Krisjanis Kaktins-Gorsline

Canadian, b. 1980

need eep, 2006

oil on birch plywood

76.2 x 61 cm

Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery; Acquired with funds from the Estate of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Naylor and with funds from the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance program/Oeuvre achetée avec l’aide du programme d’aide aux acquisitions du Conseil des Arts du Canada

2007-78

Categories:

Painting, Canadian Contemporary (1980-present)

A graduate of the University of Manitoba’s School of Art and Columbia University, Krisjanis Kaktins-Gorsline follows in many ways the Surrealist Prairie tradition established by artists such as Kenneth Lochhead, Ivan Eyre, and Esther Warkov. Kaktins-Gorsline’s paintings are an exotic mix of the grotesque and beautiful. Finding inspiration in fragments of experience both real and imagined, when Kaktins-Gorsline starts a work he never really knows how it will turn out. Animated, child-like, and yet uncanny, need eep evokes uncomfortable feelings and makes searching for meaning and understanding difficult. In this painting, gender and age are disguised; half-human and half-something else, a pathetic character stands knee deep in water, underwear sagging, hunched over in resignation to the entrails exploding from his stomach.