Michael Hermesh: Metaphors for Liars

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Michael Hermesh

Michael Hermesh, “'I am a cage, in search of a bird' -Franz Kafka,” 2024

acrylic on panel, 23.25 x 17.25 in (courtesy of the artist)

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 21st, 2025 from 1 – 4 pm

In Metaphors for Liars, Canadian contemporary artist Michael Hermesh delivers a powerful meditation on the slipperiness of truth, the theatre of human experience, and the role of the artist as both witness and storyteller. Known for his richly narrative sculpture and painting, Hermesh builds symbolic worlds where fictional dramas more accurately express reality than any literal account.

Drawing from his belief that “truth is an orphan waiting to be named—once named, it becomes a lie,” Hermesh positions art not as explanation but as an act of seeing. The works in this exhibition are not answers; they are metaphors—flawed, layered, and alive. Figures inhabit moments of tension, irony, and vulnerability, embodying the contradictions and revelations of lived experience. These are not depictions of life as grace, but as a persistent, dynamic struggle, in which integrity and awareness serve as our rare constants.

Metaphors for Liars invites viewers into a space where meaning is always shifting, and where the act of creation becomes both an assertion of truth and an admission of its limits.

Biography:

Michael Hermesh was born in Spiritwood, Saskatchewan, in 1955. He studied art at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Hermesh's sculptures, which most often reflect his interest in figurative sculpture, can be found in collections throughout Canada, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Chile, the United States, and Spain. His sculpture “The Frieze of the Arts” has been installed publicly at the Summerland Arts Centre in Summerland, British Columbia since 2001. Other pieces that are displayed outdoors include “Standing Man” at the Summerland Ornamental Gardens, “Frank the Baggage Handler” at the Red Rooster Winery in Penticton, British Columbia, and “Getting To Know You” at the Ruby Blues Winery, also in Penticton.