Philip Martin Gallery is proud to present, “Mount Temptation,” an online exhibition of new works-on-paper by Sky Glabush. Sky Glabush’s works-on-paper are a vital aspect of his practice.
In Sky Glabush’s work, forests, oceans, mountains and fields shimmer in the warm glow of the sun. They gleam in the midnight light of the night moon. Sky Glabush comments that he wants his pictures, “to come at you like a breath, an opening.” There is a kind of crystalline sensation Glabush’s work, a point of balance between the known and the unknown, a viewing experience formed by mystery and memory, being and becoming.
Sky Glabush utilizes an open practice. His works-on-paper are an arena of experimentation; at the same time, they are the means by which Glabush pushes forward the focused development of his motifs. Glabush describes his process, noting that, “I will sit down with a piece of paper and start moving colors around, or drawing, and, as soon as the idea emerges, I toss the paper aside. Even if I only worked on it for ten seconds. I will do this over and over again for a couple of hours until I have a stack of papers. Then I come back the next day and sort through it all and I try to find one that I want to work on. But I will only work on it insofar as trying to figure out what it is, but as soon as I have a direction I toss it aside and I move to the next one. I keep re-ranking them. Ones that do not do anything for me stay at the bottom of the pile. The interesting ones I go back into, but I only go back into them to get a direction, and then as soon as I get a direction I leave it. Then I keep repeating that day-by-day until at one point I reach a place of knowing what the painting needs to be. Once I know what the painting needs to be, I devote the entire day to figuring it out and bringing it into focus.”
“I use the structure and motif of ‘landscape’ in the same way I might use the structure of a face, or a flower,” Glabush comments. “Structure as a kind of archetype - a kind of architecture. My paintings are very much rooted in painterly language or history, but I come at it in my own way. This emerged through my own working, and in trying to let go of certain ways of working. It took me twenty years of working to get to that stage where I could let go of the scaffolding of an image, and work in an open way.” The result is an image in which the viewer is oriented at the edge of a lake or marsh, by a wood, in a clearing, on a beach. We know where we are, yet we look upon a scene of undiscovered possibility, tied as much to what we ourselves bring to a given picture as what Glabush puts into it pictorially and narratively. Glabush’s work evokes emotion, tempo and mood. We find ourselves in the position of enlightened participant, a partner in looking and feeling.
Sky Glabush (b. 1970 Alert Bay, BC) received his BFA from the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, SK) and his MA from the University of Alberta (Edmonton, AB). Sky Glabush’s work is the subject of upcoming and recent solo exhibitions at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) and Stephen Friedman Gallery (New York, NY; London, UK). Glabush’s paintings are in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, where they were recently on view. Glabush’s group shows include, “Pocket Universe,” at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), “The Moth & The Thunderclap,” Modern Art (London, UK, 2023); “BodyLand,” Galerie Max Hetzler (Berlin, Germany, 2022); “Unnatural Nature: Post-Pop Landscapes,” Acquavella (New York, NY, 2022); “Sky Glabush and Johannes Nagel,” Cordonhaus Städtische Galerie Museum (Cham, Germany); “The Valley of Love,” Clint Roenisch Gallery (Toronto, ON); “Sky Glabush,” Projet Pangée (Montreal, QC); and “The Window is Also a Door,” Prosjektrom Normanns (Stavanger, Norway). Glabush’s work has been included in exhibitions at University of Western Ontario (London, ON); Galerie de l’UQAM (Montréal, QC); and Rideau Hall (Ottawa, ON). Glabush is an associate professor of visual art at the University of Western Ontario (London, ON). Glabush’s work is included in such collections as Harvard Museums (Cambridge, MA), National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON); Alberta Foundation for the Arts (Calgary, AB); Bank of Montreal (Toronto, ON); Burnaby Art Gallery (Burnaby, BC); Colart Collection (Montreal, QC); Ivey Collection (Toronto and London, ON); MacKenzie Art Gallery (Regina, SK); McIntosh Gallery, (London, ON); McMichael Canadian Art Collection (Vaughan, Ontario); Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon, SK); Museum London (London, ON); University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, SK). His work has been featured in publications such as Tate Magazine, Border Crossings, Canadian Art, Toronto Star, and Globe and Mail. Glabush lives and works in London, ON.
“Sky Glabush: Mount Temptation” is online July 19 - August 2, 2024.
Philip Martin Gallery is open Wednesday-Saturday 11-5 and Tuesdays by appointment. The gallery is located at 3342 Verdugo Road, Los Angeles CA 90065. For additional images and information please call 323-507-2037 or email info@ philipmartingallery.com.
