THE SILK ROAD SERIES
“The idea of a state in Newtonian physics shares with classical sculpture and painting the illusion of the frozen moment. This gives rise to the illusion that the world is composed of objects. If this were really the way the world is, then the primary description of something would be how it is and change in it would be secondary. Change would be nothing but alterations in how something is. But relativity and quantum theory each tell us that this is not how the world is. They tell us - no, better, they scream at us - that our world is a history of processes. Motion and change are primary. Nothing is, except in a very approximate and temporary sense. How something is, or what its state is, is an illusion. It may be a useful illusion for some purposes, but if we want to think fundamentally, we must not lose sight of the essential fact that ‘is’ is an illusion. So to speak the language of the new physics we must learn a vocabulary in which process is more important than, and prior to, stasis.”
Lee Smolin, The Three Roads to Quantum Gravity.
“Westerners tend to assume that a human being is essentially an independent agent who can initiate events with an act of free will. The Buddhist tradition, on the other hand, claims that the ‘I’ is not an independent initiator of action. There is no ‘self’ in that sense. Instead, there is a complex, dynamic, interactive process in which every element is affected by every other and nothing outside that process is in control.”
William Cobb, Buddhist Philosophy and the Game of Go.
The trading route known as the Silk Road, (in use from 200 BCE to mid 15th century) was the Internet of its age for it was not only a way to exchange goods between the Hellenic world and the Far East, it was also a way of exchanging technologies and philosophies.
The Buddhist philosophy of impermanence and no-self found its way to ancient Greece, via the Silk Road, and was embraced by the philosopher Heraclitus who became known as “the Greek Buddha”.
“Cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am) represents something of a paradox. Even before Descartes, the Greek philosopher Parmenides stated that ‘thinking and being are the same’ (and was criticized by Heraclitus for thinking so) and so arose a fundamental controversy in Western philosophy between ‘Being’ on the one hand and ‘Becoming’ on the other, represented in Parmenides and Heraclitus respectively, or stasis and dynamis. Yet Blake (among others) stated that ‘As a man thinks, so is he’ and that recalls Heraclitus’s own remark — ethos anthropos daimon: ethos is fate, which is usually translated as ‘character is fate’. Rosenstock-Huessy called Heraclitus ‘the Greek Buddha’, largely because of his own doctrine of impermanence and flux, expressed in the formula panta rhei — ‘all flows’.”
The Chrysalis, Beyond the Res Cogitans
In my previous paintings, collectively known as the Classical Series, I entered into a dialogue with Greek Classicism and its dependence on mathematical beauty i.e., the golden ratio, and endeavoured to subvert that notion of Beauty by embracing the processes of randomness and chance in my compositions via the crushing of my paper subject matter. As the 21st century physicist, Lee Smolin, states (above), “Motion and change are primary”. Lee Smolin concurs with Heraclitus who concurs with the philosopher Siddhartha Gautama, aka the Buddha.
My new body of paintings, collectively known as the Silk Road Series, embrace that realization that there are no abiding things, but rather that all is motion, “interconnected, interrelated, a dynamic union, constantly mated” (Malcolm Rains, 1974. “Queen Anne’s Lace”.)
The Silk Road paintings do not render things but rather are calligraphic traces of forces. To continue my tradition of embracing randomness and chance, and to eschew the Greek concept of Beauty, much of each painting is painted with my eyes closed.
Each painting is then named after a place on the Silk Road, starting with the furthest place East and progressing Westwards.
