Canadian painter Steve Driscoll is currently lighting up Toronto's Nicholas Metivier Gallery with his new show Trick of the Light. Filled with vibrant new paintings, his first exhibition at the gallery also contains work captured by GoPros tumbling down waterfalls on inflatable pillows.
Running until 31 October, Trick of the Light features stunning paintings picked out in oil and urethane. Loaded with vibrant colours that appear to drip and bubble across composite boards, Steven's paintings of forestry, waterfalls and lakes are a fascinating evolution of his craft.
"Being Canadian, I love the outdoors. I hike, canoe and camp," says Steve. "Eventually, my earlier abstract work started to shift, and everything became about the landscape, especially the feeling of being there."
This sense of abstraction can still be felt in the dense foliage and crashing waters of his landscapes. Even the saturated purples of the tree trunks and the burning oranges and reds of the earth push his pieces away from realism. However, they never detract from the immersive sense of belonging that Steve aims for.
Aside from his paintings, Steve is also known for his site-specific installations and work completed via lightboxes. Never one to shy away from experimentation or spontaneity, he also incorporates performance into his practice. For example, to record the power and energy of water, he placed a GoPro on an inflatable pillow and sent it sailing down the waterfalls and rapids in Northern Ontario.
"Works based on the imagery from the GoPro cameras are included in the exhibition alongside immersive, large-scale paintings rendered in electric colour," adds the gallery in a statement.
Get the best of Creative Boom delivered to your inbox weekly