one-dimensional illustration of circumstances, banal moralizing or kitsch.

selected from text of Petr VaňousCritical Aspects of Jakub Tomáš's Paintings

Gavin Lynch

Landscape painting is a Canadian staple, deeply rooted in this country’s artistic heritage, yet continually evolving through the efforts of exciting contemporary voices such as Gavin Lynch. Known for his modernist, collage-like approach, Lynch’sdistinctive style is characterized by striking juxtapositions of hard and soft forms, naturalism and stylization, flatness and depth, luminosity and darkness, abstraction and representation, and mirror images.

Gavin Lynch holds a BFA from Emily Carr University (2009) and a MFA from the University of Ottawa (2012). He has received awards and grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the province of Ontario. In 2014 Lynch was a finalist in the RBC Painting Competition, and he has been in exhibitions at the Musée des Beaux Arts in Montreal, the Art Gallery of Mississauga, SAW Gallery in Ottawa, Elissa Cristall Gallery in Vancouver and AXENÉO7 in Gatineau, Quebec.  His work has featured in Canadian Art Magazine and is in the collections of Simon Fraser University, TD Canada Trust and the City of Ottawa. Lynch lives and works in Ottawa.