ANDREW DADSON

Andrew Dadson is a multidisciplinary artist who works in a variety of media including painting, photography, and installation. Central to Dadson’s work is, as he describes, a “deep interest in the social contracts shaping the natural environment, from which he creates artworks that investigate and reflect on the landscape and highlight a constantly changing environment.” His practice focuses on questioning where boundaries begin and end. Dadson lives and works in Vancouver on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. His work is held in such notable institutions as the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Audain Art Museum. He is represented by Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Recently, Dadson’s work was included in Out of Control: The Concrete Art of Skateboarding at the Audain Art Museum.

Dadson’s practice is characterized by his thick handling of paint, as seen in Paint Crest (White). He often begins with undercoats of bright colours, and topcoats of black or white. These layers are scraped, pushed, and dragged, then piled on again. In this series, he scrapes layers of paint toward each of the four edges of a stretched canvas, such that the excess paint forms a ridge in relief. This technique creates the effect of the canvas being ripped back to reveal a bright white undercoat, with the bold painted hues being relegated to the borders of the composition.