Sky Glabush
Atelier Gallery,
Vancouver
Oct 13, 2001 - Oct 27,
2001
 view near Leiden (2001), oil, epoxy resin and acylic |
Sky Glabush puts landscapes on the
back burner, figuratively speaking, and coats them with a
candy-like surface. He overlays paintings of the Dutch
countryside as it appears in 17th and 18th Century art with
several layers of very 20th Century epoxy resin, which give
an actual physical depth. Some of the layers of resin are
painted with vertical lines or dots. The built-up
laminations create effects similar to shadow-boxes as well
as to confections wrapped in cellophane.
With this unusual technique, Glabush manages to pull off
work that is simultaneously modernist and illusionistic, yet
not gimmicky. Instead, there is a sense of the artist
manipulating the strata of art history. Both the landscapes
and the hard-edge polygons are clearly and professionally
rendered. While the landscapes appear as in a dream, the
illusory circles and lines are forcefully present.
Sky Glabush is the son of Otto Rogers whose daughter Sasha
was reviewed in the March issue. It is tempting to think of
this new series of Glabush's work as a crowning culmination
of the minimalist approach of Otto and the recent gorgeous
land-and-sky paintings by Sasha. From the flatness of the
prairies come good things.
© Mia Johnson