BLACK & BLUE: A VENN DIAGRAM, or THREE RETROSPECTIVES

press release

BLACK & BLUE: A VENN DIAGRAM, or THREE RETROSPECTIVES

A SOLO EXHIBITION BY BRUCE EVES AT THE ROBERT KANANAJ GALLERY

The Robert Kananaj Gallery is pleased to announce a solo retrospective exhibition by Bruce Eves, 2018 winner of the Governor-General’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Visual and Media Arts.

The exhibition, “Black and Blue: a Venn Diagram, or Three Retrospectives” is Eves’ first solo exhibition in Toronto since 2018.

In a statement, Eves states that “needless to say, during the early months of 2021 I found myself with a lot of time on my hands. I began to take stock, casting a cold glance back over the past forty years or so of activity looking for patterns, false starts, forgotten gems . . . The result was three thick binders containing the mocked-up layouts for three retrospective books, that in order of completion are Work # 1038: Black and Blue – A Retrospective of Never (or Rarely) Seen Works (1976-2021)” “Work # 1039: Me Me Me – A Retrospective of Forty-Eight Self-Portraits (1952-2021)” and “Work # 1042: Works With Words – (1976-2021)” covering the period 1976-2021 (with the occasional trip even further back).”

Because of a degree of overlap between the three distinct volumes the project forms a Venn diagram. This is the widely-used style that employs overlapping circles to illustrate the logical relation between sets, in which the diagrams are used to illustrate the simple relationships between probability, logic, and statistics.

“Work # 1038: Black and Blue” riffs on the meanings of those two words in visual form – blue is both sadness and sexual; black is the colour of mourning and menace; together they are the colour of bruising. The self-portraits presented in “Work # 1039: Me Me Me” show a level of authenticity that makes clear these works were never destined for Instagram (and it’s not without a sense of irony that in many cases the artist does not appear in any recognizable form). The third and final book, “Work # 1042: Works With Words – (1976-2021)” is, as implied by the title a series of objects that involve textual incursions into the domain of the visual.

In the end “Black and Blue: a Venn diagram, or Three Retrospectives” is a work intended for quiet contemplation (even though the odds are strong that along the way you’ll be hollered at by this or that image or text). The complete work consists of 120 works and 58 texts spread across 420 pages in three binders that are at once shocking and serene, introspective and bombastic, contrarian and ironic, furious, filthy, and funny bracketing our belief that one might fashion artistic assertions from one’s own lived experiences.

Accompanying the works in the (mocked-up) books are newly created miniature versions of the unique digital photographs, installations, texts, and other media that span Bruce Eves’ art career and are presented in chronological order. They are digital photographs mounted on 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20” x 16”) boards and are offered in small editions.

The exhibition opens Saturday September 25, 2021.

The artist is available for interviews.

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