[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/abrams.jpg” caption=”John Abrams, Filming Contempt 2007. Oil on panel, 58 x 77 inches. Courtesy of the artist. “]The McMaster Museum of Art's latest exhibition, Cinema Vernis curated by RM Vaughan, presents a selection of Toronto-based artist John Abrams's recent paintings inspired by classic films.

His paintings have, in turn, inspired responses by acclaimed Canadian filmmakers Sky Gilbert, John Greyson, Jeremy Podeswa and Christina Zeidler, each of whom has contributed an essay to Abrams's exhibition catalogue.

The artist will be in attendance at the opening reception on Thursday, Jan. 31, from 6 to 8 p.m. A panel discussion with John Abrams, RM Vaughan, culture-watcher Andrew Harwood and Canadian filmmakers has been scheduled for Thursday, March 20 from 6 to 8 p.m.

“Abrams is not a subtle painter,” says Vaughan, “nor would we want him to be because if you're going to remake a classic, you better have something new to say…Abrams paintings are infrared scans, thermal printouts, MRIs aimed at the guts of a drama, X-ray specs that actually work.”

Interested in the impact of visual media on the present, Abrams has always looked to popular culture for the source of his imagery. In the '80s, most of his images came from magazines such as Vogue and National Geographic. In the '90s, newspaper photos became his inspiration. And in recent years, his work has evolved from looking at film and digital video.

In Cinema Vernis, Abrams takes vignettes from Beineix's Betty Blue, Godard's Breathless and Contempt, and Wertmuller's Swept Away, from the language of film to the language of painting, with its sweeping brush strokes and abstract expressionist paint handling.

The exhibition, which continues until March 29, includes seven large oil on canvas paintings (58 x 77 inches) and 60 panels (11 x 14 inches).

Abrams began exhibiting in 1983 and has shown extensively in Canada and the United States. His work is in the public collections of the O'Hare Airport, the National Gallery of Canada, the McMaster Museum of Art, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, The Agnes Etherington Art Centre and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, among others, and in numerous private national and international collections.