COPYRIGHT Malcolm Rains 2023
MALCOLM RAINS
1947 Born in Bristol, England
1955 Emigrated to Canada (Canadian Citizen)
1967-69 Studied Architecture at the University of Detroit
1969-70 Studied Architecture at the University of Toronto
1971-74 Attended and graduated the Ontario College of Art
Solo Exhibitions
1979 “Recent Sculpture”, Sable - Castelli Gallery, Toronto
1979 “Recent Drawings”, Sable - Castelli Gallery, Toronto
1979 Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston (catalogue)
1981 McIntosh Gallery, London, Ontario (catalogue)
1981 Sable - Castelli Gallery, Toronto
1983 Sable - Castelli Gallery, Toronto
1984 Klonaridis Inc., Toronto
1985 Klonaridis Inc., Toronto
1986 Oakville Gairloch Gallery
1988 Costin & Klintworth, Toronto
1989 Costin & Klintworth, Toronto
1991 Costin & Klintworth, Toronto (catalogue)
1992 Costin & Klintworth, Toronto
1994 Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
1996 Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
1998 Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2000 Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2000 Meyer Gallery, Santa Fe
2001 Meyer Gallery, Santa Fe
2004 Meyer Gallery, Santa Fe
2005 “Monolith”, Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto
2007 “New Work”, Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary, Canada
2007 “Sunyata”, Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto
2008 “New Light”, Meyer Gallery, Santa Fe
2009 “Sunyata & Tathata Paintings”, Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary, Canada
2010 “Olympus Series”. Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto Canada
2012 “The Classical Series”, Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montreal Canada
2016 “Myth and Mystique: The Art of Malcolm Rains”, Odon Wagner Gallery, Toronto
2019 “Chance Unfolds”, Odon Wagner Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Selected Group Exhibitions
1973 “2 plus 5”, Gallery Pascal, Toronto
1978 “Aspects of Sculpture”, Ontario College of Art, Toronto
“Performance”, Art Gallery at Harbourfront, Toronto
“Toronto Alternatives Exhibition”, Etobicoke Civic Centre Gallery
1979 “Small Sculpture”, Art Gallery at Harbourfront, Toronto (catalogue)
1980 “Beyond Colour”, Glendon Gallery, York University, Toronto
1981 “Ewart, Menzies, Rains”, Art Gallery of Ontario (catalogue)
“Linear Variables”, Winnipeg Art Gallery, (catalogue)
1985 “Storms and Rains”, Art Gallery of Northumberland, Cobourg
1989 “A Watercolour Show: Alex Cameron, Erik Gamble, Malcolm Rains”,
Costin & Klintworth, Toronto
“David Bierk, Malcolm Rains, Jeffery Spalding”, Diane Farris
Gallery Vancouver (catalogue)
1992 “25th Anniversary Exhibition - Just a taste of the Claridge Collection”,
Saidye Bronfman Centre, Montreal
“Collective Efforts: 50 Years of Intentionality”, McIntosh Gallery,
London, Ontario, (catalogue)
1993 “The Chair Project ”, The Power Plant, Toronto, Ontario
“Selections from The DuPont Canada Collection of Canadian Art, The Station Gallery, Whitby Arts Inc., Whitby, Ontario
1994 “Cracks in the Modern”, The Koffler Gallery / The Koffler Centre of the Arts, North York, Ontario
“Cracks in the Modern”, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario
1995 “Shape Shifters”, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario
1997 “Landscape Painting”, Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
1999 “A Still Life Show ”, Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
“P.A. Nisbet – Malcolm Rains ”, Meyer Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2000 “Art and Architecture – A Co-operative Theme Exhibition”, Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2001 “Still Life Show”, Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2002 “Miniatures 2002”, Albuquerque Museum of Fine Arts, Albuquerque, New Mexico
2003 “Reading in the Third Dimension”, McIntosh Gallery, London, Canada
“Miniatures 2003”, Albuquerque Museum of Fine Arts, Albuquerque, New Mexico
2004 “Miniatures 2004”, Albuquerque Museum of Fine Arts, Albuquerque, New Mexico
2006 “Black & White”, Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary, Canada
“Paper”, Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2023 “Summer Exhibition”, The Royal Academy, London, England
Awards
1977 Ontario Arts Council Grant
1978 Canada Council Short-term Grant
1978 Ontario Arts Council Grant
1979 Canada Council Arts Grant ‘B’
1981 Canada Council Short-term Grant
1982 Canada Council Arts Grant ‘B’
1983 Canada Council Project Cost Grant
1984 Canada Council Short-term Grant
1986 Canada Council Arts Grant ‘B’
Selected Public Collections
Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontario
Art Gallery of Algoma, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario
Art Gallery of Peterborough, Ontario
Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, Ont.
Department of Foreign Affairs & International Trade, Ottawa
Hart House Gallery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
McIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
Oakville Centennial Gallery, Ontario
Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ont.
Canadian Embassy, Washington DC
Canada House, London, England
Selected Collections
Anacourt Capital Inc.
