Biography
James Kirkpatrick Biography
James Kirkpatrick, born in London, ON in 1977, attended H.B. Beal Secondary School and received his BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2002. He has exhibited his work extensively throughout the US and Canada including shows in new York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Halifax, Toronto and Vancouver. In 2009 Kirkpatrick was featured in the group show Pulp Fiction, which traveled from Museum London to the Mocca in Toronto and St. Mary’s University Art Gallery, Halifax.
Also known for his participation in the early Canadian graffiti movement and as avant-garde hip-hop artist, Thesis Sahib, Kirkpatrick works in a variety of media including drawing, painting, zines, mask-making and experimental sound improvisation. In recent years his work has incorporated sculptural, kinetic and auditory elements, as he combines his 2D aesthetic with circuit-bent electronics.
Jason McLean Biography
His mom’s Elvis scrapbook and dad’s homemade car ads got Jason McLean into art. Now John Candy, Andy Kaufman and non-alcoholic beer are among his inspirations. McLean was born in London, ON in 1971. After attending H.B. Beal Art Program with Marc Bell and Peter Thompson, many things happened. McLean uses humour to touch upon challenging subjects. McLean is represented by Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, Toronto and Allegra LaViola, NYC.
Statement
Although Kirkpatrick and McLean maintain independent art practices, they enjoy working together on a series of artworks, of which these two pieces are a part.
James began these drawings in 2009 and Jason worked on them in 2011, just after the Not Bad for London show at Michael Gibson Gallery. Jason did the text-based work and James the colour.
The pieces are like maps of daily life; of automatic thinking, stream of consciousness type thinking with sample text from the things we were seeing or listening to. Visuals are graffiti inspired… like amoeba trains.