A new installation of contemporary works explores how landscapes, from coastal shores to skyscrapers, inspire and inform various artistic visions.

A new installation of contemporary works from the AGO Collection (on Level 4, gallery 405) explores the concept of landscape by highlighting the various forms it takes in painting and sculpture. Adelina Vlas, AGO Associate Curator, Contemporary Art,  has displayed the works of artists Silke Otto-Knapp, Paterson Ewen, Luis Jacob and Shirley Wiitasalo in associative conversations with each other, juxtaposing the nuances of natural, man-made and imagined landscapes. 

Los Angeles-based painter Silke Otto-Knapp is best known for her complex, monochrome works done in grey, black and silver watercolour. Taking a non-traditional approach to the medium, she paints on canvas and linen which adds a signature flatness and luminosity to her paintings. Otto-Knapp’s multi-panel Monotones (Seascape) is part of her Monotones series, and depicts a vast, rocky shoreline on Fogo Island, Newfoundland.      

Volunteers may recall Silke Otto-Knapp’s earlier solo exhibition at the Gallery, in  2015 – Silke Otto-Knapp: Land Lies in Water.  Volunteers might also enjoy this article that explores more of the artist’s technique.

You can read more about this installation, and all of the artists assembled, in AGOinsider.