CORRUPTION OF REALITY: REDEFINING REALISM
Dates: November 11, 2004 to January 16, 2005
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada

Oshawa-based artist, Olexander Wlasenko, has displayed his works nationally and internationally.  This exhibition marks the artist's hometown debut.  Wlasenko often draws inspiration from his hometown in his large-scale, black and white drawings.

The exhibition is inspired by a statement written by poet Wallace Stevens:  "Realism is a corruption of reality".  Is this yet another of the modernist contentions for the superiority of abstract art?  Stevens also wrote that "Abstraction is a part of idealism, which is why it is so ugly", so perhaps it's not all as simple as following one's taste.  And it is past time for a re-examination of objective and representational strategies employed by artists.  In this exhibition the redefining will focus on the work of three contemporary artists:  Robert-Ralph Carmichael of Echo Bay, Ontario; Rosemary Sloot of London, Ontario, and Olexander Wlasenko of Oshawa.  Each in their own eloquent ways brings us to a new understanding of "realism" as they draw us into the imagination where subjective and objective join forces.

David Aurandt
Exhibition Curator