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 Montreal. Born in British Columbia, she graduated with Honors from Emily Carr College of Art (1986) and completed an M.F.A. at Corcordia 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).
I find that in the painting process the image undergoes a mutation that results in an image of a tree that looks neither fully natural nor unnatural. It looks somewhat hallucinatory –simultaneously quotidian and supernatural –both "tree" and "not tree". I also try to underscore this effect by painting the images life-size so they have a physical presence similar to that of an actual tree and by depicting them in "natural" light.
With the Gods and Monsters series I took a major element from my previous paintings (trees) and headed into new territory by emphasizing the more surreal or preternatural aspects of my work. I have made ten finished paintings in this "pantheon" of tree/creatures.
