Jeremy Hof: Paint Rocks Paper Works

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Jeremy Hof, "Paint Rocks," 2017

acrylic paint

Jeremy Hof is known for his singular, innovative use of paint. His work often takes the form of colourful, abstract sculptures and paintings, testing the limits of what paint can do. His oeuvre is process, and playfully blurring the lines delineating traditional artistic mediums. Hof’s works defy expectations of their arduous, minimalist forms; they are lively instead of cold, inviting rather than opaque.

In Hof’s Paper Works the artist uses paper as a substrate, composing a work with flat layers of acrylic paint. As the multiple colours accumulate into a sculptural form— a hyperbolic gesture of mark making—the original support becomes redundant. Its shrinking, undulating edges buckle under the weight of the paint, comically illustrating the tragic failure of its intended purpose. The works are framed behind glass, customary for drawings and other works on paper, further emphasizing the disconnect between medium-related expectations and the solid, sculptural blocks of paint Hof has created.

Alongside Hof’s Paper Works is displayed a set of Paint Rocks, pastel and pop coloured and cast in acrylic paint. The origins of these pieces are offcuts of traditional sculptural media, including soapstone and alabaster. Each stone includes the mark of tools, exhibiting flat and smooth facets that hint at their intended material nature. The Paint Rocks are cheeky in their dialogue with both painting and sculpture, but also exhibit a sense of reverence at their creation — each one takes approximately two years to make, and like many of Hof’s works their form alone is a triumph.

Jeremy Hof’s work has been exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Ottawa Art Gallery, the Richmond Art Gallery, Galerie de l’UQAM, the Mendel Art Gallery, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Power Plant, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), and numerous other venues. His work is collected by the Vancouver Art Gallery, BMO collection, RBC collection, TD Bank collection, and others. In 2008, Hof was the winner of the RBC Painting Competition.