Kim Dorland, For Lori
June 23 – August 27, 2011
Mike Weiss Gallery is excited to present For Lori by Canadian artist, Kim Dorland. Over the past decade, Kim Dorland’s wife, Lori, has been the subject and inspiration of countless paintings. Consisting of eight paintings and three works on paper dating from 2008 to present, this show is a mere snapshot of a much larger oeuvre.
Often the trajectory of an artist’s career is mapped and elucidated by a closer study of the repeated and constant in the work. Known for his paintings of graffitied landscapes, the suburban mundane, and most recently, phantasmagoric woods with ghostly inhabitants, Dorland has always painted that with which he is closely acquainted. For Lori is a historical examination of the artist’s adoration for his lifelong partner as seen through a collective narrative typified by as much richness in paint as emotional weight.
Redolent of the physical force and rich expression in a de Kooning Woman, the medium in Dorland’s works is every bit part and parcel of the subject matter. The paint’s presence is emphatic and ineluctable, imbuing the paintings with an additional sense of reality and in some cases, dimensionality. In works such as For Matisse, Coy Girl, Lori and Silly Smile, the thickly textured surface is a recreation of the muse’s flesh and ultimately, presence — bringing an immediate sense of palpable corporeality to the works. While the paintings could initially be seen as aggressive and grotesque, Dorland insists they reflect a simple, honest adoration. It is impossible not to sense the energy, passion and profundity of the artist’s feelings for the subject and his desire to evoke her presence.
Collectively, the works in this exhibition are akin to a discovered chest of old love letters, revealing an evolving emotional narrative that is tightly held by the one recurring theme, love. While a relative newcomer to the gallery and on the heels of a debut show with Mike Weiss, For Lori is an earnest, fresh look at a uniquely personal and idiosyncratic devotion to a single source of inspiration.
Kim Dorland was born in Wainwright, AB and currently lives and works in Toronto, ON. He attended the Emily Carr Institute of Art and received his Masters from York University in Toronto. His previous shows received reviews from The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. His work is included in public and private collections most notably: the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas, Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation in New York, the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Neumann Family Collection in New York, and The Oppenheimer Collection at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, MO.
A conversation from May 2011 between Kim and Lori accompanies the exhibition.