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Colorful Lights Landscapes: Dennis Ekstedt New Quest - Artcentron
Tuesday 19th March 2024,

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    Colorful Lights Landscapes: Dennis Ekstedt New Quest

    posted by ARTCENTRON
    Colorful Lights Landscapes: Dennis Ekstedt New Quest

    A galaxy or a landscape. Colorful light paintings by Dennis Ekstedt provide a different look at the human population and landscapes. Image: Dennis Ekstedt

    Dennis Ekstedt uses colorful lights to tell stories of the uncontrolled growth of human habitation and capture massive landscapes.

    BY KAZAD

    MONTREAL, CANADA – The first time you see Dennis Ekstedt’s paintings, they will remind you of those beautiful colorful lights over massive landscapes you see as the airplane approaches the runway.  Those colorful lights are a fascination for Dennis Ekstedt. “I have long been intrigued by how networks of lights can physically mark a landscape,” he said.  

    However, Ekstedt’s enthrallment for colorful lights is not just because of aesthetics but also what they represent: human populations. In his recent paintings, Dennis Ekstedt depicts human populations as web-like networks of light particles spun over the landscape.  The artist investigates the movement and migration representing the uncontrolled growth of human habitation on the global landscape with these recent paintings.

    Ekstedt’s investigation follows the path of many environmental scientists. The issues of migration, population explosion, and expanding human habitat have been the focus of environmentalists for several years. At the core of their concerns is how deforestation and environmental pollution are contributing to climate change. Despite climate change denials, the effects of deforestation and polluting are already obvious across the globe. Draughts, flooding, forest fires, and tropical storm are now more rampant. The consequence of those environmental disasters is migration, which is stressing already depleted resources.

    Dennis Ekstedt’s paintings serve as warnings that if left unchecked, an explosion in human habitation could lead to a catastrophe.

    Colorful lights with a big black hole in Abys by Dennis Ekstedt
    Dennis Ekstedt, Abyss, oil on canvas, 52 x 56 inches, 2019. Image: Artist

    Ominous Future

    In Abyss, Ekstedt paints a beautiful yet ominous future.  In the center of the painting with a scheme of blue colorful lights accentuated by white and orange dots is a big black hole.  What is this hole? Is this the black hole that will swallow everything after man has destroyed the environment? Whichever way it is viewed, this 3-dimensional hole is threatening.  

    Celebrating Colorful Lights

    But Dennis Ekstedt’s paintings are not just about dreadful events.  Instead of just highlighting the negative aspect of man’s destruction of the environment, the artist finds a positive angle.  Some of his new paintings depict masses of people engaging in spectacle, celebration, and ritual. They are represented by particles of colorful lights meandering through space. In this category is the series on Burning Man.

    Burning Man # 1, one of the colorful lights painting by Dennis Ekstedt
    Dennis Ekstedt, Burning Man. Oil on canvas, 60 x 66 inches, 2011. Image: Artists

    Burning Man 1 has bright lights of yellow, orange, and white. Together, the colors are like fires from tiki torches. The clever composition guides the viewer from the foreground to the middle ground and the horizon where there is a burst of white and yellow flames.

    Burning Man 1 is mimetic of an event of the same title. The annual Burning Man event is a nine-day gathering in the Nevada desert. It brings together thousands of people from across the globe for festivities. Top activities include artistic performance, installations, music, and endless parties.  The event usually ends with the burning of the Temple Galaxia, a 65-foot wooden structure. The structure represents how all living beings are connected.

    A Walk Through the Milky Way

    Viewing the collection of Dennis Ekstedt’s paintings is like walking through the Milky Way Galaxy. There is movement, color, and beauty. Ekstedt’s galaxies comprise glowing dots, particles, and dust floating through space with synchronized discipline. Red, orange, green, blue, and dots of indescribable colors undulate and coalesce in an unpredictable yet amazing beauty in these paintings.

    There is a spiritual element to Ekstedt’s paintings. Some paintings resemble a schematic plan illustrating a kind of celestial order.  Every color and shape is delicately arranged to enhance overall aesthetics. The luminous jewel-like dotes move seamlessly through space and time as if choreographed by some celestial being.

    About the Artist

    Dennis Ekstedt lives and works in Montreal, Canada. An award-winning painter, he was the winner of the Eastern Canada RBC Canadian Painting Competition in 2020. Ekstedt got his Diploma in Fine Arts in 1986 from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C and his M.F.A in 1993 from Concordia University in Montreal. His paintings are in many public, corporate and private collections.

    The artist regularly exhibits his works in galleries across Canada. Ekstedt has received numerous artist grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec. His work is in Carte Blanche Vol 2-Painting (2008) and The RBC Painting Competition: 10 years (2008). Herringer Kiss Gallery in Calgary, Alberta represents Dennis Ekstedt.

    What do you think about Dennis Ekstedt’s paintings? Join the conversation. Share your thoughts.

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