PIERRE-FRANÇOIS OUELLETTE ART CONTEMPORAIN
PRESENTS JOHN PLAYER AT VOLTA NY 2014
VOLTA NY 2014
March 6–9, 2014
82MERCER
New York, NY 10012
Entrance at 76 Mercer Street
(between Spring and Broome Streets)
Booth 1.23
VIEWS OF THE SHOW / ABOUT THE SHOW / WORKS EXHIBITED / LINKS / ARTIST'S C.V.
VIEWS OF THE SHOW
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ABOUT THE SHOW
Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain is pleased to present a solo exhibition of Canadian artist John Player at VOLTA 2014.
There is a spare, minimal quality to John Player's work – a limited palette and often banal or uneventful subject matter. Distance appears on multiple levels. There is visual distance in his images, giving the viewer a sense of magnitude, and at the same time neutralizing them, making them into maquettes, objects of dispassionate contemplation as we view them from some safe vantage point. They illustrate a contradiction of our media-saturated world: the twenty-four hour news cycle instantaneously brings us closer to events, conflicts and tragedies happening around the world – brings them into our homes, but sanitizes them through the screen or the page – makes them seem contained and distant. This is conceptually important, as we are constantly alerted to looming crises that will affect our lives directly, yet simultaneously they become distant, commonplace, even unreal as they pass through multiple channels of mediation.
While undeniably influenced by contemporary painters like Peter Doig, Luc Tuymans and Gerhard Richter, his major inspiration is the internet itself. The internet, which allows for unprecedented levels of intercommunication, and yet is simultaneously alienating and almost authorless in its massive scope and information overload. Player's technique is inspired by the non-technique of the internet - amateur photos and videos, short news clips and the attendant digital artifacting that results from the downsampling and compression necessary to make photos and videos easily available online. The works invite a critical reflection on ethics and societal decision making, but they also offer a more open-ended meditation on our desires and their relationship to the media that make us who we are.
- from a text by Neal Rockwell
John Player was born in Victoria, Canada in 1983. He holds a BFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University and is currently completing his MFA in Painting and Drawing at the same institution. He lives and works in Montreal.
PFOAC would like to thank the Canada Council for its support to present John Player at Volta NY.
WORKS
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| Stockpile 2013 oil on canvas 91 x 137 cm. ( 36" x 54") |
Drone 2011 oil on canvas 64 x 89 cm. (25" x 35") |
Ghost Drone 2011 oil on panel 30 x 41 cm. (12" x 16") |
Colony Expansion 2013 oil on canvas 76 x 122 cm. (30" x 48")  |
Community 2014 oil on canvas 91.5 x 122 cm. (36" x 48") |
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| Remnants 2013 oil on canvas 91.5 x 122 cm. (36" x 48") |
Prototype 2014 oil on panel 30 x 41 cm. (12" x 16") |
Detector 2014 oil on panel 30 x 41 cm. (12" x 16") |
Joint Base 2013/14 oil on canvas cm. (20" x 20") |
Untitled, 2014 oil on panel 30 x 41 cm. (12" x 16") |
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| Monitors 2013 watercolour on paper 18 x 24 cm. (7" x 9.5") |
Facility 2014 watercolour on paper 18 x 24 cm. (7" x 9.5") |
Aerostat 2014 watercolour on paper 18 x 24 cm. (7" x 9.5") |
Airbase 2014 watercolour on paper 18 x 24 cm. (7" x 9.5") |
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| Data Complex 2014 watercolour on paper 18 x 24 cm. (7" x 9.5") |
HQ 2014 watercolour on paper 18 x 24 cm. (7" x 9.5") |
Reaper Target 2014 watercolour on paper 18 x 24 cm. (7" x 9.5") |
Test 2014 watercolour on paper 18 x 24 cm. (7" x 9.5") |
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| Landing Sequence 4, 2012 watercolour on paper 18 x 24 cm. (7" x 9.5") |
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LINKS
- John Player's website
- John Player's page on the PFOAC website
- John Player at Volta
- Comment by Eloi Desjardins on our participation at Volta NY 2014 on "un show de mot'arts"
ARTIST'S C.V.
click here to download the artist's recent C.V. (02/2014)
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