Stephen Andrews (artist) explained

Stephen Andrews
Birth Place:Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
Awards:Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts (2019)
Known For:multimedia artist

Stephen Andrews (born 1956) is a Canadian artist based in Toronto. He is known for using various media to explore matters such as memory and loss, and technology, and its representations.[1] [2]

Art practice

The artist has stated that in his work he renders "the digital, the dot matrix in print reproduction, film or television technologies...by hand in an attempt to represent both the message and the means by which it is delivered."[3] By using a technique that gives equal weight to both media and message of his chosen topics, Andrews creates a space for reflection on our daily consumption of the imagery we get from what he calls "virtual or ether" media.[4] The portrait series of graphite-and-oil-rubbed wax tablets, Facsimile (1991–1992) uses obituary portraits of men who have died from HIV/AIDS as source material, "reproduced from faxed images...the details are pixellated, smudgy."[5] By this method, "Facsimile... designates the technology of reproduction and transmission that inhabits the images."[6] Atom Egoyan writing about a show he curated of Andrews' work notes, "Facsimile's most haunting aspect...is how it traces the erosion and evolution of personal identity from an anonymous mediated source."[7]

While Andrews' output prior to 1996 tends to be in black and white or monochrome,[8] around this time he introduced colour into his work. The Weather Series (1996) begins the artists' extended investigation into the processes of colour generation and the four-colour separation printing processes.[8] For Andrews, weather provides an analogy for the quickly changing circumstances of life, which he likens to his own experience of living with HIV.[9] Andrews' method of homemade colour separation evokes both the 19th-century painting technique of Pointillism "in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image", and the Ben-Day dots of mechanical printing. But Andrews creates works that "hover at legibility."[8] "The pixilation or dot matrix completely obscures details, making specifics impossible to see. We can't grasp the full picture."[4] The series of rubbed-crayon drawings, The Quick and the Dead (2004), feature stills derived from video footage of the Iraq war.[8] Considered in relation to the source material Andrews uses, the work has political implications, "suggesting the impossibility of knowing the circumstances and contexts of what they depict".[10] The artist has stated the series is: Andrews also used 600 drawings from the series to create his one-minute animation, The Quick and the Dead (2004). In Cartoon (2007), he continues to use media sources to create drawings.[11]

Trump Tower Commission (Toronto)

The Trump Tower in Toronto commissioned a mosaic version of the Andrews' work A small part of something larger (2009). As part of his development of the work, Andrews created The View From Here a large-scale triptych of a "tightly cropped crowd scene"[12] The mosaic of 500,000 small porcelain, glass, stone and gold tiles was crafted by Montreal-based Mosaika Art & Design.[13] [14]

Selected publications

Selected exhibitions

Selected public collections

Awards

Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts (2019)[21]

References

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Book: "From Pop to Postmodernism". The Visual Arts in Canada: the Twentieth Century. Sloan . Johanne . 275. 2010. Oxford University Press. Foss, Brian, Paikowsky, Sandra, Whitelaw, Anne (eds.). 978-0-19-542125-5. Don Mills, Ont.. 432401392 .
  2. Web site: Artist Spotlight . artbank.ca . Canada Council Art Bank . 2021-04-13.
  3. Web site: Stephen Andrews Artist – Artist statement . Stephenandrewsartist.com . November 12, 2011.
  4. Web site: Stephanie Rogerson / Toronto / Thursday, October 27, 2005 . Art review: Stephen Andrews . Xtra.ca . October 27, 2005 . November 12, 2011.
  5. Web site: Light . Whitney . Canadian Art – Mnemonic Devices: The Persistence of Memory . Canadianart.ca . November 12, 2011.
  6. http://ccca.finearts.yorku.ca/c/writing/e/esch/esc001t.html
  7. Web site: Stephen Andrews . CUE Art Foundation . November 12, 2011.
  8. Web site: Nagel . Alexander . Canadian Art – Picture Maker . Canadianart.ca . November 12, 2011 . 30 September 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110930094253/http://www.canadianart.ca/art/features/2007/12/01/picturemaker/ . dead .
  9. Web site: Out of the Blue 2009 | Stephen Andrews . Firstpulseprojects.net . November 12, 2011.
  10. Web site: Ryan Hayward – Alberta College of Art + Design . Stephen Andrews . ACAD . February 3, 2011 . November 12, 2011.
  11. Book: "From Pop to Postmodernism". The Visual Arts in Canada: the Twentieth Century. Sloan . Johanna . 275–276. 2010. Oxford University Press. Foss, Brian, Paikowsky, Sandra, Whitelaw, Anne (eds.). 978-0-19-542125-5. Don Mills, Ont.. 432401392 .
  12. Web site: McLaughlin . Bryne . Canadian Art – Stephen Andrews: An Interview on the Lightness of Being . Canadianart.ca . November 12, 2011.
  13. "The 1% Public-Art Solution". The Montreal Gazette. Saturday, October 25, 2008. B1
  14. Web site: Challenge Montreal: City of art . .canada.com . October 25, 2008 . November 12, 2011.
  15. Web site: Stephen Andrews POV . ago.ca . Art Gallery of Ontario . 2021-04-16.
  16. Web site: Collection . /tms.artgalleryofhamilton.com . Art Gallery of Hamilton . 2021-04-16.
  17. Web site: Collection . www.oakvillegalleries.com . Oakville Galleries . 2021-04-16.
  18. Web site: Collection . agnes.queensu.ca . Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston . 2021-04-16.
  19. Web site: Collection . collections.artmuseum.utoronto.ca:8080 . Art Museum, U. of Toronto . 2021-04-16.
  20. Web site: Collection . www.facebook.com . Judith & Norman Alix Gallery, Sarnia . 2021-04-16.
  21. Web site: Stephen Andrews . www.youtube.com . Governor General's Awards . 17 August 2022.

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