Calgary artist Chris Flodberg is a virtuoso oil painter, a painter's painter. He became known for his landscapes but has since tackled a startling range of themes: World War II warships, intimate interiors, post-apocalyptic banquets, abstracts, guard dogs and, most recently, ninety-six self-portraits in ninety-six different styles. These are monumental paintings that grab the viewer by the throat and demand attention.
Flodberg is inspired by art history, but the art he creates is his alone: visceral, intensely rendered, relentlessly probing, beautiful but often uncomfortable. An acutely...