Lee Nielsen’s paintings explore the socio-economic implications of our daily lives.

DETAILS

Signal to Noise by Lee Nielsen
Weiss Gallery
Thursday, March 11 - Wednesday, March 31

More in: Visual Arts

Inspired by dissatisfaction, local artist Lee Nielsen’s exhibition at The Weiss Gallery, Signal to Noise, creates a captivating concoction of art and social commentary.

“I like sort of dissecting systems and taking icons and images that represent certain ideas, and putting them together in ways that they don’t necessarily seem to fit,” says Nielsen, who graduated with a bachelor of fine arts from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2008.

Nielsen views his paintings, predominantly oil on panel, as a method of expressing his dissatisfaction towards current social situations in a way that resonates with viewers. This stems from a personal interest in politics and the way social and economic systems interact.

“I don’t have a very particular bone to pick, just little things that irk me here and there, like really excessive, blatant consumerism for no particular reason, or excessive corporate policy-making that has little or no relationship to the social world,” says Nielsen.

“I see my work as sort of articulating the condition we find ourselves in.”

The exhibition mixes the contrasting fields of science and art — the title is an electrical engineering term for measuring the strength of a signal.

“You can take the signal-to-noise ratio and apply it to all kinds of different fields,” says Neilson, comparing the term to his paintings, which blend his view of the world with its current socio-economic state.

Those desaturated, monochromatic paintings are subtly eerie. The composition of elements creates a thought-provoking visual feast of contrasting imagery for the viewer, and successfully conveys Nielsen’s underlying message of dissatisfaction.

Displaying his paintings in a public venue allows Nielsen to view his work in a slightly removed manner. It gives him perspective. “I can see the work more objectively and when I do that, I can find out what’s working and what isn’t,” he says.

The greatest challenge for Nielsen is transforming an idea into a concrete image that will correlate with the viewer’s perception of the intended concept. Without concept, he believes art becomes nothing more than a technical exercise.

“The fulfilling part comes in feeling like I’ve accomplished something or even communicating an idea in a way people can relate to. When people really pick up on that, that’s just great, because then I know that it’s functioning the way I want it to,” he says.

Aside from oil painting — his favoured medium — Nielsen plans to venture further into the realm of photography, learning how to corrupt digital images by editing the code within a photograph. If this process yields interesting results, he plans to use them as source material for future paintings.

In order to expand his artistic scope, Nielsen has also branched into music. He has been working with sound and electronic instruments as a method of expressing the concept behind his paintings, to discover how well those ideas translate to another medium.

For Nielsen, the artistic process is ever-expanding. “I want to keep exploring and keep pushing things. With every subsequent body of work that I make, it takes me somewhere and inspires ideas for another body of work,” he says.