MARA KORKOLA | MAR PACIFICO

JULY 8, AUGUST 5, 2023

MAR PACIFICO ∼ peaceful sea

In 1519, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, in the employ of Spain, began a journey across the Atlantic Ocean to seek a western route to the Spice Islands via South America.  After braving perilous seas and navigating through what are now known as the Straits of Magellan, his small fleet entered an unfamiliar ocean in November 1520. He called this body of water pacifico, due to the calmness of the water at the time.  When Magellan and his crew entered the Pacific Ocean, they thought that the Spice Islands were close at hand. Little did they know that their destination remained thousands of miles away. The explorers had ventured into the largest ocean on Earth. (mar pacifico ∼ peaceful sea). (NOAA https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/)

ELISSA CRISTALL GALLERY is pleased to invite you to an exhibition of oil paintings by Toronto artist Mara Korkola.

This new collection of paintings reflects on Korkola’s journey through the Gulf Islands to the beaches of Tofino on the west coast of British Columbia. She writes “the more that I’ve travelled, the smaller the world seems, there being only certain ways that land meets water, or a beach feels, or waves roll in.” Thick and sticky with paint, these small-scale oil on panel and oil on aluminum landscapes are direct and tactile. The exhibition continues to August 5, 2023.

“The landscape of our formative years establishes our sense of scale, light, colour and form, and is the landscape we compare all other landscapes to. New places we visit get added like chapters, or addendums, continually broadening the context for entering the next new place.”