Mike Bayne. Low Tech

About

The exhibition will travel from New York to our Toronto exhibition space and as a solo presentation at ART TORONTO. 

"In this exhibition I've continued to focus, formally, on small-scale oil paintings that combine the techniques of Dutch sixteenth century realism with the throwaway aesthetic of DIY twenty first century snapshot photography.

I choose not to refer to my work as 'Photorealist' as the scope of that term is too narrow. It usually refers to a group of artists working primarily in the later half of the twentieth century and not the over five hundred year oldtradition of combining photographic tools and oil painting. I prefer the term 'Constructed Realism'. In John Seattle's "'The Construction of Social Reality' he makes the point that though there may be something 'real' beyond social

constructions like language and the limits of human consciousness, we will never know what it is. Similarly, the subjects represented in this exhibition are real only insomuch as they represent a social construction of my own experience.

I work entirely from my own photographs and while in the past this has consisted of images produced by a digital Single Lens Reflex camera, for this exhibition I have chosen to also work from images created using a smartphone. While satisfied with the effects of the SLR, the ubiquity of smart phones and their corny, simplistic photography filters, offer an updated contrast to what was the visual experience centuries ago. And, though it may seem like this is an embrace of current technology, let me assure the viewers of this exhibition that low tech dominates.

Thematically, the constructed reality on view in 'Low Tech', is populated by vernacular architecture, the hand made, the second hand, the cast off, the recently outdated (not yet vintage but no longer current), outmoded styles and things left behind. While not entirely consistent with my focus on the post second world war suburban sprawl of previous exhibitions – there are fewer ranch style bungalows, flagpole signs and eight lane streets – it continues my investigation of the post industrial manufactured landscape and how it shapes twenty first century experience.

Theoretically, I think this exhibition asks questions like: what does it mean when the product of labor intensive craft, like traditional oil painting, has the look of a mass-produced object, like a cell phone photograph? Is it evidence that labor imparts value? It brings to mind Robert Gober's sculpture 'Plywood', a 4'x8' sheet of plywood painstakingly handcrafted by the artist. While, 'Plywood' has the appearance of a regular piece of plywood in all regards, the knowledge that Gober undermines its industrial construction opens the door to a world of metaphorical potential. I think this is what the best art does. Through creation we see the world anew."

-Mike Bayne, 2016