Phil Irish: Watershed (River Grand Chronicles #6)
May 15 - July 5, 2009
Public Reception: Friday May 22, 2009, 7 - 9 p.m.
View the Watershed e-invitation >
View the River Grand Chronicles 6, 7 & 8 Catalogue>
Organized by KW|AG

Phil Irish, Contain and Release, 2009. Oil on panel, 170 cm x 240 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.

In recent years, Phil Irish's painting practice has relied on a form of collaborative cartography. In collecting hand-drawn maps from diverse groups of people, Irish is able to form a likeness of a place that aims to communicate more than just the physical attributes of land. For Irish and his collaborators, cartography is hardly an objective pursuit. These maps locate places of personal significance - places of revelation, trauma, or even solace.

These narratives, often annotated by the collaborators on their maps, become a crucial means by which Irish understands the landscape around him. When visiting and documenting the physical sites described by the maps, there is sometimes a discrepancy between his experience and that of his collaborators. These "points of tension and confluence between two different points of view" are often evidenced by a collision between representation and some form of abstraction within a single work, a tense reminder that the "document" is never fully objective.

Watershed is a continuation of this process with a specific focus on the people and the landscape along the Grand River. A lifeguard's account of saving a girl's life, a believer's account of baptism, and a young couple on the cusp of a new relationship are just a few of the narratives Irish draws from the river. In Watershed, the River is cast as a metaphor for transition and renewal - an essential way of looking at our evolving landscape today.

Read more about Watershed on the Things of Desire Weekly >

About Phil Irish
Phil Irish received a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art and English Literature from the University of Guelph in 1995. He has exhibited at public museums, artist-run-centres, and commercial galleries include Oakville Galleries, Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Galerie Joyce Yahouda, Angell Gallery, and AKA Artist Run Centre. His contribution to the Francophonie International Painting Competition was exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada. La Manif d'Art 4, Quebec City's biennial, featured his work, as have group exhibitions across Canada and the United States. He has developed new work during residencies in Newfoundland, at the Symposium in Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec, and as the City of Kitchener's Artist in Residence. He was short listed for the Kingston Prize, Canada's national portrait competition. To learn more about Phil Irish, visit www.philirish.com.