Bank of Tokyo (Canada)
Bank of Nova Scotia
Birch Hill Equity
Blake, Cassels
Blaney, McMurtry, Stapells
Bunting, Warburg Inc.
Cambridge Development
Canadian Building Materials Co.
Castlepoint Developments
Central Guaranty Trust
Chubb Insurance
Ciba Geigy
CIBC
Citibank Canada
Claridge Inc.
Crum & Forster
Cumberland Asset Management
Delaney Capital
Du Pont Canada Inc.
Esso-Imperial Oil
First City Trust
Frankland Rusznyak Assoc. Ltd.
Genest Murray Desbrisay Lamek
George Weston Ltd.
Goldman Sachs & Co.
Gowling, Strathy & Henderson
Granite Club
Guaranty Trust
Household Finance Corp.
Investcorp Ltd.
King Valley Golf Club
Kinross Gold
Lang Michener
Loblaws
Peat Marwick
Power Corp.
Price Waterhouse
Prime Capital Corp.
Robins, Appleby & Taub
Rogers, Bereskin & Parr
Royal Bank
Royal Trust
Scotia Bank
Scotia McLeod
Shorcan International
Steinberg Inc.
SunLife of Canada Ltd.
SunLife Trust Co.
Swiss Bank Corp. (Canada)
The Co-Operators
Marketing Services Ltd.
McCarthy Tetrault
Meloche Communications
Molson Breweries
Nabisco
Nisbet-Brown
Nissan Canada Inc.
Northern Telecom
Oatley Vigmond
OMERS
Thorne, Ernst & Whinney
Toronto Dominion Bank
Torstar Corporation
Tory Tory DesLauriers & Binnington
Union Bank of Switzerland
Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation
Westburne Industries
Wm. Mercer Ltd.
Workers Compensation Board
Xerox Canada
Xerox Financial Services
York Club
Selected Bibliography
Tremblay-Gillon, Michele “Sculpture à Toronto”, Vie des Arts, XXIII, no. 92, Automne, 1978,
p.79
Zack, Badanna “A Look Back at Sculpture during the Sculpture Conference”, artmagazine,
Vol. 10, no. 41, November / December 1978, p.48
Purdie, James “Gallery Reviews”, Globe & Mail, January 27, 1979, p. 40
Tiley, Jim “Malcolm Rains at Sable-Castelli, Jan. 27- Feb. 10”, Artist’s Review, 1979, vol. 2,
no. 9
Wilkin, Karen “Alex Cameron, Malcolm Rains” Artscanada, XXXVI, no. 2, August/September
1979, p. 49
Wilkin, Karen “The Late Blooming Vitality of Toronto Art,” ARTnews, vol.79 no. 2, Feb. ‘80, p.
54-55
Arthur, Margaret “Tim Zuck and Malcolm Rains at Sable-Castelli Gallery”, artmagazine, vol. 11, no. 47, February / March 1980, pp. 38-39
Burnett, David “Ewart, Menzie, Rains”, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of Ontario, April 3 - May 10, 1981
Dillow, Nancy E. “Linear Variables”, exhibition catalogue, Winnipeg Art Gallery, September 25-November 15, 1981
Wilkin, Karen “Milton Avery - The Canadian Paintings”, exhibition catalogue,
Agnes Etherington, Art Centre, 1986, p. 24
Moze, Howard “Gairloch artists are perfectly in tune”, Oakville Beaver, April 25, 1986, p.24
Wilkin, Karen “Milton Avery’s Landscape Legacy”, Canadian Art, Spring 1986, p.69
Dault, Gary Michael “On the Arts”, CBC Television Interview and Coverage of
Exhibition at the Costin and Klintworth Gallery, December 26, 1992.
Rogers, Scott “Tranquil Austerity, Getting introspective with Malcolm Rains’ minimal, nuanced paintings”, Calgary’s News & Entertainment Weekly, Vol.12 #19,
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Bracket, Donald “Sight Unseen – The Persistence of the Retina in the Works of Malcolm Rains”, exhibition catalogue, Nicholas Metivier Galley, Toronto, November 2007
Abatemarco, Michael “Malcolm Rains”, santa fean, October/November 2008, p.70