The title of this brilliant 1984 canvas, Back to Shinny, refers to one of Alex Janvier’s great passions and sources of inspiration: hockey. Shinny is one name for an informal game of hockey, usually played on a frozen pond or an empty stretch of pavement. The game typically has no goaltenders, no contact, and players often resort to makeshift sticks, goals, and pucks or balls.

It is easy to see how the improvisational game might have informed the development of Janvier’s distinctive abstract visual language. Much like players weaving between and around each other, the painted lines of flight in this work radiate and circle each other in unpredictable patterns, as if tracing the players’ movements from above. Back to Shinny also glows with colour. Its dancing hard-edged lines, seemingly illuminated by the light of the central, sun-like orb, glisten with tones of peach, teal and orange. Reminiscent of a Prairie morning, the abutted colours vibrate with an excitement that was almost certainly felt by the artist, anticipating returning to his beloved game.

For the biography on Dr. Luigi Rossi in PDF format, please click here.