ACTIVE INGREDIENTS
July 4 to August 12, 2008

Galerie McKenzie Marcotte in Wakefield is pleased to present Active Ingredients, an exhibition of acrylic paintings by Norman Takeuchi.These works on canvas are part of his on-going, and continually evolving, exploration of abstract images. Abstraction is enormously appealing to Norman Takeuchi because it presents him with endless opportunities for experimentation and improvisation. Norman describes the process:

“Beginning with small collage sketches, the paintings grow in unexpected ways and the resulting pictures become inhabited by strange forms and textures. which may be mysterious and inexplicable to the viewer, but to me they are intimate and valued inventions. Plant forms, landscape, and nature in general, long-time preoccupations of mine, make their way into the compositions. While the shapes are carefully formed and placed, accidents can happen and when they do, they are either allowed to stay and contribute or are made to disappear. With each painting, discoveries are made and passed on to the next one and so the evolution continues.”

Norman Takeuchi grew up in Vancouver although some of his earliest memories are of the interior of British Columbia where his parents were forced to relocate along with all other Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. At the end of the war his family returned to Vancouver where he ultimately attended the Vancouver School of Art. After leaving his design career at the Museum of Nature in 1996 to resume an early career as a full-time artist, Norman has participated in many solo and group exhibitions. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Canada Council, Carleton University Art Gallery, Confederation Gallery in Charlottetown, P.E.I., the Ottawa Art Gallery, Mitel Corporation, a number of commercial galleries, and in private collections in Canada and abroad.