Kai McCall "The Weightlessness" and Kelvin Britton "That and This"

April 2 - 23, 2011
opening reception with artists present: April 2, 5-7 p.m.

Kai McCall
"The Weightlessness"
"Like characters in a work of fiction, the figures in my paintings confront challenges and conflicts as they navigate a variety of enigmatic situations and settings. I think of them as semi-autonomous individuals whose poses evolve as I paint them, and who become defined by the eventual actions that they assume in a composition. However, despite the recognizable imagery and actions of the figures, the overall meaning of the work eludes us. The paintings read more like a work of fiction with the concluding chapters missing; we are conscious of a conflict developing yet the resolution remains suspended in time, the outcome ambiguous." McCall (2011). Kai McCall received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario. He is a three-time recipient of Canada Council Grants and has works in numerous private and corporate collections across Canada, the United States, the UK and France. This is his second solo exhibition at KWT contemporary. He is lives and works in Montreal, Quebec.


Kelvin Britton
"That and This"
In his first solo exhibition at KWT contemporary, Britton plays with figure/ground and hi/lo 50's references through images of iconic children's toys and children's furniture decals that float, oddly detached, on gorgeously painted abstract expressionist backgrounds. Britton states: "The act of painting takes the form of a conversation, a unique experience, a journey. A new dialogue is engaged in with each new approach to the work, new layers of discovery are revealed, realms of consciousness, otherwise inaccessible become apparent. The different stages/aspects/ layers of the painting represent a record of a dreamlike encounter. Looking at the evolution of the paintings feels like an archaeological expedition through time and space, through interior and exterior realms, through form and feeling." Kelvin Britton was born at the Covered Wagon Trailer Park in Fort Garry, Manitoba. After studying Philosophy at University of Victoria, he attended Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, where he studied painting under Gerald Ferguson. He lives and works in Toronto.

KWT contemporary
624 Richmond Street West
Toronto, ON M5V 1Y9
tel. 416-646-2706
gallery hours: wed-sat 12-6
info@kwtcontemporary.com