ILAN LAKS paints abstract, large scale canvas. He incorporates a variety of media and materials to create lush and elegant surfaces that at once seem as though you are looking under a microscope or seeing them from as far away as the moon. Laks is multi-talented. He is also a musician. It is no wonder that his paintings have textural rhythms that almost sing.-Jewish Review (OCT. '09)
 
Ilan Laks is an artist, musician, business man, philosopher and social worker. He’s just so perfectly complex and beautifully auspicious...............it’s hard to be sober when you meet a man like Ilan Laks.  He’s Portland’s own cult classic. -Cat Coats (Portland Art Examiner, July '09)
 
Commuters heading into downtown via the Hawthorne Bridge have been treated to this sign for a few weeks now. It's the work of Portland artist Ilan Laks, who wants to help set a good tone for the day as people are on their way to work. Bank accounts may be shrinking and the sky is often blotched with gray, but Portlanders can count on free love these days on the Hawthorne Bridge. A sign propped up on a white low-rise building in the Southeast warehouse district declares "XOXO" to commuters as they approach the bridge on the east bank heading toward downtown. The simple but heartening message is one artist's gift to the city. "I want people to feel a little better before they get downtown and start thrashing around looking for parking," said Ilan Laks. He put the message up about a month ago, before Valentine's Day. The other side, which is visible traveling eastbound, tells commuters to "Dream." "People are leaving downtown and heading home to sleep," Laks said. "We're all stressed so I'm reminding them to dream." Laks, 36, followed his own dream by moving from San Francisco to Portland in 2005. A recognized painter and musician, he leased a 20,000-square-foot building at Southeast Madison and Second Avenue and created AudioCinema, an art and music production facility that leases space to artists, musicians and other creatives. - Jim Braly (The Oregonian, March 09, 2009)
   
Review by Uba Owl: I'm very exited to return here after seeing last month's show. The current show is very different. "The pieces exist as alone as we are," says the artist in his statement. So very true. The works are quite large, maybe about 4 by 6 feet each. I feel like I am looking through randomly painted glass at microscopic nature-- shapes and lines are hard to decipher, yet oddly familiar. The surfaces are glossy. There seem to be layer upon layer of forms, color splotches, spills, and swirls. In some ways they remind me of science fiction movies and monsters. The artist must have had fun working on them. - Artbusiness.com
   
These powerful, large-scale abstracts continue the artist’s process of creating complex paintings that capture light, refracting it through layers of color, meticulously producing the illusion of multi-dimensional depth. He focuses on creating cohesive groups of ten or more paintings, which he works on concurrently. Working on birch panels in oils and mixed media, these paintings are richly textured and deeply resonant.  According to Mr. Wladika, “Laks employs a process unheard of with many contemporary painters - time. He takes anywhere form 12 to 18 months to complete a painting and the result is evident. His stellar abstracts are dense with information while maintaining a coherency that is rare in the genre. Laks spends a significant amount of time on reduction, on removing paint. Adding and removing paint layer-by-layer until a three-dimensional universe is constructed in two dimensions. His mastery of palette, medium and technique allows him to push the limits of oil paints into territories both new and mysterious.”  Absolutearts.com
   
Ilan's work does remind me of a forest floor in autumn, with layer upon layer of organic material, with the occasional glimpse of gold or glitter from something that is not organic. His pieces are very complex and reward a second or third viewing. My personal favorites are the ones in the brown/autumn/muted shades which I find the most evocative. The show will be up until October 27th. -NamasteNancy
   
Laks' images are deceptively direct at first look. Color, line, pattern, and paint texture are each used equally to sculpt figures and their milieu on the surface of the canvas. The shapes are bold and communicative, even iconographic. The symbolism is clear; poetic and psychologically charged colors and objects propel the unfolding narrative.  All of these factors make the work totemic and graphically memorable, but a closer inspection reveals a deep spiritual character, and brave artistic practices. Laks cultivates spontaneity, emotion, and humor through his process. A color field is worked for texture and nuance, until finally a painting emerges of its own volition from the literal and figurative mist. - Lawrence Gallery