August 2009
“THE THIRD SEX: THAI LADY*BOYS”
The Work of EVOKE
August 1 – 30, 2009 / One Month Exhibit
Vernissage Saturday August 1 / 7 – 10pm
Photography by Jenifer Rudski and Patrick Thompson
Production assistant Jenifer Rudski
Tunes by Big Mac Daddy
Proudly sponsored by CKCU 93.1 FM
For his first exhibition at La Petite Mort Gallery, artist Patrick Evoke has created a series of remarkable portraits that are neither paintings, drawings, prints or photographs, they are an entirely new beast. These beautiful and haunting works are the actual physical records of cosmetics peeled from the faces of heavily “made up” transvestites, drag queens and working women of South East Asia.”Each day these individuals look into the mirror and paint a self portrait. They put on a mask and get into character. It from this middle space that these works emerge. In these works, the surreal theatrics of this cosmetic transformation merge with the wrinkles hairs and imperfections of real life. They are as intimate a portrait as one will ever capture.
Patrick Thompson’s installations of painting, wall drawings, printmaking and sculpture, are investigations of the idea of information; explored through mass media, architecture, history and the dynamics of culture, defined equally by their range and their lyrical visual language Highly esteemed for pushing the boundaries of street art, he has painted outdoors under the pseudonym Evoke throughout North and Central America, Europe, and Asia. Thompson is often placed into the “Canadian School” of street artists including Other, Labrona, and Thesis Sahib — a group known for their inspired improvisations and openness towards freeform mark making.
Thompson’s own creative process develops through a self-coined process he refers to as “mistakism”, whereby the artist allows a memory, feeling, sentence, or some other bite of information to spark the beginning of a particular work. Imagery follows, inspired by the ‘in-between’ places found throughout the Canadian landscape — converging into dreamlike scenes. This union creates a pictorial space where imaginary characters, forms and marks can interact in a place that is whimsical as well as charged. In 2007, Thompson created “Ishtar Gate” in collaboration with artists Derek Mehaffey and Juan Carlos Noria for; BAC! 07 International Festival of Contemporary Art in Barcelona- Edition VIII. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions worldwide including; The Royal Ontario Museum; Institute for Contemporary Culture in Toronto, Luminato, the Singapore Contemporary Arts Museum, Desert Generation at Artist House Gallery in Jerusalem, Lombardi Gallery in Austin Texas and INOPERABLE Gallery in Vienna Austria.
Wall painting installation work includes Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada, Quest
University in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada, SAW Gallery in Ottawa,
Canada and Hualien, Taiwan. Patrick is the co-founder of the Embassy of Imagination-
Thank you,
Guy Berube, director
La Petite Mort Gallery