Celia Neubauer

> Globe and Mail: R.M. Vaughan mention posted April 20, 2012

> ArtSync Interview

> Now Magazine Must-See-Shows

> Plaid Magazine Interview, April 4, 2012

> Toronto Standard Review

Celia Neubauer is a Toronto-based painter whose interests in historical tradition has been a major influence both stylistically and conceptually. Neubauer’s landscapes reflect a modernity that bridge both figurative realism and formal abstraction. Neubauer has received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at York University and earned a Higher Diploma at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, England and has exhibited her work internationally. Her work is included in the collections of BMO Financial Group, Canada Life, Four Seasons, Dubai, the Donovan Collection Toronto, Hewlett – Packard Canada Ltd., Live Entertainment of Canada Inc., Art Gallery of Mississauga, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Board, Tory Tory DesLauriers & Binnington, Toronto and many private collections. She has taught at Queen’s University, Kingston; the University of Guelph; the University of Toronto School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and is presently teaching painting and drawing at Toronto School of Art. Neubauer’s paintings have been featured in various publications such as Abstract Painting in Canada, House and Home and Carte Blanche 2: Painting.

click on image to view larger

As the Scene Unfolds: Recent Paintings by Celia Neubauer

Text by: Shannon Anderson, Writer/Curator

Celia Neubauer’s paintings begin with relatively tranquil landscape scenes that become interrupted by flowing layers of stark forms and vivid colours. By conjoining these two divergent approaches, the paintings in the exhibition Exit, Enter contain a particular type of energy that holds viewers at full attention.

The circular openings that recur in Neubauer’s paintings reference the “moon gate” passageways commonly incorporated into Chinese gardens. Apertures are key elements of these garden designs, where points of exit and entry, and windows into particular scenes or viewing angles, are given much consideration. Neubauer adopts this aspect by orchestrating particular views of her garden scenes, letting their initial composition dictate the overall direction of her painting in terms of which elements of the scene eventually become obscured from view.

In these recent works, Neubauer has adopted Photoshop tools to generate the morphed forms that push across her canvases. Using found imagery from magazines and media, often of brilliantly coloured or lushly textured objects, she renders the original sources unrecognizable through a warping tool that allows her to craft new forms. The overall shapes are applied through handmade stencils that divide the canvas into hard-edged planes and then the computerized forms are reinterpreted in paint. A digital aesthetic is still recognizable in the final product, creating a palpable tension between the loose brushwork of the landscapes and the more calculated approach to the abstract forms that break their surfaces.

In her deft blend of murky, softly rendered garden views and graphic overlays, Neubauer consistently presents the viewer with contrasting configurations that refuse to allow the eye to settle in any one location. In this sense, they are not unlike the canvases of American painter Charline von Heyl. Writer Kristy Bell notes of von Heyl’s works that “the spatial leaps, false starts and abrupt changes of direction or mood in these paintings create a sense of questioning and instability that keeps the viewer alert.” In the process of absorbing Neubauer’s scenes, the eye is constantly flitting back and forth between the tranquil and the vibrant, between that which is loosely rendered and that which borders on sharp-edged graphic design. In addition to von Heyl, Neubauer has noted the influence of American painter Pat Steir in terms of her incorporation of historical influences, mainly traditional Asian painting, in her equally dynamic arrangements.

Neubauer describes her own paint technique as an unfolding of forms, similar to the action of manipulating swaths of fabric. The paintings in Exit, Enter are notable for their cut-and-paste aesthetic, one that integrates diverse, almost paradoxical techniques. As a contemporary take on collage, these works pair a richly historical painting tradition with a current digital technique, creating singular compositions that continually move the viewer within, around and between these two worlds.

