GENERAL HARDWARE CART 0 HOMEARTISTS EXHIBITIONS SHOPNEWSART FAIRSCONTACT FEATURED ALEX BIERK “How do you let go?” November 18 - January (front gallery space) Through a personal lens, Bierk’s painting practice has focused on his experience with addiction and loss, being a new father, and archiving his experiences in small town Ontario – where he grew up and has subsequently returned with his family. The works are as much an attempt to reconcile the past as they are the future. Bierk strives to capture candid and authentic expressions of the often conflicted, ephemeral intersection of past and present. His painting practice draws on both personal photography and photorealistic painting traditions to create images that express the complex processes of memory, history, and place. Bierk’s labour-intensive works combine personal history with wider economic and social contexts, resulting in paintings that express the complexities of emotional and lived realities. DOWNLOAD IMAGE LIST GRAHAM GILLMORE Oceanica November 18 - January (back gallery space) Freud uses the term “Oceanic Feeling” to refer to the sensation of eternity and an expansive connection to the world around us. Through his visual use of language, Graham Gillmore shows us that communication can both connect and distance at the same time. His text fragments often examine conflicting sources of knowledge: science and religion, as well as personal and universal human experiences. In Gillmore’s new works, text is overpowered by botanical forms, some of which reference Matisse’s “Cut-Outs.” While Matisse made his forms using scissors and colourful paper, Gillmore uses an air compressor to produce unexpected shapes that are organic and botanical. Emblematic of nature and growth, these vibrant shapes disrupt the legibility of Gillmore’s text fragments, pointing to an acceptance of nature’s inevitable ascendancy over all things. A related series of new drawings explores aspects of identity and social anxiety, change and uncertainty, transformation and growth. As a whole, Oceanica delves into the complexities of psychic emotional landscapes. DOWNLOAD IMAGE LIST PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS CHRISTIAN ECKART October 16 - November 13 ARTORONTO.CA REVIEW by Mikael Sandblom DOWNLOAD IMAGE LIST MARGAUX SMITH: THE BLUE HOUR October 16 - November 13 (In The Project Space) DOWNLOAD IMAGE LIST Join our email list SUBSCRIBE General Hardware Contemporary 1520 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON, M6R 1A4, Canada 4168213060 info@generalhardware.ca