Gregory Klassen: Heliotropism
James Watrous Gallery
May. 20, 2024 - Jul. 3, 2016
Trained as a painter, Gregory Klassen has become interested in creating environments that reflect his fascination with natural processes. His approach to painting emphasizes the action of materials, underlining paint’s interaction with, for example, gravity or evaporation. Klassen’s first serious departure from tradition was to immure his work in compost bins, allowing the canvas to be stained, digested, and shaped in collaboration with organic material and microbes. Most recently he has been exploring other ways of integrating art production with natural forces, working directly with plants, soil, air, and water. Klassen’s art is becoming, in his words, “the design of experiments, the staging of serendipitous expeditions.”
