The Peninsula Series

Paintings by Drew Harris

Curated by Sergio Gomez

SergioGomezCurates.net is pleased to announce a solo exhibition project by Canadian artist Drew Harris. This exhibition will be presented exclusively online as a virtual reality experience where visitors will be able to navigate online as if walking through a physical art gallery.

Internationally renowned Canadian artist Drew Harris is considered one of the most recognized artists in North America and in Malaysia. Two simultaneous shows of his work opening on May 21st at Art Central Hong Kong by representative Cecilia Koo and online through Chicago curator Sergio Gomez (sergiogomezcurates.net) will give art lovers a chance to see his new series of work, The Peninsula Series 2020-2021.

Harris has worked and lived in Petaling Jaya Malaysia since 2006, and married to local artist and Educator, Sharifah Mazwari. Harris has been a fixture in the art scene in Malaysia since 1993 when he and Singaporean Art Dealer Suherwan Abu created and opened Taksu KL, a contemporary art gallery that showcased Harris’s work exclusively for 17 years.

Harris has been instrumental in changing the Malaysian art scene, particularly in terms of abstraction, influenced by the contemporary artists such as Franz Kline, Mark Rothko and Willem DeKooning and subsequently, introducing contemporary abstraction to collectors and art institutions in Malaysia in the early 90’s to present day.

Harris’s work is in the finest collections in Malaysia, and in many corporate and private collections globally.

Virtual Reality Exhibition

Curatorial Statement

To approach the work of Drew Harris is to peek at the heart of humanity, confront the physicality of our world, and get a glimpse at the soul of our collective experience. His paintings exist in a complex construct of tension, beauty, chaos, control, storm and calmness; all coexisting side by side. To trace the work of Drew Harris across time is to observe his devotion to painting as an act of respect for life and a way to assimilate the constantly changing world.

I first came face to face with Drew’s paintings at a Chicago art gallery while I was an art student many years ago. His work made a lasting impression in my early career development. Twenty years later and as a professional artist and curator, I met Drew for the very first time as a result of a social media post. Over the last few months, and after many conversations across continents, we’ve come together to create this online exhibition.

I am extremely honored to present The Peninsula Series created by an artist I admired as a student, and now consider a colleague and a friend.

Sergio Gomez, Curator

The Peninsula Series 2020-2021
Selected works

The Peninsula Series came about after many long months reminiscing of travel and of home, on the Bruce Peninsula, and home here, in Peninsular Malaysia where I operate a studio far from the country of my birth.

As an abstractionist, previous series works have been, for the most part, inspired by our environment and weather related elements such as The Fragile Earth Series 2012, The Weather Works, 2006, The Doppler Series 2007 and a continuation of all these series works throughout 2013 to 2021

My inspiration coming from a form of, or the suggestion of an emotional angle rather than a specifically painted landscape or intention, however, in this new 2020 series entitled the Peninsula Series, the work began taking on the landscape as never before in my works.

My intention in creating these works was to reflect, and perhaps travel home in my mind’s eye. The colours, composition and reference to places near to where I grew up appear in the works, albeit, subtly, but none-the-less, the works became my visual journal of 2020, a year in which few of us were able to travel, home, or abroad.

Drew Harris, Artist
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Acknowledgements

Special thanks goes out to Sergio Gomez and Dr Yanina Gomez for opening up what was essentially, a “closed for a pandemic” world. Their Art Next Level Program and the very individuals they attract and help educate has opened up a myriad of potential for me, and has inspired and motivated many like me to take up the challenge that provides value to our work through a number of technological and social media channels.

I simply cannot thank them enough for his advice, the friendship and the curatorial and spiritual insight.

To my wife Sher, my family and friends across Canada and the world, thank you.