Alex Livingston, Magnificence, 2023. Purchased with funds provided by Fred and Elizabeth Fountain, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 2023.
Maintaining a consistent studio practice while working as a professor at NSCAD University for four decades, Alex Livingston transitioned from oil to digital painting in 2005 partly due to his environmental sensitivities to paint solvent. Initially abstract, his recent works revisit environmental and historical themes, innovatively using digital interfaces and collage techniques.
Magnificence showcases a tree image from an 18th-century woodcut, depicting the historic Fairlop Oak (Essex, UK), a giant, ancient oak tree that was one of the tallest trees in Britain, shading more than an acre of ground. A tree of renown, it was the site of an annual fair until it was blown down in 1820 after thriving for centuries.
Creating a tension between the fabricated and the real, this work derives from Livingston’s research on natural history dioramas. An alert deer stares at the viewer while sheltered by the ghost of a tree and a forest long since decimated in the name of progress, the artificial and the real combining to create an illusionary effect.
The Nova Scotia Spotlight series highlights recent acquisitions to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s Permanent Collection by artists contributing to the province’s cultural heritage. With support from Michelin North America (Canada) Inc. and the Donald R. Sobey Family Foundation in Memory of Robert W. M. Manuge.
