Imprint
In his practice, Hamilton artist Simon Frank engages the world of nature as an aesthetic frame of reference, employing processes that emulate the natural cycles of life.
Following in the traditions of environmental art, he makes temporal works in and of the earth. Embracing notions of change and duration, his subtle interventions also underscore the vulnerability of our natural resources, the displacement of nature by architecture and urban development, and the consequences of industrialization. Ultimately, Simon Frank’s approach to art-making gestures towards redefining the relationship of human culture with nature.
Complementing Sketch for New Forest, his earlier 2007 performance-installation in the Koffler Gallery, Frank will produce an exterior site-work, Imprint, employing the iconography of a solitary tree as a symbol of constant renewal and regeneration. Projecting a full-sized image of a tree on the grounds of the centre, Frank will overlay material onto the grass to inhibit its growth beneath. When removed, the shadowy silhouette is revealed. Gesturing towards the past and the future, the residual traces elicit the physical memory of a tree in the landscape.
Simon Frank was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1968 and lives in Hamilton, Ontario. He received an Honours BA from the University of Guelph in 1991. Frank has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Ontario over the past ten years. His recent sited artworks include The Gallery that Went for a Walk in the Woods (2000) at the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Sculpting twenty-two “meta-burrs,” each nearly two feet in diameter, he arranged them in casual formations on the building façade. In 2004, Frank participated in LANDeSCAPES, a two-person exhibition with Reinhard Reitzenstein at McMaster University, Museum of Art, Hamilton, which featured documentation of his performance Brush (the land paints a picture of itself). Referencing 19th century practices of plein air painting, Frank produced a landscape painting in the midst of a field wielding a twelve foot cedar tree as his brush.
Reception and Gallery Talk: Imprint will be on view on the grounds of the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre from May 10 to September 9, 2007, with an opening reception on Sunday, May 13 from 1 to 3 pm and a closing reception of Thursday, September 6, from 7 to 9 pm in the gallery lobby.
Publication: A publication produced by the Koffler Gallery documenting Simon Frank’s interior and exterior projects, and featuring an essay by Montreal visual arts critic John Grande, will be available in July 2007.
Group Tours and Workshops: Gallery talks and tours are free. Group tours and workshops are also available and are offered in both French and English. For information, please call Mona Filip, Education Coordinator at (416) 636-1880 x270.
Gallery Location: The Koffler Gallery/Koffler Centre of the Arts, located at the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre, 4588 Bathurst Street, three stoplights (two TTC stops) north of Sheppard Ave. The Gallery is accessible by TTC via the Bathurst 7 bus north from the Bloor/Bathurst subway station, or the 160 Bathurst North bus from Wilson subway station. Buses stop at the BJCC.
