installation view
October 2008
installation view installation view Two Way Street II (Walking Figures series) Constellation (Cave Showrooms series) Swingknot (Clustered Figures series) The Deal (Cave Showrooms series) Mirror Maze #4 Mirror Maze #1 Pixel Perfect Test Pattern Reveille [sold] Imitation of Life The Shuttered Room “In the hope that things will right themselves”: Bernard De Voto “Read me the riot act for what I’d done”: J. B. Benefield
Charles Rea has been an important player in the Vancouver painting scene for more than twenty years. Introduced in the Vancouver Art Gallery group show “The Young Romantics” in 1985, Rea’s art practice has since followed many diverse paths, making use of varying, often unconventional materials. He has placed labyrinthine on the surface of convex mirrors in the Mirror Maze series, re-created Rorschach-like patterning in his Diptych series, and worked with amorphous, abstracted symbols articulated on reflective ground in Silver Screens. It can be difficult to identify a common thread throughout his work by considering materials and iconography alone. On a more fundamental level, Rea’s works can be interpreted as explorations of space and structure, each series becoming the physical manifestation of the artists’ meditation on a distinct perspective. By observing how Rea chooses to construct his compositions, his representation of depth and distance, positive and negative space, a feeling of disorientation can be identified. Ultimately, each piece prompts a response from the viewer to maintain equilibrium in what results as a subtly disconcerting visual experience.
Charles Rea graduated from the Vancouver School of Art in 1979. He has exhibited extensively and is included in many private and corporate collections, including the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Canada Council Art Bank.