Ilya Gefter, White Night, 2008
…Ilya Gefter’s suite of misty, achingly delicate paintings are a quiet respite.
Gefter’s crafty focus pulling/focus releasing causes the viewer to first seek out the solid, fully materialized objects being studied, and then to drift toward the liminal spaces, the backgrounds and sunsets, all underpainted veils of muted colour. Absence and presence, negative and positive space, are neatly, even obsessively, balanced, but Gefter’s works are not overly painterly or forced.
Sleight of hand rarely feels so honest.
R.M. VAUGHAN
“Ilya Gefter at Julie M. Gallery”
Globe & Mail, July 30, 2011
Julie M. Gallery for Contemporary Art 