Currently on show at the gallery Espace Robert Poulin is the Montreal artist Zoltan Veevaete.

This survey of Veevaete’s work reveal his influences – Dali, Velasquez, Goya, Pablo Picasso, and Georges Braque – which blend seamlessly with his own style to create a body of work that is a contemporary narrative with recognizable motifs.

As a self-taught artist, Veevaete began his foray into visual expression as a graffiti artist and muralist. Fuelled by his passion for the classical arts, he moved to Spain for two years in order to fully study and appreciate the influence of the classical painters on modern art. Influences which range from Impressionism, Cubism, Dadaism, to Abstraction can clearly be seen in his work.

Upon his return to Montreal, Veevaete graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor degree in Fine Art in 2010 and was awarded the Cecil Buller-John/J.A. Murphy Scholarship Award in Drawing. With these accomplishments under his belt, the artist has continued in his creative processed to produce a vision with a host of colourful characters to play with.

In some of his earlier work in 2011, the artist examined the human condition through a host of characters caught up in the relational interplay between people of various backgrounds in a variety of situations. The viewer is witness to the effects that poverty could have on interpersonal relationships of couples and the family dynamic. Veevaete demonstrated this with elaborate street scenes in which people are living in questionable situations tinged with despair, violence and isolation.

In some of his other work the artist focused on the frivolity of the rich as they live a life of insignificant drama and conspicuous consumption, as depicted in his series “Heavy Gold”.

There was also the exploration of sexual perversion as in his series of paintings entitled “Adam & Ève” in which the viewer becomes privy to very personal representations of moral themes and sado-masochist tendencies.

In his most recent series entitled “Dumbed” (2012), Veevaete explores the underbelly of society by presenting a host of new characters that are victims of socio-economic demise and circumstance. This series is populated by images of people picking through garbage, scavenging for items and merely trying to survive.

Veervaete work is challenging and powerful and speaks to his full understanding of the creative process of the late masters and his ability to anchor his vision fully in the present.

Espace Robert Poulin, space 411
Marc Leduc et Zoltan Veervaete
December 17, 2012 – February 9, 2013
www.espacerobertpoulin.com