Floe + Thaw || Gallery 555
Floe and Thaw
Gallery 555 presents a two person exhibition by artists Selda Canoglu and Genevieve Robertson, both based in British Columbia. Having spent much time in the Rocky Mountains together, this exhibition emerges out of a shared love of these quiet, wild, ice-covered places and the glacial water that runs through them and down to the sea. While Selda's oil paintings depict harsh, rocky environments and the stillness found in the pools of calm water beneath them; Genevieve's abstract works on paper draw inspiration from soft-bodied fossils imbedded in the rock. While tracing the history of an ancient shoreline, she imagines amorphous forms that exhaust between biology and geology, petrification and liveliness, emergence and decay. Through art practice and ongoing conversation, Selda and Genevieve are interested in depicting perspectives both minute and grand; imagining the ineffable scale of geologic time through the movement of rock and ice; and reflecting on the profound sense of stillness that can be found in the mountains and near glacial water.
Genevieve Robertson is a drawing-based interdisciplinary artist with a background in environmental studies. Herpractice explores the material around the body and under the feet: water, oil, wind, silt, flora, fauna and mineral. Her drawings are often comprised of found organic materials collected on-site, and map a visceral and long-term engagement with specific regions. She holds an MFA from Emily Carr University (2016) and a BFA from NSCAD University (2009), and has participated in numerous residencies internationally. Robertson has exhibited her artwork in venues including the Libby Leshgold Gallery (Vancouver), The Walter Philips Gallery (Banff), The Pensacola Museum (USA), The Nanaimo Art Gallery, The Touchstones Museum (Nelson), Or Gallery (Vancouver), the New Gallery (Calgary) and the James May Gallery (USA).She presently resides in Nelson BC where she serves as Executive Director for Oxygen Centre.
Selda Canoglu is originally from Southwestern Ontario and resides near Nelson, British Columbia. She works predominantly with the medium of oil paint. Her training includes coursework taken at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax as well as the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto.
Selda’s painting practice is in a sense an extension of her preferred approach to life in general. Her aim is to slow down to notice and appreciate moments, big and small. Painting serves as further exploration and contemplation of a specific place and time. From a visual perspective, Selda has an appreciation of strong contrasts and textures found in the natural world around her.
In 2015 her first solo exhibition titled “Burnt” was shown at the Rectory Gallery on Toronto Island with selected works from this series on display during the summer Art Walk in Nelson B.C. This work involved a series of landscapes inspired by the contrast and colours of Idaho forests recovering from wildfire.
More recently Selda has been exploring the use of ink and oil paint on different surfaces (mylar, canvas and wood) with a focus on Canadian mountain landscapes. Selections from this work have been displayed in the Colour and Form Society Biennial Art Exhibition (Toronto, summer 2016) and will be part of a group show at Gallery 555 in Toronto (Toronto, fall 2017).