BLUE Patrick Mahon March 31 - May 20, 2007 The exhibition BLUE presents a selection of works produced by Patrick Mahon over the past several years including Veil (2004) and Small Mountains Series (2006). Each of the works depicts a liquid in a particular, evocative state – whether caught in suspension, animation, or at rest. The particular liquids represented appear to be water, but more importantly, each work functions metaphorically in relation to ideas of passage and transition. In an era of climate change, the works in the exhibition remind us of our shifting relationship to seasons, meteorological occurrences, natural disasters and their representations. Call for Participation During the months of April and May, Patrick Mahon was a resident at our community partner United Media Arts (UMAS) in Durham. He worked on a community-based art project called Drawing Water. An information session about the project and ways you can participate was held Thursday, April 12 from 7 to 8:30pm at the Durham Art Gallery. This residency is sponsored in part by the Ontario Arts Council. In Veil Mahon employs the droplet mark in a layered, evocative way within a large-scale blue and white, two-part curtain. In this work, double layers of vinyl, silk-screened with unlikely patterns of large and small droplets are separated by florescent tubes that create a cool glow within the piece, suggesting a frozen waterfall and a homely shower curtain at the same time. Mahon’s Small Mountains Series is based on images of snow banks he drew in Baker Lake, Nunavut, in 2005. Produced using resin liquid stenciled onto plexiglas and silk-screened onto styrofoam, the works recall souvenir representations of nature and the landscape often found printed on cards, towels and other trinkets. Here the familiar small mountains are poetic and at times beautiful: depicting liquid frozen in a state of rest. They also act as symbolic reminders of the environmental vulnerability of our homeland. Also in this show are two new drawings, Vitrine I & II, that employ the museum case as a container of refuse and of the threatened land or waterscape. A related sculpture will appear alongside these new works that Mahon produced while working in an artist’s residency in New York recently. Patrick Mahon is an artist, writer/curator and teacher who lives in London, Ontario. Mahon is Chair of the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Western Ontario (1999 to present). Born in Winnipeg and educated at the School of Art at the University of Manitoba in the late 70’s, Patrick Mahon’s art practice has focused on the discourse surrounding and the production of print-based art works for over 25 years. His exhibition history includes public venues across Canada including Museum London, the Textile Museum in Toronto, The Southern Alberta Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Hamilton. International shows have taken him to China, the Czech Republic, Scotland, Italy and England. He is represented by the Leo Kamen Gallery in Toronto.

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