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ARTS OPINION

These four artists are consumed by consumer goods

Andy DeCola, Colin Bowers, Nicholas Zirk and Cameron Wylie are Lost in the Supermarket, writes
Regina Haggo.

By Regina Haggo Contributing Columnist

Mon., Feb. 28, 2022 timer 3 min. read

There are no empty shelves in this supermarket.

In Andy DeCola’s paintings, shelves are filled to overflowing. He’s one of four artists whose paintings are on show in Lost in the
Supermarket, an exhibition at the Assembly Gallery, the gallery at the back of Redchurch Cafe in downtown Hamilton.

DeCola, who is also the curator, is joined by Colin Bowers, Cameron Wylie and Nicholas Zirk. For this show, they have
appropriated a variety of consumer goods from food to works of art. Many of their paintings boast the kind of lively style and
bright colours found in packaging and advertising.
DeCola, who has been exhibiting for about 20 years, calls himself an image collector. His paintings are recursive; they are images
of images.
“I’ve always been inspired by the possibilities of using appropriated images mixed with personal images to create something
new that I can say is my own,” he says.
“Ever since art school, I’ve collected images from wherever I’ve found them — used bookstores, recycling bins and even
magazines in doctors’ offices. And in more recent years as I’m getting older and dealing with the loss of family on my side and my
wife, I’ve added a personal element to the works with pics from family vacations and special moments to blend worlds together.”

For “Hey Now, Hey Now,” DeCola took the painting’s title from a song he remembers from when he was growing up in the ’80s.
The painting has two components, what DeCola describes as an image on an image. One image is partly hidden by a centralized
one that sits on top of it. What we see of the hidden image depicts rows of store shelves with lots of stuff. The image blocking our
view, a big rectangle, is packed with animated colourful shapes that suggest products and produce.

But, in both images, none of the objects look like anything specific. It’s as though these, like the title, are drawn from memory.
“I like the idea of masking and layering images to cause this visual concealment of bits and pieces of works that play with idea of
memories fading or being forgotten about.”
He creates a similarly layered composition in “Humility.” But this lower layer of well-stocked shelves is almost obscured by six
rectangles, each painted in a single colour.
DeCola’s colleagues are, like him, image collectors. The four have exhibited and worked together before. DeCola first met
Bowers, for instance, at art college about 20 years ago.
“Colin is a musician and spent most of these past years working with his band,” DeCola says. “Once COVID hit, he started
painting again. After seeing he was painting again I felt it was the perfect opportunity for us to show together again.”
Bowers opts for bold colours and big dynamic shapes. In “Life’s a Gas” bright pink and gold compartments push into another
compartment enclosing a hand. They are united by graffiti-like pink scribbles.

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Wylie collects both nature-made and human-made goods. In “Saying Grace” he riffs on a traditional still life with a two-shelf
arrangement. Food and containers in the top shelf are juxtaposed with more expensive objects like a statuette of a praying figure
and a painting of what looks like a dead Christ in the lower shelf.
Some of Zirk’s paintings of ordinary objects, such as “Dark Beer,” recall traditional still-lifes. Others lack the shelves or tables of
such still-lifes. In “Four Landscapes,” for example, Zirk arranges four recognizable food and drink packages and labels, without
their logos, on a plain background.
And all the packages feature landscapes. One recreates a bag of potato chips, another, a chocolate bar.

Regina Haggo, art historian, public speaker, curator, YouTube video maker and former professor at the
RH University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

Lost in the Supermarket

Where: The Assembly Gallery, at Redchurch Cafe, 68 King St. E.
When: until Feb. 28

Contact: assemblygallery@gmail.com

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