Landscapes of Light: Painting by Dennis Ekstedt
Painter Dennis Ekstedt looks specifically at man-made lights, creating landscapes of light on dark, enveloping backgrounds. In some of the artist’s more recent works, the paintings develop beyond the expected grid-like structure of city lights, forming castles and fortresses of shining points.
In our previous feature, Dennis’ paintings of cities at night seemed to reference real places, taking on the structure and feeling of an expansive city seen from an airplane window at night. His latest works transport the viewer to a new and dream-like location, where rather than individual lights representing structures and buildings, it seems as though palatial buildings are constructed out of pure light.
I really enjoy the ghostly look that Dennis is able to achieve through his painting techniques, where each point of light spreads out and seems to fade the black background of the painting to a lighter grey. Entire areas of light seem to mesh together into a hazy but tangible fabric. Dennis’ solo exhibition, Lodestar, is currently showing at the Eleanor London Côte Saint-Luc Public Library Gallery in Montreal, Quebec from January 21 to March 20, 2016. The opening is on Thursday, January 21 at 7 p.m.
