October 2007
What on earth has Peter Shmelzer done now?
Find out at La Petite Mort Gallery!
New Paintings: Decades of Misadventure in the Golden Room
Curated by Missy Marston-Shmelzer & Guy Berube
October 5 – November 1, 2007
Vernissage Friday October 5 7PM – 10PM
Tunes by Christopher Jabbour / Proudly sponsored by CKCU 93.1 FM
Peter Shmelzer has done it again: another beautiful, shocking and completely original one-man show. The popular Ottawa artist returns once again to La Petite Mort Gallery with a stunning series of large-scale oil paintings of (you might have guessed) conjoined twins and, well, of himself. Nude and with horns.
Decades of Misadventure in the Golden Room features two characters, one male and one female, one with horns and one conjoined, in an eerily glamourous future world. The frankly gorgeous and voluptuous conjoined twins cavort on a sumptuous leather sofa, in the company of what appear to be mutants (dog-squids? double-eyed baby heads?). The artist himself poses as a bloody satyr, sprawled on velvet. It is a vision of humanity in all its troubled glory, writhing in the lap of luxury. It is a strangely pleasing sight.
Though the subject matter of Shmelzer’s paintings is always intriguing and endlessly entertaining to talk about, what really sets him apart from other artists and what has gained him the reputation he currently enjoys and deserves is his breath-taking skill as a painter. Shmelzer employs the traditional wet-into-wet method of oil painting, and with every new body of work, his mastery is more evident. Anyone who enjoys seeing a job well done should see this show.
And anyone who likes sexy conjoined twins.
Merci,
Guy Berube, director
La Petite Mort Gallery