Kurt Rostek is a Toronto Canada based artist who calls himself, “just a simple painter”. There is however nothing simple about his history as an artist. His studio and exhibit history go back ov... er 30 years, with a long association with Artists 25, a collective based in west end Toronto.
He was born in Toronto but raised in what was rural Ontario, now subdivisions and golf courses. His earlier works were water colour studies of birds, a theme that still occasionally pops up in his work and has since grown into large scale oil paintings.
His practice has since grown with constant reinvention. His mantra being that change is the only absolute truth. Every series he delves into gives him visual opportunities to explore his visual world from a different point of view.
The work he has so immersed himself in has influence from artists and movements as broad as Cubism, The Bauhaus, Abstract Expressionism, Painters 11, and the Automatistes. Formal education in his life has included a Visual Arts Diploma, Centennial College, Architectural Technologist Certificate, Ryerson University, and Fine Arts Studio York University (2 years).
Kurt’s work has been exhibited in Toronto galleries, as well as in New York City and once in Beijing. He has had the good fortune of having his work hang in private as well as public collections worldwide.
The last 2 years have presented numerous challenges to everyone. The beginning of Covid isolation had me exploring past travel opportunities that have fallen away from my life, the result was a number of watercolours. However I needed to explore my creative life with something more immediate and intimate.
Plein air painting was a mode of work that had informed some of the past narrative of my life. My eyes became open with my mind to landscape painting once again. The paintings I’m submitting reflect a new clarity. They represent actual plein air work as well as the resulting abstractions.
