Precious

Product Description

Precious by Jason Walker

Oil on Panel, 10″ x 10″, 13.25″ x 13.25″ x 2.8125″ with frame

Current Exhibition at Flower Pepper Gallery: Being A Panda from May 6th to 31st, 2017

Artist Biography:

Né / Born – Nairn, Écosse / Scotland,
Vit et travailles / Lives and works – Toronto, ON

EXPOSITIONS SÉLECTIONNEÉS SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
- 2017 Being A Panda, Flower Pepper Gallery in Pasadena, California, USA

- 2016 Un morceau de sucre/A Spoonful of Sugar, Galerie de
Bellefeuille, Montréal, QC
Little and Large exhibition, Falmouth Art Gallery,
Cornwall, UK

- 2014 Jason Walker, Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montréal, QC

- 2012 Au-Delà du Réel / Beyond Realism, Galerie de
Bellefeuille, Montréal, QC

- 2009 Art 2009, Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montréal, QC

- 2008 Toronto Interantional Art Fair, Galerie de
Bellefeuille

- 2007 Art 2007, Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montréal, QC
Toronto Interantional Art Fair

- 2006 Art 2006, Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montréal, QC
Toronto Interantional Art Fair

- 2005 Art 2005, Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montréal, QC
Figura, Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montréal, QC
Toronto Interantional Art Fair
Chicago Contemporary and Classic

- 2004 Art 2004, Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montréal, QC
Toronto Interantional Art Fair

- 2002 Figure humaine – Human Figure, Galerie de
Bellefeuille
Milk Gallery

- 2001 Nancy Pooles Studio

- 2000 Milk Gallery
The Gretzky Exhibit, Hockey Hall of Fame
(Toronto)
New York Art Fair
American Society of Portraits Artists annual seminar (Atlanta)
Nancy Pooles Studio

- 1995 Toronto Home Show
Toronto Home Show

- 1993 Port Stanley Solo Show
Toronto Home Show

- 1992 Lambeth Art Festival

- 1991 PPFA Toronto

BOURSES ET DISTINCTIONS GRANTS AND AWARDS:
- 2007 Worked on special visual effects for NFB film Mrs. Tutli-Putli (nominated for an Oscar)
- 2003 Applied Arts Gold Award
2 Broadcast Design Awards (Los Angeles)
- 1999 F.H. Varley Award for Best Portrait Painting, by The Canadian Portrait Academy (Vancouver)
- 1998 Broadcast Design Award (Chicago) American Society of Portrait Artist Award
MacHardy Art Prize (Écosse) Broadcast Design Award (Chicago)

COLLECTIONS PUBLIQUES PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
Labatt
Budweiser
London Life Insurance
Esso Canada
CI Mutual Funds
Postes Canada
The Hockey Hall of Fame Bravo! Television
Borden and Elliot Coca-Cola
AltaMira
CIBC
Molson
Pepsi
The Plunkett Foundation

About this painting:

“Jason Walker’s hyper-realistic paintings observe humanities’ relationship with cultural icons and objects. He is an artist-anthropologist documenting the symbols of our collective unconscious that subtly reveal our values through the objects we cherish and delight in. In his extraordinary piece for this exhibition, Precious, he has chosen a painted ceramic panda sculpture with a bright green piece of bamboo. This object in all of its lustrous gleaming glory is something you might find in a curio shop as a totem meant to bring good luck. Set against a velvety crimson background, a known “good-luck” color in China where pandas originate, this painting centers our attention on our fascination with fortune, luck, and fate. This painting is as alluring as the principles it explores. It immediately captures the eye with its glint and glimmer and holds our gaze with its dewy perfection. The profound simplicity and high level of execution of Walker’s work allows us the opportunity to examine objects we might otherwise overlook and the part they play in our culture, beliefs, and understanding.” – by Emiko Woods for Press Release of Being a Panda

The Art of Jason Walker: Artifacts and Archetypes

Jason Walker’s imagery reflects popular culture: from Disney’s Mary Poppins or Mickey Mouse to frosted doughnuts. As observer and conveyor of cultural icons, he is an anthropologist and his beautiful and often endearing paintings resonates with art viewers. But this Toronto artist is also an analyst. Conceived with the clear-eyed vision of a native of Nairn, Scotland, Walker’s compositions challenge viewers to consider contemporary culture.

Through his iconography, Walker creates artifacts, a paint-on-canvas time capsule for future generations. His images are representational rather than abstract. His subjects from Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz to Peter Pan’s Tinker Bell are non-elitist, international, and easily identified. A portrait of our time, Walker’s renditions are intimate and lifelike, crafted with diffused edges or Old-Master chiaroscuro. Painted in Renaissance jewel-tones, his work is, like sugar, irresistible. Whether of mouth-watering Timbits or Mary Poppins and Bert, the seductive beauty of Walker’s imagery draws the viewer in.

Yet Walker’s art remains within post-modernism and, although representational, is also conceptual. His subjects are more than icons and represent archetypes, what psychologist Carl Jung describes as symbols of our collective unconscious. Dorothy’s quest for wisdom is universal, as is the helpfulness of Tinker Bell or the loyalty of Pluto. Comforting and familiar, yet symbolic, these figures elicit childhood hopes and fears. Echoing psychologist Bruno Bettleheim’s “uses of enchantment”, Walker’s iconic figures enable viewers to find their own archetypes or cultural heroes.

Through live-action figures and figurines, Walker also conveys the universality of emotions: the romantic, the tragic and the comic. Yet his humour is playful and often subtle. Frosted doughnuts evoke the realism of the 17th-century Belgian nature morte or still-life tradition. A special-effects animator for the award-winning (or Oscar-nominated) Madame Tutli-Putli, Walker employs humour to bring social concepts to life. His addition of Dolly, the sheep, to the human evolution chain encourages smiles as well as commentary. Although these compositions invite viewers to make associations, the pleasure principle prevails.

A Spoonful of Sugar, then, is more than the title of Walker’s exhibition. It is also an underlying theme that unifies both the artist’s role of communicator and image maker. A multidimensional artist working within a modern artistic code, Walker illustrates a respect for beauty and an acknowledgement of its enduring value. For this artist, beauty is not just a means to attract attention, but has power to awaken deep emotions and impart new life.

by Heather Black, Montreal 2016

Artist Website: https://www.jasonwalkerartist.com

Additional Information