This Kind of Wilderness

Shawn Serfas is presenting a new body of work pushing the edges of abstraction in the exhibition at the Vernon Public Art Gallery. The large scale paintings are not only stunning to see at a glance, but with closer examination, the surfaces are extremely textural. Serfas added additional 3D elements built from pigmented polymer resin. The viewer is faced with the paradox of viewing 3D structures built on presumptively two-dimensional surfaces. Despite the abstract quality of Serfas’ paintings, there are obviously hints of narratives mostly implied in the paintings’ titles which serve as an entry point to invoke possible associations.