Daniel Laskarin: ruins and reclamation

Deluge Contemporary Art, Victoria BC – Sep 8-Oct 7, 2017
By: Christine Clark
About ruins and reclamation, Daniel Laskarin writes, “A great deal of my work comes from reflecting on how we put our selves together. This is to say that we compose ourselves, of scraps of genetics, family, experiences,
environment, choices, unchosen impacts. Not to say that we are in control or that we are masters of who/what we are – we surf our lives; it’s all makeshift, as is the artwork.”
Fitting words for someone as wide-ranging as this, whose first career, as a helicopter pilot and engineer, is as rich in industrial romance as his intriguing paintings and sculptures. In his mid-30s, Laskarin changed course to pursue a BFA at Simon Fraser University and an MFA at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is now an associate professor of visual arts at the University of Victoria.
The show will consist of two parts. Part one, ruins, includes up to fifteen 36-by-24-millimetre paintings based on photographs taken at Expo 86. These tiny artworks are 30 years old, having been created in 1987, and feature alien configurations of shapes and lines in dune-like settings. Part two, reclamation, is a new, large-scale sculpture measuring 6 feet by 10 feet that involves an elderly work table in the embrace of an angular aluminum construction.
opening reception sep 8, 7-10pm
deluge.ws