Nicholas Metivier Gallery is thrilled to present an exhibition of new paintings by Charles Bierk, Where were we?, opening Saturday, October 4th. There will be an opening reception with the artist present from 1-3PM. RSVP here.
Charles Bierk has spent the last fourteen years immersed in the language of portraiture. He spent the decades before that surrounded by a family of prominent Canadian artists. In this new suite of works, Bierk returns to painting people from the spiderweb of the Toronto art scene: fellow painters, sculptors, and models. He invites them to his studio to be photographed and then sorts through hundreds of these photographs before beginning to paint, searching for a moment that can spark intrigue.
“Working in large-scale, black and white oil paint, I aim to render people not just as they appear, but as they are remembered—monumental, complex, and present. This practice has always been deeply personal. My thesis exhibition, On Loss, was rooted in the grief of losing both of my parents at a young age. That absence shaped the way I see people and the way I paint them—placing them prominently in time, preserving their presence, and celebrating a simulated permanence on canvas.” - Charles Bierk
