SHAUN DOWNEY: REFLECTIVE SPACES
the paintings, but more importantly: it engenders a breathtaking sense of possibility. Often, we don’t know if a shape or a color is about to fade into the background or emerging from it, whether it will become water, sky or light, become a body or maybe several bodies. Kanevsky’s is a world in which the sensual still holds a multitude of possibilities, and we are witness to the act of becoming.”
In his artwork, Kanevsky is more interested in people than any other element, and he finds them to be “quite miraculous” particularly when pulling together all aspects of their being—the physical, mental, sexual or spiritual. “Without resorting to the concepts I can’t define like ‘soul’ or ‘consciousness,’ I focus on their physical presence because it is ultimately where the loftier considerations manifest themselves in our lives,” he explains. “So my belief is that if I look at your physical presence very closely with a sympathetic and compassionate eye, I might be able to speak of who you are. And if I often fail, it is certainly worth trying.”
On view in the show will be more than 20 new pieces that highlight his artistic sensibilities. “If a painting is a form of language, the artist attempts to create a language, foreign to all but himself, and then says a few things in that language in such a way that would make them clear to anybody who listens, even if the language remains foreign to them,” Kanevsky