Earlier this week I stumbled into Angell Gallery, near Queen and Crawford, to find the latest work of local Toronto artist Alex McLeod and New York based artist Michael De Feo. The two, though both working in a two-dimensional framework, take an entirely different and unique approach to the idea of painting.

McLeod uses digital rendering software to create his type of “digital painting”; he creates fantasy worlds that are meant to rouse feelings of recycled matter while hinting at the objects interconnectedness at the molecular level. You can see this influence in his piece City Flicker Stars, there is a cyclical quality to the work as water and skulls are ejected from a partial visible geyser. In a way it seems the city is returning to a more natural order. The fluidic shapes of the water contrast the harsh right angles of the buildings that are being engulfed. The cycle is completed when the passively floating cloud mimics both the shape of the water and the color of the buildings closing the cycle and creating the circle.

Michael De Feo takes a radically different approach to painting by using more “traditional” material in untraditional ways. Well known as a street artist, De Feo continues to reference this integral part of his life by continuing to use maps as his canvas. Now, however, he has begun to mount them on board and canvas, a reflection of the gallery world he has become a part of. His self-portraits are emotionally charged as he allows the paint to follow in drips covering his face. The portraits give the feeling of lost of self, the melting away of the old to eventually reveal the new. Although in this series the new has yet to appear, as I feel the artist is still trying to discard the masks of the past.

The show runs until August 29th, for information about Angell Gallery visit their website at:

www.angellgalery.com