Exhibition: Andrew Dadson

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Cost: Free

Comprising recent and new ambitious large-scale paintings, film and installation, Dadson has consistently engaged with the notion of boundaries in relation to space and time in his work, primarily through investigations with materiality, process and abstraction. His solo exhibition will feature pieces newly made for the exhibition as well as those previously never before exhibited in Canada.

Through different mediums – painting, film, and photography – Dadson explores the possibility to cross the perceptual boundaries of space, both physical and natural, and is thus reflected in his work in an attempt to subvert our perception and usual ways of looking at things. In the works on display repeated, reiterated actions, suggest performative actions to form a visual kaleidoscope. Monochromatic paintings, like sculptural elements integrated in their architectural setting, contain colour, which is poured, spread out, layered and scraped towards the edges, almost reaching the limits of the painting space, acquiring an almost organic, material thickness. It appears as tangible evidence of the artist’s action and of the process that led to the creation of the work. The black and white leave glimpses of other colours in filigree, in a cross-reference to the tradition of American abstract painting, from Rothko to Reinhardt, and Pollock to Rauschenberg.

The exhibition will also include an installation using plant forms and objects sprayed a single colour lit by intense daylight lamps. As the organic matter grows during the time of the exhibition, the unifying painted colour cracks and splinters to reveal the fresh natural colours beneath. Related to this we will show photographic works from Dadson’s artistic research into painting techniques in relation to those of photography. Using a biodegradable black, the artist has painted parts of the suburban landscape in Vancouver, conveying the desolate immensity of areas still unbuilt in his photographs. The result is a sort of temporary black hole, almost a deletion, and his shots immortalize a precise moment, which is destined to fade away when nature once again prevails over the artist’s action.


Andrew Dadson October 13, 2017-January 7, 2018 The Contemporary Art Gallery will present the most comprehensive exhibition to date of work by Vancouver-based artist Andrew Dadson. Although receiving great commercial attention and critical acclaim, Dadson has rarely shown in public institutions. Comprising recent and new ambitious large-scale paintings, film and installation, Dadson has consistently engaged with the notion of boundaries in relation to space and time in his work, primarily through investigations with materiality, process and abstraction. His solo exhibition will feature pieces newly made for the exhibition as well as those previously never before exhibited in Canada. Through different mediums – painting, film, and photography – Dadson explores the possibility to cross the perceptual boundaries of space, both physical and natural, and is thus reflected in his work in an attempt to subvert our perception and usual ways of looking at things. In the works on display repeated, reiterated actions, suggest performative actions to form a visual kaleidoscope. Monochromatic paintings, like sculptural elements integrated in their architectural setting, contain colour, which is poured, spread out, layered and scraped towards the edges, almost reaching the limits of the painting space, acquiring an almost organic, material thickness. It appears as tangible evidence of the artist’s action and of the process that led to the creation of the work. The black and white leave glimpses of other colours in filigree, in a cross-reference to the tradition of American abstract painting, from Rothko to Reinhardt, and Pollock to Rauschenberg. The exhibition will also include an installation using plant forms and objects sprayed a single colour lit by intense daylight lamps. As the organic matter grows during the time of the exhibition, the unifying painted colour cracks and splinters to reveal the fresh natural colours beneath. Related to this we will show photographic works from Dadson’s artistic research into painting techniques in relation to those of photography. Using a biodegradable black, the artist has painted parts of the suburban landscape in Vancouver, conveying the desolate immensity of areas still unbuilt in his photographs. The result is a sort of temporary black hole, almost a deletion, and his shots immortalize a precise moment, which is destined to fade away when nature once again prevails over the artist’s action.
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