Peter Chan’s paintings focus on the quiet moments — mediation; prayer; a solitary bath. We encounter his characters immersed in a silence that’s almost palpable. Chan is originally from Hong Kong and currently based in Toronto. Religious motifs find their way into his work often. In Green Ecstasy, an alien-green nun tilts her head back in a trance-like state that evokes the near-orgasmic religious fervor of Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. In the rest of Chan’s “Ecstasy” series, contemporary-looking individuals seem to be in the grips of similar encounters with the divine. Coming up, Chan has work in Hashimoto Contemporary’s “Moleskine IV” show in San Francisco and in Galerie Youn’s booth at Love Fair Toronto, both happening this month.
