Figure, Form and Ground

Considered together, the works in Figure, Form and Ground allow an investigation of some of the major modes in which painting and drawing exert their claims on the viewer.

Figure, Form and Ground highlights paintings and drawings from the University of Toronto and University College collections. The selected works survey three facets of contemporary practice. Figure presents representational works which use the human body as a vehicle for expression. Unlike traditional portraiture, these works of figuration do not attempt to recognizably portray the characteristics of a specific individual but rather use the materiality of painting to speak to the nature of embodied experience in their depiction of human forms. Form presents works of abstraction which emphasize significant shape in their construction. Using non-representational line and form, these works deploy geometric shapes, biomorphic forms and linear gestures to potentially evoke rational contemplation of forms and or affective responses to shape and colour. Ground presents works of abstraction that investigate the properties of the image’s surface. Using patterns, grids and colourfields, these works move between an assertion of the painted surface and the sensation of vast depth.