A local artist is being featured in a new exhibition at Vancouver’s West 7 Studio.
Thomas Anfield, a musician, dancer and painter who is a visual arts instructor at Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, is presenting a solo exhibition of new paintings at the studio from Sept. 15 to 17.
Works from his Invisible Universities, Figures, and Still Lives series will be on display in the exhibition, What Happens When the Figure Keeps Going.
“Investigating tenacity, authenticity and self-expansion, the paintings explore what experience does to us as individuals,” a press release notes.
Anfield’s work as a musician and a dancer influences his work as a painter. He’s accomplished in butoh – a form of Japanese modern dance – and his appreciation of form and figure is evident in his paintings.
“They are vibrant pieces that take up space, challenging the confines of the canvas,” the release says. “The artist’s process of sculpting figures before capturing them with loose brush work results in a physically powerful painting.”
Anfield’s work is described as containing metaphor, allegory and allusion that demand interpretation by the observer.
“I have begun thinking about how and why I drew as a child, how I draw when I ‘doodle’ and what the simple forms are that we relate to,” Anfield says in the press release. “How the placement and deportment of a simple form constitutes and expresses emotion. How we internalize external forces and what shapes and forms we use to re-externalize them in a work of art.”
An opening reception is set for Friday, Sept. 15 from 6 to 10 p.m., and the gallery will be open on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. West 7 Studios is at 14 West Seventh Ave., Vancouver.
See www.thomasanfield.com for more details.
