KO Art Review of 40
40: A New Collection of Paintings Chronicling Forty by Chris Kuzmanovich
Chris Kuzmanovich is a Calgary based Interior Designer, Artist and close friend. I met Chris in 2008 when he was hired as the designer of our home here in Calgary. Since 2008 I have seen Chris’ artistic style evolve from what I considered good, to great (with the present body of work).
The show 40: A New Collection of Paintings Chronicling Forty, opened last night in the Panagakos Gallery in Art Central (100-7th Avenue SW, Calgary, AB). The collection of 12 paintings, each represents a year in Chris’ fortieth year of life. Knowing Chris over the past 3 and a bit years, we had discussed the mental obstacle being forty years old is in most adults lives, and he wanted to celebrate it and channel his creative energy into this body of work which became symbolic of his 12 months of this milestone year of life. The paintings, named by firstly the month, and second the corresponding state of being (i.e. May: Grounded –photo of the painting with the chair).
Compositionally I found the pieces very well balanced, which I feel paralleled Chris’ forties thus far very well. Chris’ Interior Design Company has become increasingly busy since we first worked together, and he has had to juggle a lot of moving pieces to ensure everything runs smoothly. So for Chris, his art is the yin to his yang in being able to be a work-a-holic in his design work by day, but to unleash his creative demons after hours and create striking paintings as well.
The two pieces that I felt compelled to own were ‘September: Restoration’ and ‘October: Under The Radar’. September is full of rich coffee colored stain on a turquoise washed white scraped through with concrete grey, reveling this cool rusty looking painting. September was the first piece that caught my eye, but then was immediately followed by October, which is a very strong painting in comparison. October, which is ironically titled ‘Under the Radar’, is a very bold vertical turquoise brush stroke on top of a stark foggy white that is cut three quarters of the way by the concrete grey by hints of other colors and small hints of lime green that are there, but not visible unless you are standing about a foots distance from the piece.
Chris’s signifying style, I would say draws most from the best of abstract expressionism, but has Braque-esque qualities with heavily outlined representational qualities. The palate is mostly distantly bold and contemporary, which in telling of elements Chris incorporates into his design work. There will be a single element that stands out in a piece, if not a significant object, and very intentional brush stroke or color combo. This show was very well put together as well as opened and I am very glad to have become a collector of Chris’ work.
