Ira Hoffecker's show Transitions at the Fortune Gallery is rescheduled for May 2021.
Ira Hoffecker returned from her artist residency in Buenos Aires in mid-march, 2020. During the following weeks of isolation, she germinated seedlings and planted flowers and perennials. Slowly returning to painting, they became her subjects.
“My garden flowers soothe and cheer me,” she says, “their blossoms show the abundance of nature’s life-giving power.”
These fresh and lively paintings were in a group show Out of the Silence at Gage Gallery June 30-July 11, 2020.
“My garden flowers soothe and cheer me,” she says, “their blossoms show the abundance of nature’s life-giving power.”
These fresh and lively paintings were in a group show Out of the Silence at Gage Gallery June 30-July 11, 2020.
In Feb/March 2020, Hoffecker completed an artist residency in Buenos Aires at Foundation Ace. The series completed during this residency is called Urban Layers. Urban Layers ( III, V and VI) below, appeared online in the Small Works Summer exhibition of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. The paintings are all 16x20 inches in size, acrylic and oil on canvas.
History as Personal Memory. Hoffecker's MFA thesis focused on her own memory, German collective memory, power structures, the landscape of trauma and reconfiguring the psychic space of survivors. The MFA series was featured in the June 2020 issue of Until Magazine from the Victoria Arts Council, documenting memory.
Below is a preview of Ira Hoffecker's artworks in Transitions rescheduled for May 2021 at the Fortune Gallery.
The acrylic painting on Ira Hoffecker’s studio wall commands my full attention.
Large, at 40 by 60 inches, Conjunction III envelopes me in a vibrational storm of colour and texture. The energy rising from the canvas is palpable. The painting resonates with a swirling mix of blue and green brushstrokes. There is both chaos and freedom in the gestural mark-making, abstracted shapes and lively tonal shifts. Within the tangled array of brushwork, there are linear shapes: a truncated purple rectangle; a small white trapezoid, bright lines at right angles. The multiple layers blend and intersect telling a complex story of time and imagination.
Large, at 40 by 60 inches, Conjunction III envelopes me in a vibrational storm of colour and texture. The energy rising from the canvas is palpable. The painting resonates with a swirling mix of blue and green brushstrokes. There is both chaos and freedom in the gestural mark-making, abstracted shapes and lively tonal shifts. Within the tangled array of brushwork, there are linear shapes: a truncated purple rectangle; a small white trapezoid, bright lines at right angles. The multiple layers blend and intersect telling a complex story of time and imagination.
Conjunction III is one of the paintings in Transitions, Ira Hoffecker’s May show at the Fortune Gallery. In the fall of 2018, Hoffecker had just completed her MFA from Transart Institute at Plymouth University in England. “I was exhausted from the personal work, research and writing involved with the MFA thesis,” she says. Back in the studio, she re-introduced colour, leaving behind the sombre palette of her thesis series: History as Personal Memory.
Her first painting in the Transitions series is called Conjunction l, and has special meaning for her. She found her painting style had changed. Her palette blossomed with blue green aquatic tints. “My brushwork was very loose and free,” she recalls. Her mark-making had expressive flourishes, including free-form drips and calligraphic squiggles. After drying, she would start again, responding to what was there, building up the language of layers. With the layers came light and flowing movement. It was her least architectural painting to date, using few maps and structural elements.
Done at the same time, Berlin Spaces shows a continued interest in architectural mapping. Berlin Spaces measures four by six feet and has a diverse multi-layered palette of pastel blue and green, mixed with pink, orange and yellow highlights. A variety of shapes and detailed linework create a sense of city spaces. “When I think about the past,” says Hoffecker, “I reconstruct history through time.” The artist overlays history and architecture, marking cycles of decay and rebuilding. Berlin Spaces shows traces of the Jewish Museum, the floor plan of the Berlin Philharmonic, square blocks from the new central library and the glass dome in the parliament buildings.
Hoffecker emigrated to Canada from Germany in 2004 with her husband and two small children. In her forties, she began taking classes at the Vancouver Island School of Art (VISA). Now 15 years later, she has completed a BA in Fine Arts (First Class Honours) and MFA, and is an active member of the Federation of Canadian artists. She has exhibited in England, America and Germany, and received several awards for her painting and documentary filmmaking.
Wendy Welch, Executive Director of VISA, is proud of her alumnus, who graduated with a Diploma of Fine Arts in 2013. The director views Transitions as the culmination of fifteen committed years. “I am excited by these paintings,” she says, “they are filled with light, very fresh and free.” As her student, Wendy recalls Hoffecker being focused on sculptural ideas and elements. “Ira favoured a well-worked surface,” says Welch, “that presented an idea of complex space.”
One painting in this series with a unique composition is Structure VIII, completed during year one of her MFA studies. The bright and airy composition shows triangular and trapezoidal shapes with cutout windows. Ribbon-like washes of pastel colour float among the suggested forms. The artist is describing the multi-layered history of a new factory building in Hof, Germany. While researching the site in city archives, she discovered it was used as a refugee camp after WWII. A plaque commemorates this history. However, during the war, the site housed a labour camp used to transport Jewish prisoners to concentration camps. This tragic past is not mentioned. The artist believes it should be acknowledged and never forgotten. The text on the painting reads: “forgetting” in German.
After viewing works like Structure VIII, Hoffecker’s professor queried the artist. “Where are you in this work? You need to own these paintings by including your own thoughts and feelings.” It was then the artist turned inward to face her past. From this journey came the second year series History as Personal Memory. Her MFA thesis focused on her own memory, German collective memory, power structures, the landscape of trauma and reconfiguring the psychic space of survivors. The series was a solo exhibition at the Front Gallery in Edmonton in 2019. The artist completes an artist residency in Buenos Aires at Foundation Ace during Feb/March 2020. An exhibition titled Urban Layers is being completed during her residency. Painting No1 of the series is below.
Hoffecker’s turbulent past is nowhere evident in Transitions. Works like Conjunction VI dazzle the viewer with a singing palette of pink, orange and red. The dynamic mark-making suggests a bustling summer city. “Colour is an essential part of my large multi-layered abstractions,” she says. Hoffecker is undaunted by the effort required to produce her monumental canvases. Her previous career in the film industry required 80 hour work-weeks. She is grateful for her present life style. “As an artist I am a joyful being” she says, “Everyday, I live with art.” When Hoffecker looks at a completed painting like Conjunction V there is a feeling of satisfaction. After fifteen years of experience, she is a confident painter. “I can usually solve any of the issues that arise in my paintings,” she says, “and that for me is a great feeling.”
Ira welcomes interest in her artwork and can be reached at [email protected]; Visit Ira's Website
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