Aidan Urquhart: Heaven and Hell

Additional Information

Other associated events: Artist talk and Opening reception, Friday, May 8, 7:30 pm
Artist collage workshop, Saturday, May 9, 2:00 pm, Public Meeting Room 1, Central Library

A self-proclaimed art terrorist, over the last decade Aidan Urquhart’s suspicious activities have included drawing, photography, painting, collage, guerrilla street interventions, and installation. Responsible for planned attacks on nostalgia, pop culture, politics, advertising, and humour, Urquhart’s tendencies are subversive. W.O.W. includes several significant bodies of Urquhart’s work, including a series of three BOOT paintings and the installation HOUSE: Thinking my way home, in which the artist surveyed people across the country, who answered the question of what “home” meant to them. Also included will be Gourd Heads, Growing Up Strong in a Weak World, a series of 70 photocopies arranged on the wall, forming an image of a giant baby clenching his fists. A Mad Dog painting, and a sampling of Urquhart’s fax and mail art projects will provide background context to the artist’s practice. Aidan’s newest body of work, Heaven and Hell, (2008) derives of circular masonite boards that problematize the cliché binaries that we commonly associate with the domains of “above and below”.

Born and raised in London, Ontario, Urquhart was educated at the University of Western Ontario and Fanshawe College. He has been exhibiting his work across Canada since the early 1990s. Fascinated by the dynamics of communication, he is recognized both fondly and with irritation for his numerous national and international mail-art and Fax-art projects.

Aidan Urquhart, The Boot Series, 2005 - 2008.