Effluent

the long version

EFFLUENT brings together selected works by 10 members of eyelevelgallery. Although a variety of media are represented, the exhibitions centers around painting and sculpture, reflecting two areas of critical focus among Halifax artists. Many of the pieces are unusual in their unabashed choice of subject matter, but all of them sustain sophisticated dialogues between practices, exhibiting a self-awareness that reflects the rigorous conceptual background shared by most of the artists in the show. The pieces in this exhibition perhaps also speak of the rigors of life as a young artist in one of Canada's least affluent regions, where there are few opportunities, period, let alone for artists. There is an intensity about much of the work, a grace under pressure that has as much to do with making the most of severely limited means as it does with the kind of communal intelligence generated by the current scene in Halifax.