Ian Busher | Process
Sept 14 - 28
Reception + Artist Talk: Saturday, September 14 @ 3 - 5 pm. Artist talk begins @ 3:30

RSVP your attendance to responses@wallspacegallery.ca

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. Pared down to squared and rectangular colour blocks Busher pushes the relationship between visual imagery and the natural desire to assign meaning.

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.

"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 to achieve a
particular end; to perform a series of mechanical or chemical operations to
change or preserve something; to deal with someone or something using an
official and established procedure.

- Ian Busher

Process introduces 3D paneled paintings into Busher’s lexicon of abstraction. Pieces like Finding Your Way and Polynucleotide protrude from the wall like cubic topographies. The varied depths of their planes and incongruent edges appear like building blocks; segments of information combining into a greater whole like strands of DNA or the construction of a map. Their sculptural presence places physical space in competition with the illusion of space within his two dimensional works.

I always enjoy when a word can mean more than one thing based on how it is used, just as an artist’s materials can become so many things, depending on how they are used. To summarize the definitions above, this show is called Process because making my work is a process for me, and digesting the work as the viewer is a process.

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. This title reflects how this year has been about processing everything that was going on all at once; emotions, struggle, and balance while going through the creative process of making new work.

- Ian Busher

My return to painting abstraction pays homage to Abstract Expressionism and colour block studies; using pure colour and shape to attempt to convey emotion, tension, drama, weight and movement. Three works are an experiment in adding sculptural dimension and depth to the work.

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. I don’t want to dictate a reaction, I want you to have to think about what questions the work raises for you.

The pull between the illusionary and the real across this body of works – combined with the slippery multitude of possible readings – emphasizes the flexible nature of how we categorize information and assemble it into resonant references; whether it be memories, friends’ faces, or the hopeful feelings of things to come.

- Tiffany April, Curator

We look forward to welcoming you for the reception on Saturday, September 14 @ 3 - 5 pm. The artist will be in attendance and giving an artist talk at 3:30 pm. Please RSVP your attendance to responses@wallspacegallery.ca

Ian Busher | Process

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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?