Aron Hill
Aron Hill currently lives and works in Calgary, Alberta. He graduated from Alberta College of Art and Design in 2000 with a BFA in Interdisciplinary studies. He then completed his MFA at Goldsmiths College, University of London. His work there evolved into installation based projects using traditional drawing and painting methods alongside formal sculptural elements, large format photography and text based work. He has recently been focused on formalist paintings that recall aspects of minimalism and color field paintings though with references to the figure throughout. He finds conceptual company in the late Modernist paintings produced particularly in Canada. The choice of a restricted medium, acrylic ink washes on prepared raw canvas, forces restraint. The work's graphic nature relies on the sheer flatness this medium produces. Aron has exhibited internationally, occasionally lectures, and writes.
Aron Hill
Aron Hill currently lives and works in Calgary, Alberta. He graduated from Alberta College of Art and Design in 2000 with a BFA in Interdisciplinary studies. He then completed his MFA at Goldsmiths College, University of London. His work there evolved into installation based projects using traditional drawing and painting methods alongside formal sculptural elements, large format photography and text based work. He has recently been focused on formalist paintings that recall aspects of minimalism and color field paintings though with references to the figure throughout. He finds conceptual company in the late Modernist paintings produced particularly in Canada. The choice of a restricted medium, acrylic ink washes on prepared raw canvas, forces restraint. The work's graphic nature relies on the sheer flatness this medium produces. Aron has exhibited internationally, occasionally lectures, and writes.
Mitch Kern
Short Bio
Mitch Kern (b. 1965 New York) is a photographer and educator who has been working in the field since the early 1990s. His work has been featured in 75+ exhibitions including over a dozen solo shows. He has an extensive publication record and client list, an MFA in photography from Penn State University and a BA in visual art from the University of Maryland. Kern is an associate professor of photography at the Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary.
His work explores themes of identity, perception, emotion and communication through portraits of people and animals. Using digital, analog and video means he creates images that challenge viewers to question their own assumptions and biases. One example of his work is Wild Suburb, a series of photographs that depict people wearing animal masks in urban settings. The masks create a contrast between the human body and the animal face, suggesting a sense of alienation, confusion or curiosity. The masks also hide the facial expressions of the subjects, making it difficult to read their emotions or intentions. Another example is Conundrums, a series of photographs that show animals interacting with human-made objects or environments. The animals are either curious, playful or fearful of these unfamiliar elements, revealing their personalities and emotions. The photographs also raise questions about the relationship between humans and nature, and how we affect each other’s lives. Kern maintains an active photography practice and teaching career. His work is represented by Herringer Kiss Gallery in Calgary.
Statement
“Behind every camera, behind every photograph, lies a photographer. A photographer with a point of view, with attitudes and beliefs, with fears, hates, needs, wants and desires, of which viewers may be unaware, of which the photographer her or himself may be unaware. I'm interested in how photography is inflected by culture and personality. And how, over time, this has had broad impact upon society, affecting our views upon everything from history to psychology to science to politics to art. As an extension of the human eye the camera discriminates. In the hands of individuals, it pictures some things and excludes others. And what is pictured is done so in certain ways, for example, lovingly, or with contempt. ‘The photographer,’ wrote Susan Sontag, ‘is not simply the person who records the past, but the one who invents it.’ Indeed, photographs both reflect and shape our world in an ongoing dialogue between what authentically originates from within a culture and what is then fed back to that culture in the form of images. Images that are acted upon and beget still more images in an endless cycle of creation and dissolution. The further removed we become in the process the closer we get to what Jean Baudrillard called the “hyperreal,” where representation gives way to simulation. The camera as both taker and maker of images, simultaneously capturing what we see and what we want to see? From a critical perspective this is an alluring paradox. For contemporary photographers consciously constructing images, it opens up a world of possibility.”
