Diaz Contemporary is pleased to present new work by John Eisler with foil opening Saturday 6 June and continuing until July 11. With this exhibition, comprising small canvases and large, unstretched works, Eisler forwards painting as a cumulation of distinct enactments upon a surface, where gesture might be understood as a layer as opposed to a brushstroke, and form as a physical impression rather than a document of proportion.
Despite differing vastly in scale, Eisler’s unstretched works and smaller canvases sit in compositional discussion with one another. While the smaller canvases operate within a more conventional approach to geometric abstraction, they also present as formalized studies or experiments for Eisler’s looser, and temporally invested, stained unstretched canvases, painted on the floor.
An unceasing sense of physicality permeates the work -- Eisler is known for folding, staining, distressing and perforating his surfaces -- culminating in complex tableaux that record a profusion of gestures and intersecting patterns. With a resolute return to bold colour, a move away from past accords to symmetry, and the less formal presentation as draped canvas, Eisler proffers an active surface in a constant state of becoming.
John Eisler completed his MFA at the University of Guelph, 2008. He received his BFA from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 1997, with a concentration in painting. He has had a number of solo exhibitions at Paul Kuhn Fine Arts in Calgary, including: Fountain (2013) and Calendar (2006). Recent group exhibitions include: More Than Two (Let it Make Itself) at the Power Plant in Toronto (2013); 60 Painters at Humber Arts and Media Studios in Toronto (2012); softcare Hard edge at East and Peggy Phelps Galleries in Claremont, CA and the Art Gallery of Calgary (2011,2010); 2x2 at the Keyano Art Gallery in Fort McMurray in Alberta (2007). His works are held in the collections of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, TD Bank Group, as well as numerous private collections. In April of 2015 Eisler participated in a month-long residency at the SIM Residency, at the Association of Icelandic Visual Artists in Iceland.
  
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