Time is a-ticking at Forest City Gallery.

Reviewed by Beth Stewart

(Installation shot of left wall featuring “Keys to Success”, oil on canvas, 60 by 50 inches, 2024. Photo by Beth Stewart.)

Forest City Gallery is awash with works by West Coast artist Les Ramsay. Comprised of 11 pieces, “Maritime Minute” includes bold paintings, an intriguing sculpture and a compelling needlepoint. All, says exhibit material, speak to “the vulnerability of natural systems” and use “mood, material, and motion to guide the viewer.”

The works vary in size, from a petite 8 by 6 inches to a hulking 60 by 59 inches. Colour abounds. While most works are clear in what they depict, they are ambiguous in what they represent.

The tiny needlepoint “Salvation Mountain”, with its apparent smokestacks, cultivated land and waterfall alludes to the vulnerability of nature.

(“Salvation Mountain”, needlepoint, 8 by 6 inches, 2016. Photo by Beth Stewart.)

The physically imposing “Keys to Success” and “Tempest Rose”, which bookend the exhibition, are chock-a-block with colour and form. Lots of reading required. Maybe it’s the time of year (or maybe it’s the time of man), but they both give off a definite Halloween vibe. They are also reminiscent of figures produced by Art Brute alumni Bill Traylor.

(Installation shot of back wall featuring “Tempest Rose” acrylic on linen, 60 by 59 inches, 2025, and view of “Subterranean Oracle”. Photo by Beth Stewart.)

The titles are clever. The aforementioned “Tempest Rose” could be the name of a busty heroine or the after-report on a blustery storm. The alliterative “Dusty Ditch at Dusk” and “Decadent Dusk” roll nicely off the tongue.

The lone sculpture, “Subterranean Oracle,” sits on a plinth and acts as both a diagonal director and a brazen barrier. It points and it halts. Here, the artist has used acrylic paint, beach sand, aquarium pebbles, and a pom-pom to costume a piece of driftwood. Transformed, the flotsam resembles a marine animal, or a submarine, or perhaps a missile. Viewers are left to wonder what message each might deliver.

(“Subterranean Oracle”, acrylic with beach sand, aquarium pebbles, pom-pom, on driftwood, with cedar base, 10 by 12 by 63 inches, 2022. Photo by Beth Stewart.)

Ramsay’s bio says he “creates his works by recycling the excess of everyday domestic objects” and calls what he does “subtle environmentalism” in that viewers are invited to look and to think. This is certainly apparent in a number of the pieces here.

“Maritime Minute” continues to Oct. 30 at Forest City Gallery, 1025 Elias St. For more information, visit https://www.forestcitygallery.com/

Follow FCG on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.503005855164440&type=3