Star in the future of Canadian art

Lorne Wagman may be young but he's found his identity

If the future of the visual arts in Canada looks bright, it is due in large part to young artists like Lorne Wagman. At the tender age of 25, Wagman paints with the self-assurance of a seasoned veteran. His work is never less than compelling and, on occasion, it attains something greater - clarity of vision.

To see a painting by Lorne Wagman is to be drawn into an extraordinary landscape of the imagination where the real and the unreal become impossible to separate. It is a world based on recognizable objects and images that have been altered, but still retain the qualities of dimension, substance and palpability.

Wagman's exhibition, at the Lacemaker's Gallery (753 Queen St. W) until Aug 3 is, unfortunately, a small one. Of the nine paintings included, only two are large enough to give the viewer a true indication of what Wagman can produce. And given the ornate, almost baroque, nature of his work, it tends to be better suited to these oversize canvases. In the smaller ones, Wagman's concerns shift from content to texture. He builds up these little pieces with layer upon layer of oil paint until they resemble sculpture almost as much as painting.

Lorne Wagman began painting when he was 14 years old. That means he now has just more than a decade of experience behind him. The decision to become an artist, recalls Wagman, came after "months of transition". After all, being a painter meant he had to give up his chemistry set and forget the coin collection. (These sorts of things mean a lot to a teenage boy.) In any case, Wagman immediately "got serious" and started churning out landscapes that bore a strong resemblance - in spirit if not always in appearance - to the Group of Seven.

As painting grew ever more important, Wagman soon lost interest in school. By the time he hit grade 9 he quit. After studying at the Three Schools of Art, he was out on his own. In 1976 he had his first one-man exhibition at the 567 Gallery in Yorkville. Three more have followed, all at Lacemaker's.

Wagman's short but intense career can be broken down into three major periods; the first lasted about three years and consisted of flower paintings. Looking at these early but confident pieces, it is clear that Wagman was working his way through such influences as Vincent van Gogh and the J.E.H. MacDonald of the tangled garden. Later he turned to painting forests. Restricting himself almost exclusively to greens and browns, the young artist nevertheless managed to impart the lushness and infinite variety if the Canadian woodland. At this stage it is possible to see Wagman's growing awareness of Emily Carr, and especially the voluptuous curved brushstrokes she used to such great effect in her paintings of those heroic West coast conifers. A strong believer in working from nature - "paintings from memory never have the same gravity" - Wagman promised himself he'd give up the forest as a subject as soon as he could "draw one from the head as convincingly as one from a sketch". Although this never quite happened, he did become proficient enough to want to move on to greener pastures.

Grand Cavern, 1982 78x90 in, Oil on canvas Not for sale

And so Wagman progressed into his current phase. He still thinks of his canvases as landscapes but all objective references to actual nature have been eliminated. They are, as Wagman rightly says, "realistic and abstract at the same time". The transition from straight depiction of the natural world to the creation of something entirely new can be traced neatly in a series of pencil drawings also included in the exhibition. It is remarkable to watch as, one by one, the elements of "real" landscape are removed and replaced by forms and images from Wagman's imagination.

"I always want a painting to feel real even if there's nothing 'real' in it," said Wagman last week in his studio. He starts in the centre of the canvas and works towards the corners. "You can usually draw diagonal lines across my paintings and find something significant in the middle," explained Wagman. Whether or not this is automatically apparent to the uninitiated viewer remains doubtful. He or she is much likelier to see any number of "significant" things located at random throughout the painting. This is particularly true of the two major pieces on display, Swamp Life and Landscape with Crucifix. ("I was as surprised as anyone to see a crucifix there," remarked Wagman.) It will be very interesting to watch how the career of Lorne Wagman develops during the years to come. One is sorely tempted to start making predictions. I, for example, am prepared to admit that I expect Wagman will emerge as an important Canadian artist. Why? Mainly, I suppose, because he is an individual who, despite his youth and inexperience, has already found his voice. He is a man with a vision. And that, more than anything, will carry him through.