Donald Andrus
The Shape of Desire
The art of Donald Andrus defies categorization. Although principally known for his abstract paintings, Andrus has, throughout his career, combined his first love — drawing — with a deep engagement with colour, a desire for experimentation, a keen interest in the physical qualities of his materials, and the sensory experience of the viewer.
Donald Andrus: The Shape of Desire brings together four major essays, including one by the artist, and more than eighty full-colour reproductions to assess a body of work that extends from abstract paintings to portraits. Roslyn Rosenfeld writes about Andrus’s early abstract work, Ihor Holubizky considers Andrus’s portraits, and Pan Wendt revisits Andrus’s contemporary abstract paintings. Taken together, the essays and images take full measure of the entirety of Andrus’s career and influences — from the landscapes of Greece and the poetry of George Seferis to the cinematic works of Andrei Tarkovsky and the pioneering work of contemporary German artists Gerhard Richter and Anselm Kiefer.
Donald Andrus has been painting for over thirty-five years. His work has been exhibited at galleries and museums throughout Canada and may be found in both private and public collections. He has previously worked as a curator at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, as a lecturer at the University of New Brunswick, and as a professor of art history at Concordia University. Andrus now lives and works in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
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“As a book dedicated to an artist, it’s a very fine examination of his work, his life, and his impact on art and artistry.” — Miramichi Reader
Ihor Holubizky is an art historian and senior curator, He has held several public gallery curatorial positions, including curator at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Since then, he has held the position of the curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia, and the Art Museum at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane.
Pan Wendt has been Curator of the Confederation Centre Art Gallery since 2010. Previously a freelance curator and critic, he has written for journals such as C Magazine, Fillip, and Arts Atlantic, as well as numerous catalogue and critical essays. His curated exhibitions include James Lee Byar: Letters from the World’s Most Famous Unknown Artist (2004, Mass MoCA); Colleen Wolstenholme: A Divided Room (2007, Confederation Centre Art Gallery); Funkaesthetics (2008, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery); Free Parking, Quotation, and Hank Bull: Connexion (2011, 2013, and 2015, Confederation Centre Art Gallery).
Roslyn Rosenfeld taught art history for a dozen years at the Saint John and Fredericton campuses of the University of New Brunswick. She has published reviews in Fuse and over forty reviews and features in ArtsAtlantic and has curated or written essays for eighteen exhibitions. She is the author of the award-winning monograph, Lucy Jarvis: Even Stones Have Life.
