Magnets, Garlic and Diamonds

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Geoffrey Hunter, "Untitled 068," 2019

acrylic on panel, 40" x 40"

Newzones is excited to present Magnets, Garlic and Diamonds, Geoffrey Hunter’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.

Magnets, Garlic and Diamonds is not merely the title of Hunter’s upcoming solo exhibition; to the artist, it is a meditation on futility. Hunter reflects on the scientific revolution; emerging scientists who examined facts through the scientific method, which reminds him of his own artistic practice.

Even with a sense of futility, if persistent, once can find transcendence through the laborious process of routine, observation, calculation, and discipline. During the scientific revolution, the masses believed that garlic could render a magnet inert and that blood would soften a diamond. The fact that a magnet cannot be rendered inert by garlic or that blood did not soften a diamond was not the purpose of the experiment. The purpose was to use the scientific method in order to determine the outcome (the fact).

Of this series, Hunter states:

“At the same time, in my practice, making a painting one dot at a time seems so futile. Laughing at myself, I realize that this feeling of futility is similar to those early scientists, working with Magnets, Garlic and Diamonds.”

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Geoffrey Hunter received his Diploma of Visual Arts from the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, AB, in 1986. His paintings have been widely exhibited across Canada and Europe, and can be found in private and public collections world-wide, including Art Gallery of Alberta, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Department of External Affairs Canada, Fairmont Hotels, Baku, Azerbaijan, and RBC, to name a few.