Painting, Imagination & Abstraction

On the evening of March 20th, I delivered a keynote about Painting to a group of young medical professionals.

Hosted at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto, we started the night off with a mingle and cocktail hour as we observed the exhibit currently on display, Solastalgia: Archaeologies of Loss - The first Canadian solo show by French artist Abdelkader Benchamma. The exhibit encapsulates the entire gallery with massive murals to small paintings. It was like a beautiful modern cavern backdrop to dine in.

Getting ready to present my keynote lecture.

The third edition of this elegant dinner lecture series was organized by my dear friend and the founder of Art In Medicine (AiM), Dr. Nandini Gupta. AiM is a not-for-profit organization that celebrates the relationship between art and medicine. Nandini says “Healing is caring for the sick. It means to share accounts of illness, and to be moved into action by the stories told. True healing transcends modern medical approaches. It recognizes the power of a story in shaping illness and healing.”

The evening is full of lively discussions around the relationship between Art and Medicine, and the proceeds from tickets sales at these AiM dinners got to the UHN Foundation.

I was really excited to present my keynote and the parallels I saw to Solastagia, specifically speaking about Painting, Imagination and Abstraction, among other things. Benchamma does not plan ahead too much when beginning his artwork, but finds a starting point and then allows his intuition and imagination to direct his hand, I tried to conduct my talk in a similar manner.