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Evan Penny is Unreal

"Absolutely Unreal", an art exhibit by Evan Penny, will be held at the Art Gallery of Algoma from May 5th until July 2nd.
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"Absolutely Unreal", an art exhibit by Evan Penny, will be held at the Art Gallery of Algoma from May 5th until July 2nd.

No stranger to the Art Gallery of Algoma, Evan Penny has travelled great creative distances since 1987 when AGA toured his sculptures across Canada. Represented in our collection by "Jim & Shadow", Penny has moved beyond the diminutive scale and the full figure, to fascinating
explorations of facial studies on a grand and disturbing scale.

Penny’s newest project obsessively navigates the gaps in our perception between reality and artifice, between how we are physiologically and how we see ourselves (or think we are seen by others). Beginning with photographs of the "subject", Penny sculpts gigantic clay models of face and bust, then casts in epoxy. As in his earlier works, the laborious detailing of the work, complete with implants for hair and eyelashes, gives each work its frightening realism. However, also like the earlier work, the distorted scale throws us off balance, creating a shimmering aura that shifts between reality and illusion and ultimately brings us back to the mirrored or photographed self.

As if the static image rendered three dimensionally was not ambitious enough, Penny’s recent work pushes beyond the point where we can embrace the visual sensation easily, by blurring the sculpture like a multiple exposé. The perceptual field becomes dizzying.

This exhibition has been organized by Museum London and will be circulating across Canada. This is a not to miss exhibition of one of the leading sculptors of the post-modern era.

A special "Meet the Artist" Reception will be held on Thursday May 5th at 7:30 pm.

For more information, contact Moya Morrow at the Art Gallery of Algoma at [email protected].

The Art Gallery of Algoma is located at 10 East Street.
For more information on the AGA call 949-9067 or email [email protected].

(Pictured above: Evan Penny's "No One - In Particular, Series 2")

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