6-11 December, 2016
We Will Return Your Call
Gaël Patino
Opening on Friday 9 December (3-7 pm)
We Will Return Your Call is a body of work inspired by my travels in the world of call centers and office environments, a world which has the reputation to be empty. In fact, it is not empty at all. It is a world filled with emotions, spiritual forces and sublime moments. It is felt in the white noise of a phone call, in the recorded messages on voicemail, in the power of the neon lights on the ceiling, in the filtered air, in its code of conduct and performance benchmarks. I admit, it is a world harder to connect with, but once the connection has been made, its spirits reveal themselves to you.
As my greatest goal is to incorporate art in the everyday life, I first showed these pieces in the original environment which inspired them – the office. People that were not used to art, were now suddenly surrounded by it. This act democratized the presentation of art, speaking directly to those who these pieces were made for.
Gaël Patino works with both traditional and digital media. A native from Montreal, his work focuses on subjects that blur the line between reality and dreams. It is inspired by mythology, Gods and Heroes and the virtual and artificial environments of video games, malls and offices. His work is a medium for transmuting reality, with the goal of promoting awareness of the sublime of everyday life.
His work is held in both public and private collections in Montreal and Toronto.
