Silke Otto-Knapp
Land lies in water
February 14–July 19, 2015
Art Gallery of Ontario
317 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario M5T 1G4
T +1 877 225 4246
www.ago.net
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Los Angeles-based painter Silke Otto-Knapp is known for her complex, delicate paintings. Working mostly in a black, grey and silver palette, Otto-Knapp’s largely monochrome works are studies in the use of light and translucency. Every composition is carefully constructed, and Otto-Knapp’s subjects are pioneering women artists, modern dancers, interiors, landscapes, seascapes and avant-garde stage designs. Unlike traditional watercolourists, Otto-Knapp paints on canvas and linen, which allows her to repeatedly wash away and rebuild layers of paint, lending her delicate images a distinctive flatness and luminosity.
For her first major exhibition in North America, the AGO presents 29 of her recent canvases, ranging from barren ocean seascapes to sharply defined silhouettes of modern dancers. Three of Otto-Knapp’s paintings, including Sailboat with Moon (2012), will go on display in the AGO’s Thomson Collection of Ship Models. The spare simplicity of these canvases stands out boldly in relation to the painstakingly detailed models displayed in the space.
Organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario
Artist talk and opening reception with performance by Ei Arakawa and Hālau Hula O Na Mele ‘Āina O Hawai’i
Artist talk: March 18, 2015, 5:30–6:30pm
Public opening: March 18, 6:30–8:30pm
Both events are free
About the artist
Silke Otto-Knapp is an Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of California, Los Angles. Recent solo exhibitions include Fogo Island Arts, Fogo, Canada; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Camden Arts Centre, London; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen; UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA; Kunstverein Munich; Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff; Modern Art Oxford; and Tate Britain, London.
About the AGO
With a collection of more than 80,000 works of art, the Art Gallery of Ontario is among the most distinguished art museums in North America. From the vast body of Group of Seven and signature Canadian works to the African art gallery, from the cutting-edge contemporary art to Peter Paul Rubens’s masterpiece The Massacre of The Innocents, the AGO offers an incredible art experience with each visit. In 2002 Kenneth Thomson’s generous gift of 2,000 remarkable works of Canadian and European art inspired Transformation AGO, an innovative architectural expansion by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry that in 2008 resulted in one of the most critically acclaimed architectural achievements in North America.
