COLLEEN HESLIN
OUTCASTS AND SHADY TREES
MONTE CLARK GALLERY
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $157 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi 157 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.
MONTE CLARK GALLERY This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition: Colleen Heslin, Outcasts and Shady Trees Monte Clark Gallery June 7 – July 5, 2014
Installation photos: David James / The Kreative Video: Noravera Visuals Design: Monte Clark Gallery Front cover image: Colleen Heslin, Half Moon Bay, 2014, 60 x 48 images
COPYRIGHT NOTICE Images may not be reproduced, copied, transmitted or manupulated without written permission. All rights reserved. © Copyright 2014 Monte Clark Gallery
MONTE CLARK GALLERY #105 - 525 Great Northern Way Vancouver, BC Canada V5T 1E1 604 730 5000 info@monteclarkgallery.com www.monteclarkgallery.com
Click toto view video Click view videovideo Click to view
Challenging traditional conventions in painting has established Colleen Heslin as an emerging leader in contemporary Canadian art. Known for her innovative textile-based methods, Heslin develops textures with ink and dye on second-hand fabrics, which upon inspection reveal themselves as collage-based, process-formed trompe l’oeil. Considering Modern histories of painting and social aspects of the medium regarding gender and labor, Heslin’s work engages with material conversations connected through medium crossovers. Heslin pushes the limits of painting; it’s definitions, classifications and hierarchies, disrupting medium-based expectations.
The paintings in Outcasts and Shady Trees follow material traditions of re-use in quilt-making, offering a shifted perspective where an off-cut edge is cycled into the centre of new work. These central abstract forms gesture towards figures in landscapes, pausing on poetics of the outcast, questioning what is lost and/or gained through perceptual shifts. In a similar fashion of recycling, Heslin’s sculptural work is developed from discarded construction hardware. These linear works form sculptural scribbles that play on structural material tendencies and aesthetic associations, where piping and rope morph into abstracted figures and larger then life accessories.
Colleen Heslin graduated with an MFA from Concordia University in 2014. Her work has been shown at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery (Montreal), SFU Gallery, Burnaby Art Gallery, Unit/Pitt Projects, Kinderhook & Caracas (Germany), RATS Collective (Switzerland), and numerous other venues. Her work has been written on and published in Canadian Art, Artforum, Pyramid Power and other Canadian and international periodicals. Heslin won the RBC Painting Competition in 2013.
Colleen Heslin Untitled, 2014 Rope, nail polish, metal and acrylic 144 x 16 x 2 inches
Colleen Heslin Ambrosia Sunrise 2014 Ink and dye on fabric 48 x 36 inches
Colleen Heslin Ambrosia Sunrise, 2014 Ink and dye on cotton 48 x 36 inches
Colleen Heslin Dandelion, 2014 Ink and dye on cotton 24 x 18 inches
Colleen Heslin Film Noir, 2014 Ink and dye on cotton 48 x 36 inches
Colleen Heslin Half Moon Bay, 2014 Ink and dye on cotton 60 x 48 inches
Colleen Heslin Smoking Gun, 2014 Ink and dye on cotton 60 x 48 inches
Colleen Heslin Sunday Morning, 2014 Ink and dye on cotton 48 x 36 inches
Colleen Heslin Untitled, 2014 Ink and dye on cotton 60 x 48 inches
Colleen Heslin Marigold, 2014 Ink and dye on cotton 40 x 30 inches
Colleen Heslin Violet, 2014 Ink and dye on cotton 40 x 30 inches
Colleen Heslin Untitled, 2014 Rebar, rope and enamel 57 x 51 x 40 inches