Foreword

I’ve fortunately had the privilege of growing up at Abbozzo Gallery and so, also with the artwork of Dan Steeves, who first exhibited with us almost 20 years ago. To draw from Steeves’ -- and Hartman’s -- concept of the “home landscape” , the place which becomes the benchmark for all others, perhaps no descriptor defines my experience growing up as growing up in the gallery with awe-inducing artists such as Dan Steeves. Steeves work often broaches the subject of childhood, time, change, and constancy or the lack thereof; and here I am with the unique pleasure of having Dan Steeves’ artwork be a part of my own childhood, and a constant ever since at the gallery. I would be remiss to not mention I’m incredibly excited, almost giddy, to be part of his first solo exhibition here in close to a decade and our patience, our waiting, is being rewarded with these two incredible series The Waiting Game and One Step Closer to Knowing. The landscapes of these two series depart slightly from the southern rural New Brunswick we’re used to, rooted in Cathedral Grove of the Pacific Rim National Reserve and the Christina Olsen Colonial home, yet seem still familiar as Steeves meditates on the passing of time, or the seasons of life: his father-in-law sitting amongst the Old Growth Forest in The Quiet and Mostly Hidden Life, fresh crayon drawings scribbled on walls by children in old colonial homes throughout One Step Closer to Knowing, or the juxtaposition of shorts-clad figure and an ice skater in Often it Feels Like Enough; these images simultaneously expanding and collapsing our conceptions of time and the passing of it to great effect.

Blake Zigrossi, Abbozzo Gallery