CONCURRENT - FIONA ACKERMAN & RON MOPPETT

Fiona and Ron seem to share an interest in other artists' studios. It was only appropriate that they both selected works for Concurrent that not only speak to each others presentation and collage sensibilities, but also to the direct correlation between artist worlds and all of its inter-connections. 

Fiona Ackerman
As painters, the studio is our runway. It’s the place we take off from when we start to work. I visited Ron Moppett’s studio in Calgary with great respect and curiosity. Working on a series of painting based on studio visits with other artists, I documented his studio with my camera with the intention of borrowing his environment, his runway so to speak as a departure point for my own work. In his studio, he had a model for what looked like a back yard shed, painted in Ron Moppett’s pallet, and ornamented with iconic cut out forms. Only later did I find out that this model was the development phase of Ron’s recent Trepanier Baer exhibition, Vincent’s Last Studio.  I received an invitation to the exhibition almost to the day that I finished my painting that included the mysterious model. For Vincent’s Last Studio, Ron created a conceptual studio for Van Gogh. He anchored a departure point for himself into the mythology of another artists work place. As I stood on Ron’s runway, he stood on Van Gogh’s. Completing a circle, I called my painting Starry Night.





Ron Moppett
Given the nature of Fiona's work and the construct of Concurrent I have selected a recent work that references another artist; J.M.W. Turner. It's not unusual for me to do this and that the title; in this case 'Turner', be ambiguous. The mood and colour have in mind the great canvas 'The Fighting Temeraire... Broken Up' from 1838, in the collection of the National Gallery in London. The construct of my work, literally and figuratively is also about its space turning as it does on the centre of its construction where a mirrored panel disrupts the space again. The first years of my life were spent on the south coast of England, an area much recorded and reflected by Turner. The painting is an object and a memory. The viewer is also literally able to locate herself in its meaning.

Ron Moppet, Turner, 2012
Fiona Ackerman, Hanging in the Air, 2013


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