gordon halloran ice paintings

there is magnificence, tragedy and drama in ice, and canadian creative gordon halloran feels so akin to it that he has created his series paintings below zero using it as a medium. gord believes that his heritage gives him a unique insight into and relationship with this extreme natural material. he sees the beauty in it, which tempers its relentless extremes. gordon found his affinity to ice as a child. he would eagerly create hockey rinks in his backyard only to be disappointed when people would begin to skate on them and ruin the glistening smooth surface. years later as an adult, he visualized entire rinks awash with planes color, and a zamboni as an etching tool. that’s when he began creating his abstract public art installations, and a larger sense of purpose for arenas and parks all over canada.

since gord is asked to do installations around the country (and was also invited to represent his country in the 2006 cultural olympiad at turin), he devised a way to use modular aluminum refrigeration plates in assorted combinations to crate, maintain and move the large works, ensuring their integrity. the installations and paintings alike are an enormous, impressive undertaking, and he uses quite a variety of techniques to create them: airbrushing, pebbling, carving, and creating smaller mosaic pieces in freezers that are later added to the final designs.

gord has also created a series of permanent ice paintings which have been carefully captured in a digital format and reproduced in giclee form. these pieces can be as large as 3′ x 6′ and are developed using a special process that showcases the layering of colors in the ice pieces.

i love the grand scale of these works and how inclusive they are to the general public. and i love the vivid colors he chooses to cut through the intense wintry medium too. his dedication is to be applauded for working in conditions that are not necessarily ideal for creating art.

i am so excited to see the 95 foot long wall of ice (his largest installation to date) that gord will be showcasing here in my city - for the first time anywhere in the us! millenium park will play host to all of it when the museum of modern ice comes roaring in on february 1st, where the installation will remain until it melts february 29th.

look here for more info on this fantastic exhibition, and don’t worry - i plan to write an addendum with actual photos from the park to show you even more after it opens!

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winter moon

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