Painting, light

by Sholem Krishtalka

It would be pretty accurate, as brief descriptions go, to characterize Anton Fercher's new Light Paintings at Galerie 418 as an odd little show. This by no means detracts from the quality of the work on the wall; the show is small (consisting of a mere half a dozen pieces) and it's very definitely unusual.

Fercher's output involves drawings done as photo negatives, exposed on photo paper. The results consist of seemingly spontaneous line drawings with gorgeous foggy layers of acrid red, gasoline purple and green backgrounds. They deal with themes of birth and mostly death and are nothing short of strange, in the most wonderful way. Fercher manages to attack weighty, morbid and overused themes with delight and whimsicality; his imaginary graveyard is the happiest one around. At 372 Ste-Catherine W., #418, till Sept. 1.

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