“Appetizers” 2020. Acrylic on wood, 24 x 24 x 2 in. (each)

“Appetizer (Green),” 2020. Acrylic on wood, 24 x 24 x 2 in.

“Appetizer (Red),” 2020. Acrylic on wood, 24 x 24 x 2 in.

“Appetizer (Gold)” 2020. Acrylic on wood, 24 x 24 x 2 in.

“Squares and Bars,” 2020. Acrylic and mixed media on wood.

“Matrimonial Squares (detail),” 2020. Acrylic on wood.

Aralia Maxwell (Copy)

“Confetti Squares (detail),” 2020. Acrylic on wood.

“Lemon Squares (detail),” 2020. Acrylic and polyester on wood.

“Satisfactions Table” 2018–2020. Acrylic on wood.

“Satisfactions Table (detail)” 2018–2020. Acrylic and wood.

“Satisfactions Table (detail)” 2020. Acrylic and wood.

Square Appetites (gallery view with Larry Weyand’s Peeling the Sticker Off an Overripe Pear in foreground), December 2020. Neutral Ground Artist-run Centre, Regina, SK.

Square Appetites

Neutral Ground Artist-run Centre, Regina, SK. November 28, 2020 – January 9, 2021

Square Appetites examines the shapes that are celebrated in food, painting, and the visual culture of the Canadian prairies. Contemplate a field, a grain elevator, a pan of puffed wheat or Nanaimo squares. Flat planes of colour and geometric grids dominate prairie landscape, architecture, and culinary traditions. This is the legacy of 20th-century immigrant settlement. Next consider the conventions of fine art painting, wherein flat squares of canvas are uniformly spaced at eye-level on the walls of a white cube gallery. This is the legacy of 20th-century Modern Art. Reflecting upon societal appetite for particular shapes and colours, the artist imagines transformations of these familiar gustatory forms. The ultimate question is; what are the values, nutritional or otherwise, of a square?

This exhibition was generously supported by SK Arts.

(photography: Daniel Paquet - photo.paquet.ca)