"Wading Pool" Painting

Anne-Marie Olczak is a contemporary abstract painter whose paintings explore colour and composition through abstraction by distilling spaces and structures through the form of the grid. The grid provides a starting parameter where details are expressed through the colour and the intersections of layers of paints and glazes. Working in acrylic demands an immediacy in the process, working deliberately and meditatively as the paint is applied while maintaining the integrity of the details of the surface of the canvas. The grid offers the opportunity to explore a ideas about landscape, architecture and even figure through its structure. Process and colour are hugely important to how Anne-Marie works using colour to evoke an emotional response based in palettes grounded in nostalgia. Recent works use old family slides to pull colour inspiration and push beyond the comfort of a familiar palette, challenging personal ideas about colour theory as well as exploring memory through the layers of the grid. Anne-Marie received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto and has continued her creative journey through painting and photography. She has selected works in numerous galleries around the Greater Toronto area as well as in collections in the US and Britain. Currently Anne-Marie is the curator for The Gallery Wall, a grass roots initiative giving local artists opportunities to show case their work in East End Toronto.