Jean-Marie Delavalle: D E L A V A L L E
Opening Reception Thursday, July 7th, 6 – 9 PM
exhibition runs July 7th – 30th, 2016
Christopher Cutts Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by Jean-Marie Delavalle celebrating 25 years of exhibiting at the gallery.
I first became acquainted with Delavalle’s practice when he exhibited at the Power Plant in 1991 in an exhibition titled Abstract Practices: Delavalle, Evans, Poldaas, & Tousignant. At that time he was already a senior artist who first exhibited at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in 1967. He was also part of an exhibition in 1973 at the National Gallery of Canada titled Boucherville, Montreal, Toronto, London – curated by Brydon Smith and Pierre Theberge featuring Robin Collyer, Jean-Marie Delavalle, Murray Favro, Ron Martin, Henry Sax, and James B. Spencer. Many of these artists became fundamental players in the contemporary Canadian art landscape.
Delavalle’s work in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s was centered around issues of abstract and conceptual sculpture. During the ‘80’s, his work began to engage issues of seriality and modular composition. It is this work which informs the paintings Delavalle began producing in the 1990’s.
This exhibition will touch on a number of specific bodies of work that have been exhibited at the gallery. They are all characterized by a severe reduction of form to singular monochromatic surfaces. The intense colouration of each piece, and the fact that each has been painted in a hand-inflected manner, provides for an unusually rich viewing experience.
This is an exhibition of striking, beautiful works that are both abstract in concept and concrete in physicality. Jean-Marie Delavalle’s paintings will be available to view at Christopher Cutts Gallery from July 7th to July 30th, 2016.
