Power Play, 2022
Carbon black Acrylic, on Canvas
48h x 36w in
Award-winning artist Tim Forbes is a contemporary minimalist whose elegant black and
white works on canvas explore the elucidative language of pattern recognition and
transformative potential of pared down organic configurations within complex and
deliberately shifting formal arrangements.
“Essential in the abstract, works must have a destination, the arrival of which is
addressed in a contemplation of function either within the emotive or within the form.” –
Forbes
With an acclaimed background as an art director and designer, Forbes is a prolific and
highly regarded artist with past showcases at both the Toronto International Art Fair and
NYC’s prestigious Architectural Design Show. Basing his international studio practice of
painting, sculpture and photo-imagery from the historic South Shore of his native Nova
Scotia, his work is found in private and corporate collections from Corsica to Vancouver,
Hong Kong to Houston, Boston, Toronto, Vancouver, and New York.
Installation of "Power Play"
Below are some words on the paintings, from the artist:
"Power Play"
Working within the conceptual framework of repetition and pattern recognition, Forbes'
works on canvas explore the communicative potential of abstract visual language.
In POWER PLAY repeating patterns set in mirror opposition are tethered by a stochastic white line in what may
be a non-deterministic outcome.
"Modern Love"
Working within the conceptual framework of repetition and pattern recognition, Forbes’
works on canvas explore the communicative potential of abstract visual language.
Folding the past into the present a, unique formal vocabulary absorbs the ambient
melody of David Bowie’s 1983 prophetic MODERN LOVE while reflecting on the fast-paced
insta-style swiping of online life. An endless column of jostling black organic forms with
shadowed echoes of minimalist Klein Blue suggests a double entendre on what is
presented and what is held back asserting that minimalism can be flirtatious.
"Split"
Working within the conceptual framework of repetition and pattern recognition, Forbes’
works on canvas explore the communicative potential of abstract visual language. SPLIT,
a coup of formal experimentation, investigates the defining potential of purposely
disrupted form with a nuance of modernist Klein Blue. Challenging the hierarchy of
foreground and background in the tension placed between two suspended black
masses, a sliver of luminous blue powerfully establishes its own command.
"Plate 9"
Working within the conceptual framework of repetition and pattern recognition, Forbes’
works on canvas explore the communicative potential of abstract visual language.
Pared down and essentialized, PLATE 9 presents the penultimate power play of
minimalist subjectivity. Perhaps related to the ethos of one-hand clapping, how much
can be claimed in two relational forms? One completed form holds dominion over
another truncated by the cutting lower edge of the canvas. PLATE 9 has a subtle,
ambiguous, movement braced between ascension and descension, dominance and
submission.
"Triumph"
Working within the conceptual framework of repetition and pattern recognition, Forbes’
works on canvas explore the communicative potential of abstract visual language. In
TRIUMPH, a demonstrative crisp negative line transects three commanding masses
punctuating static space with a resonant stochastic note. Contrary to weight and
volume, the single line operates at once as a dynamic harmonic to offset the gaze and
conduct the composition.
"Tectonic 02"
Working within the conceptual framework of repetition and pattern recognition, Forbes’
works on canvas explore the communicative potential of minimalist symbolism. The
large, stridently taut diptych, executed in Carbon Black acrylic, TECTONIC 02, explores the
shifting plates of a 2-dimensional world. Transition, vibration, portended movement and primal evolution – it is
dynamic change not inertia we must rely on: “The now we know now is not the now we knew.” – TF
