Shadow Play: Robert Sears

In the Annex March 27 to April 10. Recent works by magic realist painter Robert Sears. Sears was encouraged by his grandfather, a native New Yorker, to take advantage of the many museums and galleries that NYC had to offer. A longtime resident of Gabriola Island (now living in Cowichan Bay), Sears developed an affinity with the Japanese realists Hiroshige and Hokusai and Japanese woodblock prints. His work is concerned with the mystery and melancholy in our everyday lives and the alienation of the individual in the world of today. “I feel that the greatest level art can ascend to is to make us look at things in a different way; when it can make the commonplace seem strange,” he said. His paintings have been purchased by private and corporate collectors in the U.S., Canada and abroad.