Ian Busher | Process

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Wall Space Gallery is proud to present, Process, a new series of hard-edge, geometric abstract paintings by Ian Busher. Busher balances form and colour in crisp two and three dimensional compositions that hint at everyday moments, objects and emotions. Parred down to squared and rectangular colour blocks, Busher pushes the relationship between visual imagery and the natural desire to assign meaning.

"When you search for a definition of Process online you will find several that all revolve around the same theme; a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end; to perform a series of mechanical or chemical operations on (something) in order to change or preserve it; and to deal with (someone or something) using an official and established procedure.

When conceiving this show at the start of 2024, I had no idea that I would be processing so many personal events at the same time. My wife was badly injured in an accident and we lost a loved one who was very dear to us, all at a time when we were very, very busy. I wanted to use this title because this year has been very much about processing everything that was going on all at once, processing emotions, struggle, and balance while going through the creative process of making new work."
- Ian Busher


The Local Scene, mixed media on panel, 23 x 23 in, framed by the artist


New Beginnings, mixed media on panel, 36 x 24 x 3 in. 

Strategically selected titles, such as Rose, The Local Scene, and Random Access Memory, offer glimpses into the suggested forms and concepts captured by Busher; their meanings slipping between names, physical objects, album titles, and colloquial sayings. Seemingly untethered from a specific theme, the process of meaning making becomes the crux of Busher’s project. Leaning into the failure of ‘pure abstraction’, this body of work playfully acknowledges the impossibility of unassociated colour and shape – even when stripped bare of its form.

"I like to say that abstract paintings answer a question that no one asked. But now that the answer has been revealed, the viewer is left to ponder what the question might have been, and why no one had thought to ask it before. And I don’t want to tell you what kind of reaction I want, I want you to have to think about what questions the work makes you ask yourself."
-Ian Busher


We look forward to welcoming you to the gallery for the vernissage on Saturday, Sept 7 @ 3 - 5 pm, the artist will be in attendance. 
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Born in the suburbs of Toronto, Ian Busher studied at the Ontario College of Art. His education was short lived, when faced with mounting debt, and he quit school to begin working. As a professional carpenter he found himself working in urban and industrial landscapes that I felt compelled to capture with my camera. 

In his photographic work he captured textures and colour; form, line and accidental composition, and printed that work to a two-dimensional surface and framed and mounted it in a number of ways. These explorations led him back to abstract painting full time in a style that is influenced by visits to galleries from his youth: paying homage to abstract expressionism and colour block studies of Mondrian, Rothko and Bush. Using the most basic colours and shapes to attempt to convey emotion, tension, drama, weight and movement, Busher asks the viewer: what do you see in what you do not see?