Jan 21 to Apr 23, 2017
Paul Fournier: Worlds of Wonder
About the Exhibition
Colour—a visual language that must be experienced and felt—comprehended not just by the mind, but with the heart and soul.
The Varley Art Gallery launches its 20th anniversary with a solo exhibition by senior Canadian artist Paul Fournier. With a career spanning more than 50 years, Fournier’s creative production has evolved through a careful balance of spontaneity and intuition. Worlds of Wonder showcases the artist’s process-driven practice and highlights his diverse painting styles and techniques.
Through expansive abstracted compositions, Paul Fournier uses painterly strokes and gestures as a means of communicating his impressions of the natural world. His dramatic and colourful works reveal lush tropical greenery, underwater geological formations and distant celestial phenomena. He explores both micro and macro environments, finding beauty within the smallest of organisms and the most distant star. Yet, his paintings focus on the essence and not on the physical realities of the environments they depict. Nature becomes a trigger through which the artist can explore the mysteries and wonders of life itself.
Ultimately, these works are a testament to Fournier’s decade-long experimentation with his medium and his ongoing quest to depict the poetic and spiritual dimensions of nature.
About the Artist
Paul Fournier was born in Simcoe, Ontario in 1939 and now lives in Markham, ON. He studied etching at McMaster University in 1967 and received an Honorary Doctor of Laws in 1996 from Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, where he was a resident artist in 1969-1970. Active on the Canadian art scene since the 1960s, Fournier has had major solo exhibitions in Toronto, Guelph, Hamilton, Edmonton, Houston and Washington, D.C. His work is held in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; and in many public, University, corporate, and private collections in North America and Europe. Previously associated with the Westdale Gallery, the Pollock Gallery, the David Mirvish Gallery and the Klonaridis Gallery, Fournier is now represented by Miriam Shiell Fine Art, Toronto; Han Art, Montreal; Oeno Gallery, Prince Edward County; Rumi Galleries, Oakville; and Thielsen Gallery, London, ON.
