Selected Reviews
Bernard LaMarche, "Au royaume du petit format",
Le Devoir, July 31, 1999.
(...) Cependant, il y a là quelques découvertes à
faire, notamment celle de Mark Dixon, de Fredericton dans l’espace
de Blouin. Celui-là, avec ses entrelacs de peinture et ses effets
hors foyer, explore avec autant de doigté des espaces mi-abstraits
mi-figuratifs que la coqueluche de Toronto, David Urban, present lui aussi
à l’exposition et qui s’en tire passablement moins
bien. À en juger par les autres oeuvres du meme Dixon que nous
avons vues (d’accord, ce ne sont que des reproductions, il faut
donc se méfier), celui-ci semble être moins mordant dans
les grands formats. …
English translation:
(...) However, there are some discoveries to make, in particular that
of Dixon Mark, from Fredericton in the space Blouin. This one, with its
interlacings of paint and its out of focus effects, explores with as much
dexterity of semi-figurative, semi-abstract spaces than the darling of
Toronto, David Urban also present at the exhibition and which draws less
better. To judge some by other works of same Dixon which we saw (agreed,
they are only reproductions, it is thus necessary to be wary), this one
seems to be less biting in larger formats...
Ray Cronin, "Mark Dixon: New Paintings",
ArtsAtlantic, Summer/Fall 1999.
Mark Dixon is a Fredericton artist who has been consistently questionning
the nature of his chosen medium through exhibitions in the region for
the past few years. His most recent featured paintings that seem, at first
glance, to merit the description of "abstract." He resists that
characterization, choosing to term his works as non-objective. Dixon isn't
trying to portray things in his paintings; rather, he is interested in
evoking and manipulating space. Even more specifically, he is trying to
evoke multiple and conflicting spaces within the illusory space of the
picture plane.
These twenty-one paintings share certain stylistic similarities. Dixon
draws the viewer in by using the traditional illustrative function of
painting to hint at imagery. ln effect, His paintings seem to refer to
something, though just what is undefined. He refers to this suggestive
quality as "fictional forms in fictional spaces." This, though,
could serve as a description of any painting, whether Jackson Pollock's
Lavender Mist or Leonardo Da Vinci's La Giaconda. Dixon is more precise
when he describes what he's after: "What interests me in my recent
paintings is the conflict that is caused by the simultaneous existence
of more than one form of visual language within the same space... What
also interests me is the manipulation of the painting's sense of space."
Of course, it's not the painting's sense of space that is being manipulated,
but the viewers' perception of it. These works reflect an active intelligence;
they are attractive objects and Dixon's use of colour is stylish and not
without a certain nostalgia. Yet the main attraction of such attractive
paintings is the artist's persistent and meticulous questioning of both
his medium and the viewer's perception of if. Dixon's painting is strategic,
containing a conscious conflict that seeks to create the opposite of a
unified painting. He is counting on the viewer's reading the painting
as an illusion, as containing depth.
This act of reading is certainly habitual, it may even be physiological,
and as Dixon and a host of other painters know, it's also predictable.
These untitled oils work best when their internal conflict between illusion
and actuality is at its most tense. Dixon uses subtle shifts in focus
and sudden shifts in style - volumetric vs. flat renditions, illusionistic
space butted against thickly rendered lines that can't be seen any other
way than as paint on canvas. ln the best of these works, the viewer's
reliance on perceptual habits is exposed in the very act of looking at
the paintings. Not content to merely express or portray, Dixon poses questions,
challenging the viewer to look beyond habitual ways of seeing.
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