Celia Neubauer CV

Selected solo exhibitions
2012         Exit, Enter, General Hardware Contemporary, Toronto Canada, March 24

2010        Qi, Mayberry Fine Art, Winnipeg, MB
2008        Qi, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
2007        Tou, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
2005        Fusion, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
2003        Continental Drift, Visual Arts Centre of Clarington, Bowmanville, Ontario
Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
2001        Heavens Burning, Drabinsky Gallery, Ontario
2000        Sweep, Leo Kamen Gallery, Ontario
1997        New Works, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
1995        Remains, Drabinsky & Friedland Galleries, Toronto
1994        Still of Night, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
1992        New Paintings, Lake Galleries, Toronto
1990        Slade School of Fine Art, London, England
1986        Hamilton Artist’s Inc., Hamilton, Ontario

Selected group exhibitions
2012         Tales of Tomorrow, Joe Fleming and Celia Neubauer, Taksu Gallery, Singapore May 3

2010        ”Taking Shape”, General Hardware Contemporary, Toronto
“Homecoming”, Mayberry Fine Art, Winnipeg, MB
“Deep Summer”, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
2005        Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
2004        Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
2002        Holiday Paper, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
2001        Present, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
2000        Gifted, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
1999        Searching for the Sublime, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario
1998        Leo Kamen, Toronto
1997        Loving the Alien, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Toronto
Selected Drawings, Van Straaten Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1995        Choices, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
1994        Curator’s Choice, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto
1992        Chicago International Art Exposition, Chicago Illinois
1991        Young Artists, Lake Galleries, Toronto
1987        Hamilton Artist’s Inc., Hamilton, Ontario
I.D.A. Gallery, York University, Toronto
1986        I.D.A. Gallery, York University, Toronto

Grants and Award
1999        Ontario Arts Council
1998        Ontario Arts Council
1986        Heinz Jordan Scholarship, York University

Visiting artist
Dundas Valley School of Art, Dundas On (2006, 1996)
Toronto School of Art, Toronto, (2004, 1996)
Georgina Collage, Barrie, Ontario (1998)
Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, (1996).

Professional training
1988 – 90  Higher Diploma, Slade School of Fine Art, London, England
1986 – 88  Advanced Studies, Dundas Valley School of Art, Dundas, Ontario
1986         Bachelor of Fine Arts, Honours, York University, Toronto

Selected essays and reviews
Magenta Foundation, Carte Blanche, Volume 2: Paintings, 2008
Peter Goddard, The Toronto Star, April 23, 2005
Betty Ann Jordan, Toronto Life, July 2003.
Margaret Rogers, “A Georgrahpy of Imagination”, November 2002 (exhibition brochure)
Earl Miller, d’Art, Volume 3, no. 2, (Fall 2000)
Stuart Reid, Lola, No.6, Summer 2000
Donald Brackett and Linda Jansma, “Searching for the Sublime:
Recent Works of Celia Neubauer and Sara Nind”
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario (exhibition brochure)
Donald Brackett, The Globe and Mail, March 31, 1999
Gary Michael Dault, “The Body Comes Alive in Mississauga Gallery”, The Globe & Mail, 1997
Stuart Reid, “Loving the Alien”, September, 1997 (exhibition brochure)
Gillian MacKay, The Globe and Mail, Gallery Going, May 31, 1997
Donald Brackett, Toronto Life, Volume 30, no. 9, June 1997
Donald Brackett, Canadian Art, Mixed Media, Volume 12, no.4, (Winter 1995)
Donald Brackett, CJRT FM, On the Arts, October, 1995
Canadian Art, Fast Forward, Volume 12, no. 3, (Fall 1995)
Donald Brackett, Toronto Life, October 1995
Lisa Balfour Bowen, “ A Blockbuster Year…..”, Sunday Magazine, The Toronto Sun, 1995
Christopher Hume, “Over the Moon”, The Toronto Star, April 28, 1994
Megan Mueller, “The Still of Night”, Artfocus 2, (Summer 1994)
Kate Taylor, “From the Mythic to the Obsolescent”, The Globe and Mail, June 9, 1992
Kate Taylor, “ Engaging as These Artists…”, The Globe and Mail, August 23, 1991
Christopher Hume, “Young and Restless”, The Toronto Star, August 16, 1991

Collections
Canada Life, Four Seasons , Hewlett – Packard Canada Ltd., Live Entertainment of Canada Inc., Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Board,
Tory Tory DesLauriers & Binnington, Toronto