| Eli Bornowsky | January 11 – March 2, 2013 |
“These are the first works I have accomplished that actually empty the viewers mind. Acknowledging that seeing can be separate from the analytic, deductive mind is difficult, but actually experiencing it is remarkable. Intuition has its own way of connecting us to numbers, geometry, love and reality.”
Bornowsky creates eccentric abstract paintings. Each body of work builds on the ideas and experiences of the previous. His trajectory is one of careful, intuitive reinvention; an evolving formal language arrived at through the experience of making. This exhibition will present a collection of discrete relief assemblages. Each shaped surface is mounted with wooden spheres, painted and drawn with gouache and marker. The works take unusual cues from a diverse art historical repertoire. For Bornowsky “there is something to be gleaned in almost every Art.” In this case he cites artists like Guston and Tuttle, but also Renaissance painting, Islamic rugs, tantric art, free Jazz and electronic music. Bornowsky will also present a site-specific collection of artist “frames” made specifically for this installation.
Born in Alberta Canada, Eli Bornowsky received his BFA in Visual Arts from the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver (2005) and is an MFA candidate at Bard College, New York. In 2007 his paintings were shown in the group exhibition Gasoline Rainbows at the Contemporary Art Gallery and he began working with the Blanket Gallery with solo exhibitions in 2007, 2008 and 2011. In 2009 his work was included in the exhibition Enacting Abstraction at the Vancouver Art Gallery and in 2010 he exhibited Walking Square Cylinder Plane, a solo exhibition at the Western Front. His critical texts have appeared in Fillip Review, C Magazine, Pyramid Power and artist catalogues. The label Rundownsun has released a limited edition cassette of his experimental audio projects. He has curated exhibitions for the Or Gallery including, Making Real (2008), After Finitude (2012), and the ongoing Clamour and Toll, a series of experimental music and performances. He currently resides in Vancouver.
