Value: $3,000
From the Collection of Ron and Susan Holliday
Artist Bio:
Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Gary Spearin studied art at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, BFA 1981 and University of Guelph, MFA 1997. He has been recipient of numerous awards including Canada Council Grants, Ontario Arts Council Grants, and Public Commissions. Spearin has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions within Canada as well as in the United Kingdom and the United States. His artwork is in private and public collections, including The Canada Council Art Bank, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Kelowna Art Gallery, University of Lethbridge, and the painting collection of Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt, Toronto. (from artists website)
Artist Statement:
Spearin’s multi-media installations of the last two decades utilized painting both on and off the canvas. A repertoire of painting techniques and styles had been employed to magnify issues of site and context within museums, private and public galleries, public and domestic architecture, and the natural and historic landscape. Since the millennium a studio-based approach has directed a focus primarily on the construction of the painted image. Spearin’s original and technically sophisticated processes create optical and visceral sensations that construct independent images that demand a creative process with the viewer. These challenging images oscillate between the representational and the abstract.