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Geoff Carter & Sadko Hadzihasanovic
Exhibition
April 7 - 29, 2006
A two-person exhibition involving two-dimensional painted or drawn figurative works. Each piece has a strong suggestive narrative and use of metaphor and is rooted in pop culture, Geoff Carter is a Vancouver based painter and print maker with a strong following in the city. Sadko Hadzihasanovic has a strong reputation in Toronto but these artists are not familiar with each other works.
Both bodies of work are based in the figurative, developing their own quirky style. Sadko is often conceptual and Carter is more satirical. The show was picked from work each artist produced on wallpaper.
Artist Statement - Sadko Hadzihasanovic
In my art practice I am interested in camouflaging history and ideology in an ironic and humorous way. Since I moved to Canada in 1993 I was fascinated with new culture I found myself in, and I explored a lot in the area of pop-culture and consumerism with the fresh eye of an outsider.
My recent body of work includes experimentation in photo-based images, which are transferred on canvas on the larger scale. After printing and digital altering is done I paint specific segments of it. What triggers my creativity as a painter is the possibility to work manually (watercolor, painting, drawing, and collage) on already printed image? I was always interested in painting as medium in contemporary art and I am trying to push some traditional barriers that are related to painterly practice. I think painting exists through various forms and shapes changing its nature, developing meanings and internal painting language. Recently I become interested in watercolor as medium which is consider as technique of weekend amateurs. The result of that was my solo show at Paul Petro in June 2004
Painting today is very sophisticated artificial language with lot of quotation and allusion about history of medium, homage to other artists and question about ontological status of painting. I like in my new work to continue to explore manual quality of painting with new technologies such as photo collage, film, television and digital photography. I think working today with painting is such a difficult road and a long journey, which will maybe bring what Barnett Newman said" quality of sublimennes and human touch".
In 2005 I produce new group of large-scale canvasses(slides 16-20) which continue to explore my fascination and critique of popular American culture. Also I tried to make FUSION of drawing and painting mediums as well bring dialog between:
tradition-representation and experimentation-collage,
low and high culture,
cartoon and modernism (Philip Guston and abstraction),
private and public.
