Brian Kershisnik

As painted canvases go, 108 by 246 inches is pretty large. Even artists who dream big think twice before committing the time and materials and space to make monumental paintings. Everything about a project of this kind is at an increased scale, including artist’s risks and viewer’s expectations. If you stand in front of a painting about war that is the physical size of Picasso’s Guernica, for example, you expect a powerful punch.

Suit up, then, for Aprés la guerre, a 20-foot, recently-finished painting by Brian Kershisnik, completed after 18 months’ work during the pandemic. It is to be unveiled at his one-person show at David Ericson Gallery in Salt Lake City, Utah. The exhibition, Refuge, will include other recent works as well, which “continue to explore living, loving, longing, leaving, and returning,” the artist writes us. 

Kershisnik’s big painting represents the aftermath of war; the two sides are gathering to face each other—boys and girls, men and women, animals and infants. None is unaffected. Viewers will see figures that are nearly life-sized and because of their proximity in a gallery environment, the canvas will force visitors to step into the artist’s barren landscape, too. It is an enigmatic work: What kind of war has just ended? Is it a pre-mortal battle or an earthly one? Our emotional backdrop at the moment is colored by the daily war coverage arriving from Eastern Europe. We will be viewing the painting even as Ukrainian soldiers retake lost towns and discover atrocities and devastation revealed by retreating forces. Or is the war of the painting metaphorical? After recent years of lockdown and caustic politicking, who does not feel embattled emotionally, right now? The absence of war is not necessarily peace.—Glen Nelson (Exhibition opens September 27 and run through October 18; artist’s talk on September 30.)