Peintures récentes
April 28 - May 19, 2012
It is with great pleasure that Galerie Trois Points welcomes Richard Mill’s newest production. “Recent paintings” includes a brand new series of paintings that will be presented from April 28th to May 19th on the gallery walls.
Richard Mill’s latest production is characterized by very large paintings that unfold in an entirely new space, defying the flatness of the surface by integrating sculptural processes. Thus, slender columns and arches are all architectural elements that go beyond the canvas.
This new series of paintings revives the austerity of Mill’s practice of blacks, which dates from the 1970s. “Typical of his earlier period, the deep blacks and dark greens definitely reminisces of his past works, whereas the vibrating, strong colors come in to contrast and confront the spectator. Typographic elements that had begun to interfere in the artist’s practice in recent years are very present here, playing mythological allusions and leading the eye to the subtle female profiles that emerge slowly from the sobriety of abstractions.
The body’s presence is strongly felt through gesture and the choice of formats but also by the very physical relation the artist has with the paint. He manages to make one feel all of the medium materiality through areas of flat color, without having to play the material in impasto. If one has the impression of being wrapped in the color, the artist continually brings back the eye to the surface by subtly hinting to the canvas’ rawness.
Richard Mill lives and works in Quebec City. He taught for over thirty years at the School of Visual Arts from Laval University in Quebec. Today considered one of the most important painters of his generation, his works are part of numerous private, corporate, public and museum collections. He also is a double winner of the Prix Videre d’excellence de la culture, an award granted by the Council of Culture of Quebec City to a visual artist.