MOSTLY PORTRAITS

Did you know Canada.. Painter, printmaker, aphorist, journalist - Wilek Markiewicz is running an Art Exhibit at Laurier Gallery in Liberty Village, Toronto.

Wilek exhibits regularly in Toronto and in national and international juried shows. Painting, Oil Pastel and woodcut are his media. In 1972 Wilek founded The Polish Canadian Courier, the first Polish independent paper in North America and published and edited it until 1986. The paper continues its existence under changed name and ownership. He illustrated his book of original aphorisms, “Extracts of Existence”, with 43 woodcuts. Silcan House published “Okruchy Bytu” in 2004. His articles, stories and illustrations have appeared in journals and newspapers in Canada, Switzerland, Poland, Spain. His “Ethnic Press” column ran 13 years in the Toronto Sun.

His Show - MOSTLY PORTRAITS - Oil portraits on Arches paper -- and related works is at the Laurier Gallery in Liberty Village.

OPENING RECEPTION
Saturday, April 21, 2012
6-9 pm
Show continues to Monday, April 30, 2012

Hours Mon. – Fri. 11 – 5pm, Sat. 2-5pm

Laurier Gallery 113 Jefferson Ave.
Toronto M6K 3E4 (S. of King, E. of Dufferin)
416 232 0217

Twelve portraits done from life over a period of several months. Friends and acquaintances were willing to return to the artist’s studio again and again to sit in the model’s chair. The relationship between artist and model that developed as they sat facing each other emerges in these portraits.

Sometimes the sessions were quiet as the artist painted and the model sat lost in his or her own thoughts. Sometimes there was laughter and storytelling interrupted by a sudden instruction, “Now don’t move for a moment” and it was quiet again. It was amusing to see a portrait change from session to session. Was there a change in the artist or in the model that turned a gentle look in the painted eyes into a sharp intense look?

A snapshot shows one split second in the life of the subject. Each one of these portraits embodies hours in the artist/subject relationship. Now, with brushes, paints and palette back on the shelf, Wilek himself looks forward to seeing all his portraits hanging side by side, joining the rest of us who contemplate the personalities captured in these twelve portraits.