Exhibitionsback |
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West Gallery Alex McLeod
Distant SecretsAugust 25th 2011 – September 24th 2011
Opening reception Thursday August 25th 6–9 PM 
ANGELL GALLERY is pleased to present Alex McLeod’s second solo exhibition, Distant Secrets, in the West Gallery from August 25 to September 24, 2011. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, August 25 from 6-9pm.
Composing his vast-seeming, self-contained vistas as though he were an omniscient deity, at work building the most fascinating possible baby mobile, Alex McLeod’s work spangles with baroque effects and cartoon charms. Non-existent stages, McLeod sees these digital C-Print pieces so clearly in conceiving what they can be, that in rendering them they become like the ultimate opera stage; totally make believe and non-existent, and yet while we are within their power, it’s as though we have somehow appeared within their borders. We become the actors in his scenes, since he leaves them all so conspicuously depopulated, and they often seem to echo with the noise of their denizens. In his new body of work though, McLeod comes a little closer at times than he is used to do. If a work like Mystery is a kind of Christmas morning gone array seen from floor-level, then Blood Clouds is more like a puppet show complete with too-obvious strings attached – all these new pieces are more intimate; not with but for us. They change tactics by being quite a bit less God’s-eye-view in their apprehensions of what they depict.
Magic for instance is a piece whose title recalls many aspects of its imagery, and functions well as a synecdoche for the show as a whole; and a magic kingdom (ruled by an invisible artist-creator-king); a process of creation akin to sorcery that makes use of baffling illusion. But also, with respect to the depicted goings on, that of course seem to belong to and exist within the piece, but which actually (and for once quietly) suggest that we may not realize that magic is already around us. These hyper-real, hyper-visible works tip us off to the disappearance, not only of the “fourth wall” between themselves and us, but of the boundary between truth and hyper-fiction in the world at large. McLeod’s mode, here as always, on some level, is prophetic. Because he is a consistent fantasist, of what he won’t exactly say; but we know the focus will be everywhere and the contrasts will be sharp.
A graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, Alex McLeod studied drawing then switched to computer-generated digital imagery. Since his first solo exhibition at Angell Gallery in 2010, Alex has shown his work internationally in New York, Barcelona, Sao Paulo, Denver, Philadelphia, San Jose, Rio de Janeiro, Montreal, and New Zealand. Alex’s work was included in Cart Blanche 2 catalogue, published by Magenta Press in 2008. He was also in Toronto’s Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art 2010 summer group show, Empire of Dreams. His work has been reviewed by Elle Magazine, Toronto Life, Canadian Art, CBC News, The Toronto Star, The National Post, The Montreal Gazette, MacLean's, The Huffington Post, Wired Magazine, The Denver Post, The Globe and Mail, Design Lines Magazine, NOW Magazine, and the Kayne West Blog. Works in the show
Red Sea
Giclee print
40" × 60"
Unique Giclee print - available at two sizes (32 x 48 inches - Available; 40 x 60 inches - SOLD)
sold | 
Mystery
C-print
40" × 60"
Unique C-print - available at two sizes (32 x 48 inches - SOLD; 40 x 60 inches - SOLD)
sold | 
Grass Mounds
C-print
36" × 36"
Unique C-print - available at two sizes (36 x 36 inches - SOLD; 40 x 40 inches - SOLD)
sold | 
Every Asset
C-print
32" × 48"
Unique C-print - available at two sizes (32 x 48 inches - SOLD; 40 x 60 inches - SOLD)
sold | 
Forest City
C-print
48" × 96"
Unique C-print - available at two sizes (24 x 48 inches - SOLD; 48 x 96 inches - SOLD)
sold | 
Ruinscape
C-print
32" × 48"
Unique C-print - available at two sizes (32 x 48 inches - SOLD; 40 x 60 inches - Available)
sold | 
Magic
C-print
36" × 36"
Unique C-print - available at two sizes (36 x 36 inches - SOLD; 40 x 40 inches - SOLD)
sold | 
Jungle
C-print
36" × 36"
Unique C-print - available at two sizes (36 x 36 inches - SOLD; 40 x 40 inches - Available)
sold | 
Frozen Boat
C-print
34.5" × 69"
Unique C-print - available at two sizes (34.5 x 69 inches - SOLD; 35.5 x 71 inches - SOLD)
sold | 
Blood Clouds
C-print
40" × 60"
Unique C-print - available at two sizes (32 x 48 inches - SOLD; 40 x 60 inches - SOLD)
sold | 
Evergreen
C-print
32" × 48"
Unique C-print - available at two sizes (32 x 48 inches - SOLD; 40 x 60 inches - SOLD)
inquire about price
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| under $500 | | $500 to $1,999 | | $2,000 to $4,999 | | $5,000 to $9,999 | | $10,000 to $19,999 | | $20,000 and more |
Press on the showmore images of work by Alex McLeod |
