It was a cool damp Thursday night on January 8
at the Fifty Fifty
Arts Collective, Pete Kohut’s
solo exhibition “Inside / Outward” marked the 1st
gallery opening in Victoria, British Columbia for 2015. “Inside
/ Outward” is
a series of Kohut’s recent paintings
drawn from people watching in coffee shops, illustrations turned paintings,
space confused to create dynamic composition for the viewer, and channeling
anxiety of being in public, as an introvert.
The exhibition runs until Sunday January 25th at 2516 Douglas Street.
When asked, why the café and not another public space?
There’s something unique to how people use a
coffee shop as a public / private
space. I think a
type of space that might be similar would be restaurants or food markets.
What's interesting about coffee shops is that people feel more comfortable and
let their guard down, hence letting out their personal quirks. A restaurant
might not have the same level of comfort, but perhaps there's other qualities
that people might let show through.
An excerpt from Kohut’s blog
“Artist Statement: In
Progress” on
October 5, 2014, gives deeper insight to his thought process:
What am I doing? I'm making images that represent our daily
life while evoking the fragmented nature in which we perceive and understand
the world around us. 1) The coffee shop in North America is very much like the
cafe in European countries, except that it can also function as a place to
work, read, study, and be ‘alone’.
It's a peculiar space especially for that last reason. I'm interested in
the crossover of behaviours between the two types of spaces, private and
public. 2) Media culture has affects how we think and feel about the world. 3)
I'm using retrograde media to show the limits of current media.
In the next blog entry, he provided 3 more
reasons why it mattered. Cleverly, he
ended it with "people enacting
their private lives in a public space,” making “Inside / Outward” a suitable title and
Artist Statement that reads like this:
Weirdly distorted and
morphing figures in confusing spaces. Patterned marks, raw colours and
contrasts, shifting perspective, layers and history of making. Paintings that
represent people and spaces but also reference the flatness of surface.
The subject of human
interaction is fascinating. For an introverted person, meeting other people is
often fraught with anxiety. This anxiety is processed into these paintings.
Scenes from everyday
life act as an armature onto which energetic brushwork infuse these scenes with
activity and evoke a sense of fleeting memories.
I asked if any part of the collection did not
make it to the exhibition:
There are three or
four paintings that didn't make it into the show, mostly because there wasn't
enough room for them, but also because they veered a little further away from
the ideas that I was focusing in on the show; a self-portrait for example. I'm
not a very linear painter, so some of the paintings went way off into left
field, in different directions.
Kohut often mentions it in his writings and
interviews, so I had to ask about being an introvert:
As far as I know I've
always been an introvert. I grew up the second of three sons, which might
explain my proclivity for feeling uneasy when people pay attention to me. I
also have a hard time in large crowds because I feel overwhelmed. I like
nothing more than to spend my evenings at home painting, drawing, reading, and
playing with my cat. I have few close friends but I find evenings out with
three or more people are extremely draining. I recharge when I'm by myself and
therefore relish my time alone. I think this is partly why I continued to make
art; an excuse to be alone.
I also asked if he felt that he succeeded in
channeling that
anxiety into these paintings.
I feel that I
succeeded in evoking a sense of excitement in these pieces by using my anxiety
as fuel. Even though painting is a lot of hard work, it still is quite
enjoyable and helps to relieve the general stress and anxiety that I feel
during my average day. I wouldn't say these paintings evoke anxiety like Edvard Munch's ‘The Scream’
does, but perhaps the confusing spaces might give the viewer a slight twinge of
insecurity.
Earlier Years
Pete Kohut was born and raised in Winnipeg,
Manitoba. He drew a lot as a young boy
but stopped. Around 1993, he started
making drawings again as therapy for loneliness and depression he was feeling
in his teens. In 1995, he experimented
with acrylic paints, made rudimentary colour fields and still lifes to get a
feel for the material.
I remember wanting to
be an artist when I was a young boy because I liked to make things, but was
dissuaded by my parents. They said that
if I wanted to make a comfortable living, I should choose a creative career
such as architecture.
It was in middle school that his art teacher
encouraged Kohut to keep drawing. When
he got to university, he quickly found architecture to be too constricting so
he focused on visual arts (painting) and graphic design.
I ended up choosing
graphic design because I thought it might be a more accessible way to make a
living. This way I could work
nine-to-five at a job that challenged me creatively and I could pursue my
passion for making art in my spare time.
As Painter & Book Designer
Kohut became a practising designer after
graduating from Red River College in 2001.
Slowly, he made his way to the West Coast (Victoria) where he now works
as an in-house book designer for a local publisher called TouchWood Editions
who publishes roughly 25 books a year.
Kohut designs the covers and layout the interiors for their book list
that includes fiction, non-fiction, local history, mysteries, cookbooks, and
short story collections.
Interested in the junction between paint and
graphic design, I asked Kohut if he found designing books influence his
paintings.
I think working as a
designer has helped me to define what that differences are between art and
design. As a designer, you are trying to communicate your client's message in a
way that it best reaches it's intended audience. It's a lot like problem
solving. Art is different because it is more about asking questions than
getting answers. It's about your own message, your own thoughts and ideas that
you are conveying to an audience.
I find that my
paintings act as a relief from my design work. In my painting, I break the ‘rules’ of layout and composition. I can do whatever I want. There's no
client or creative brief to follow. I'm still painting with an audience in
mind, but I'm not necessarily interested in making art that they will like.
I will say that
working as a book designer, I'm much more aware of the idea of narrative and
how it applies to the visual arts. However, I'm more interested in creating an
ambiguous narrative rather than spelling it out for a viewer. I want the viewer
to have to pull out the meaning for themselves.
Projects
On plans for his next show and on going
projects, Kohut said:
I don't have any
other shows planned as of yet. I'm hoping that I might be able to show this
series in a few other galleries in town, but we'll see how that is received. My
last few paintings have been about exploring further the idea of using brush
strokes as the pattern on clothing to confuse the space. "Beneath the
Beard" is a good example. I'd like to see where it takes me.
Kohut is taking part In Cahoots, curated by Efren Quiroz, showing on
November 6th at the Slide Room Gallery. Kohut is partnering up with Nicole
Neidhardt, whom he met in a painting class at the University of Victoria a few
years ago and who will also be graduating with her BFA this year. Kohut said he is looking forward to this
experience.
In 2010 Kohut was a finalist in the 1st annual
Victoria Emerging Artist Awards. He is
enrolled in the Visual Arts program at the University of Victoria on a
part-time basis.
Artist Quote
In my research and interview, I found this quote
of Kohut to be powerful, “I
realize that painting is in itself a lie (or illusion), but it's a good one.”
A Message from Pete
Kohut
I'd like to thank
everyone at the Fifty Fifty Arts Collective for letting me exhibit my work in
their space and helping with the reception. I'd also like to thank you (Sheila
Alonzo) and Efren Quiroz for your interest and media coverage.
Pete Kohut
www.petekohut.ca
@petekohut
[Images via www.petekohut.ca]
[Photo credit: Sheila
Alonzo]
