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.
Viewing Room
Surface, Surface
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Curated by Nate McLeod
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Until August 3, 2024
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Extended Online until August 12th
Surface, Surface, curated by Herringer Kiss Gallery artist Nate McLeod, is an overview of emerging painting practices from the Alberta University of the Arts, where McLeod graduated from the Painting department in 2010 and has worked as a technician in the Drawing & Painting departments since 2018. Featuring the work of fourteen alumni and former students – some who majored in painting or work primarily with paint, and others who work with various materials in a painterly way – the exhibition broadly considers what it means for one to be a “painter”.
Ranging from oil, acrylic, gouache, ink, airbrush, and house paint on surfaces including paper, canvas, panel, fabric, wood, and rock to varied processes such as tapestry, sculpture, hand-built ceramics, cyanotype, and quilting, the works in Surface, Surface demonstrate a wide variety of approaches while incorporating key elements of painting: colour, composition, light, movement, texture, space, and surface.
With work by Clinton St. John, godam, Jonathan Wolfe, Juli Song, Lailey Newton, Liam J. Black, May Jones,
Pamela Vickerson, Risa Witten, Robyn Mah, Ryley Williams, Skye Kacsmar-Mayoh, Sydney Paquette,
and Toni Cormier.
A publication will be launched in conjunction with the opening reception in a limited run of fifty copies, and available digitally thereafter, featuring a curatorial statement, artist bios, and answers from each artist to three expansive questions:
what makes a painting a painting?
do you consider yourself a painter?
who are your favourite painters?
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Click here to view the digital publication for Surface, Surface.
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Curator Bio:
Nate McLeod holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Alberta University of the Arts and is represented by Herringer Kiss Gallery. His work is included in private, public, and corporate collections including the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Encana, and Royal Bank of Canada. He has curated several independent exhibitions, was the co-founder and Artistic Director of Avalanche! Institute of Contemporary Art, a former Associate Curator at Contemporary Calgary, and is currently the Educational Art Technician in the Drawing & Painting departments at the Alberta University of the Arts.
