FACEBITOR — The Untimely Transmogrification of the Problem by Chris Millar

Calgary painter Chris Millar was awarded second prize $15,000 in the RBC Canadian Painting Competition in Toronto last week. His work, FACEBITOR — The Untimely Transmogrification of the Problem is a densely layered narrative painting. His cartoon-like figures and glossy paint make for a bright scene of debauchery and despair. The all-over coverage of the canvas crammed with figures and scenes manages to strangely, simultaneously evoke comics and Indian miniature painting. He says it’s “the first work of art to combine Norwegian black metal together with alternative dentistry.” The painting joins the work of Vancouver artist Arabella Campbell and Melanie Authier in the RBC corporate art collection. “Imagine bankers taking a break from their daily grind and delving into the realms of my totally nonsensical painting,” Millar remarks.

“FACEBITOR is controversial because it pushes the boundaries of painting. This happens literally because of all the little sculptural bits that I build out of paint and attach off the edges of the canvas,” he says. Not to mention ripping open the tight ass of good taste with fantastical abandon: the work crams satanic death metal church burnings, a soft-core nude leprechaun decked out in green fetish wear, and a devil-woman “femmefisto” who spars naked with Norse god Odin onto the mid-size canvas. He also calls the first-prize work by Campbell a controversial one, because it’s an almost purely conceptual exercise. Indeed, the sensitive minimal painting Physical Facts Series #6 depicts the back of a canvas stretcher and is the complete opposite of Millar’s esthetic.

Millar is one of several Calgary artists selected as part of the nationwide competition since its inception in 1998. Local painting duo Dave + Jenn, Chris Bennett and ex-pat Patrick Lundeen, among others, have traveled to Toronto for the fete and feeding frenzy of collectors and patrons of the arts. In addition to a chance at the cash, the opening receptions also provide a time for artists to meet the folks who are so eager to add works by emerging Canadian artists to their collections: even though Millar lost out on the big money when he was short listed in 2005, his work was purchased by an avid private collector of Joe Coleman and other wacky painters. The opportunity was definitive step to becoming more widely known. This year, bringing home the big cheque for 15 grand is icing on the cake for Millar, as he also recently returned from a summer residency at Three Walls artist-run centre in Chicago.

What’s next for the prolific painter of dastardly scenes? “I’m really looking forward to cutting back my hours at the cracker factory,” where he has been working as chief superintendent of cracker salting since 1992. Works in Millar’s wacky oeuvre will be on view at Trepanier Baer Gallery in January 2008.