Hungry Eyes

The exhibition Hungry Eyes arose from the observation that contemporary abstract painting feeds on a great variety of sources, histories, and influences. Abandoning the restrictive diets of mid-century formalism, current abstraction tucks in with gusto, absorbing all manner of things into the infinitely mutable space of the canvas. Hungry Eyes drew attention to the work of eight early- to mid-career painters in New York and Toronto: Jordan Broadworth, Paul Campbell, Steven Charles, Jane Fine, Elizabeth McIntosh, Julie Sass, David Urban and Dan Walsh. Guest curator Monica Tap is also a painter whose practice is located along the interface of abstraction and representation. Her lively and informed commentary on recent abstraction was published in the accompanying illustrated catalogue. The exhibition was generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Culture Division of the NS Department of Tourism and Culture, and Ideas Canada Foundation. Hungry Eyes was presented as part of the Halifax-wide forum "About Painting" which took place in the fall of 2002.