Buildup
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The word buildup may denote a process of accumulation, the gradual approach to an end, or advance publicity. These definitions offer an interesting conceptual framework for considering several aspects of contemporary art. For instance, buildup may indicate the pretences of high culture, or its opposite, the mass accumulation of consumer products. It could denote the progression from early to late capitalism, hierarchical structures, advertising tactics, or the "superheated" contemporary art market. At the same time, it easily conjures the repetitive strategies of appropriation art, which both elevates and violates the products of mass marketing. The exhibition Buildup presents six contemporary artists whose work addresses many of these concerns. Layering his canvases with images and text derived from 19th- and 20th-century advertisements, films, magazines, and cartoons, Dan Kennedy explores the "endless hallucination of commerce, desire and anxiety." Michèle Provost alludes to a similar buildup of social angst by isolating pop-music lyrics and incorporating them into tile mosaics whose patterns evoke subway stations and other civic spaces. Juan Carlos Noria's paintings explore social hierarchies through a blend of pop iconography, current events, and street art motifs, while Wayne White's alterations of found offset lithographs play on the history of pictorial representation and modernist hierarchies. Carol Wainio also addresses the privileging of one form of representation over another, drawing upon the history of book illustration to create paintings that explore class dichotomies and the representation of social status through dress. Meanwhile, Wendy Walgate's colourful ceramic accretions examine the "culture of acquisition, accumulation and display of possessions," as well as the industrial commodification of animals. Through the inclusion of each artist's work, this exhibition explores how commodity culture builds itself up and, as a result, how it also breaks down. – Emily Falvey, Exhibition Curator
EventsOpening
Artist Talk with Wayne White (in English)
Curator Talk with Emily Falvey (in English)
Artist Talk with Michèle Provost (in French)
Family Workshop with artist Wendy Walgate
Artist Talk with Carol Wainio (in English)
PodcastTalk with artist Carol Wainio Part 1
Part 2
Conversation with artist Wayne White and Adrian Harewood, host of All In A Day on CBC.
Conversation with artist Wayne White and Susan Johnston from CKCU.
Talk with curator Emily Falvey.
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