Surreal subversions

by SHOLEM KRISHTALKA

Most painters nowadays tend to turn away from the old idea that a painting acts as a two-dimensional window into a three-dimensional world. Those who decide to embrace this idea have a problem on their hands: how to embrace an old idea and make something fresh come out of it? Nestor Kruger, with his new show Misfit at the Optica Gallery has done just that.

The show consists of flat, black and white wall paintings of interiors--specifically that of the Optica Gallery space superimposed on the interior of Halifax's Eye Level gallery. This is not a classical painting show; Kruger denies the sensuous hand-painted surface in favour of a hard-edged, geometric feel that makes obvious reference to his computer-generated source material. The result is fantastic: surreal, involving trompe-l'oeil, which subverts all notions of structure and space. At 372 Ste-Catherine W., #508, until Dec. 9.

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