Wim Blom
Ian Tan Gallery
Vancouver BC – through Sep 20, 2007
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Wim Blom, Empty Rooms (2006), oil on canvas [Ian Tan Gallery, Vancouver BC, through Sep 20]
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The paintings of South-African born artist Will Blom share numerous stylistic and aesthetic qualities of images by Canadian artists Alex Colville and Christopher Pratt. Like these well-known Maritime painters, Blom’s work has a timeless and idealized quality, with the same precise organization and execution.
Unlike Colville and Pratt, Blom focuses on the environment rather than the narrative. There is an air of serenity, as though time is suspended. The cold flat surfaces of architectural molding, the exactitude of floor tiles, the calculated glimpses of rooms beyond -- all contribute to a disquieting hyper-realism. With everything unessential removed and the emphasis on underyling geometry, the ordinary environments in the paintings take on an archetypal presence.
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Wim Blom, Interior (2004), oil on canvas [Ian Tan Gallery, Vancouver BC, through Sep 20]
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Will Blom earned his early degrees in Johannesburg, South Africa followed by studies at the University of Edinburgh, University of Perugia, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and San Miguel de Allende. His work is in numerous corporate and private collections in Canada, France, Great Britain, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and the United States, as well as the National Gallery of Canada and the South African National Gallery.
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Wim Blom, Blue Lamp (2006), oil on canvas [Ian Tan Gallery, Vancouver BC, through Sep 20]
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