Landscapes of Conveyance

In 2019, Peer Christensen and his wife Lori were invited to travel aboard the Algoma Harvester on a five-day journey through the St. Lawrence Seaway, from the Welland Canal to Port Cartier, which inspired the body of work included in Landscapes of Conveyance. These paintings step well beyond anything preceding them in Christensen’s practice, in both content and method. They reflect the powerful impact of his journey through the Seaway, aboard the Harvester, from his experience witnessing a vessel from the inside out, on the deck, observing those labouring on its journey, hearing their conversations, marvelling at their technical acumen, learning their reality and finding the light to express it.

In Landscapes of Conveyance, Peer Christensen engages an industrial interest in transportation technology. He reveres the beauty of necessity that is implicit in manufacturing. Yet even his densest, most gritty, urban landscapes are reluctant to reveal a human presence. And though wild nature is never his topic, Christensen’s attention to light ensures that intruding floral spaces, trees, fields, hillsides, beaches, night or day, are set against a carefully realized sky ? sun-draping, misty, shaded, cloud-bound, moon or lamp-lit, and even black. One is never in doubt that Christensen understands melancholy, loneliness, peace and tranquility, the grace and delicacy and power of land and river, lake and sea.

This exhibition has been presented in part with support from George Ripoll, BMO Private Wealth