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.
Renée Duval
Renée Duval lives and works in Vancouver. Born in British Columbia, she graduated with Honors from Emily Carr College of Art (1986) and completed an M.F.A. at Concordia University in Montreal. (1991) Her work has been exhibited across Canada and she has participated in exhibitions in the United States and France. Her work can be found in numerous public as well as private collections and she has received several grants from both the Canada Council for the Arts as well as the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec. Renée's work was included in the publications Carte Blanche Vol 2-Painting (2008) and The RBC Painting Competition: 10 years (2008).
In her most recent work, symmetrical plant life has been formed into a series of large heads that are both explicit and implied. These “portraits” are iconic in their presentation and totemic in their symmetry. Duval’s paintings have long been characterized by a fidelity to the alchemy of representational painting as well as a passionate engagement to the language of painting. As a painter, she is strongly influenced by both western and non-western art history.
For many years Renée has used the image of the tree in her paintings as a way to explore ideas about a sense of presence and the natural world. Since 2011 Duval has created paintings of symmetrical trees that she paints from photo-collages. The resulting works are somewhat hallucinatory - both resolutely realistic as well as supernatural.
