ROBIN PECK: Crania

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Image courtesy of the artist, taken by Rachel Topham Photography.

Robin Peck, “Sculpture (Crania 61),” 2016-2017

Upper section materials from the center: Sandstone, plaster, aluminum, steel, burlap and plaster, porcelain clay, steel, plaster, shellac, carnauba wax. Lower section materials from top to bottom: Quartz, steel, Hydrocal, steel, Plexiglas, rubber, steel, Hydrocal, plaster, shellac, carnauba wax. approx. 14” x 15” x 13” Weight approx. 48 lb.

RELATED EVENTS

RECEPTION: September 13, 4:30 - 6:30 pm

CURATOR’S TALK: David MacWilliam, September  12, 12:00 noon, 364 ARTlab

ARTIST TALK: Robin Peck, September 13, 6:30 pm, 136 ARTlab

Crania, curated by Doug Kirton and David MacWilliam, is an exhibition of 12 mixed-media sculptures, selected from more than one hundred made since 2012 by Canadian artist, writer and educator Robin Peck, currently living in Fredericton, NB.

Each artwork in the series are titled with name, year, size, and the materials that constitute their forms:

Sculpture (Crania 112), Materials from the center: Hydrocal, Styrofoam, lead, pottery plaster (signed: Robin Peck, 2009), gold paint, Hydrocal, ceramic, Hydrocal and burlap, gravel, Hydrocal, shellac, carnauba wax. Size: 12 × 16 × 15 in. Weight 33 lb. 2009-2018

Referencing both figurative and minimalist sculptural practices, Peck uses materials that are often associated with the detritus of the factory floor, the stuff of the studio, the garage, or the shed out back. The materials speak to the forms he is shaping (some resemble a mound, a dome, perhaps a head). Through an organic, open-ended system of inclusion, Peck moulds, pats and rasps these materials into forms that are determined both by the limits of the hand and the matter that makes up their mass. The mark of the hand is clearly evident in the shaping, attention to surface and final patina. These are sculptures that invite contemplation and reinforce the body as a primal way of knowing.

Seen together these sculptures rely on comparison to foreground acts of collection, selection and arrangement, with Peck’s pre-industrial methods harkening back to an earlier material past and intimates a foreboding in anticipation of the uncertainty of a dystopian post-industrial future.

About the Artist

Since receiving his MFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in 1976, Robin Peck has exhibited across Canada and internationally. His artwork and writing have appeared in C Magazine, Parachute, Vanguard, Boo Magazine, Canadian Art, and the Vancouver Anthology. Since 2005, he has taught visual arts at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

A new book of Robin Peck’s essays: Journey to the Circumference of the Earth, designed by Stephan Garneau, was published as part of the Or Gallery exhibition and co-published by Publication Studio, Vancouver and Canada NYC. Earlier versions of several of these essays have previously appeared in: C Magazine, Parachute, Boo Magazine and Canadian Art.

About the Curators

David MacWilliam is an artist, educator and independent curator who lives in Vancouver, Canada. He has exhibited his paintings in numerous solo and group exhibitions over the past forty years in cities such as Paris, Barcelona, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg. He received a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and an MA in Visual Arts from University of the Arts London. In 2012 he published the book, Unfolding, a collaboration with Dr. Jeanne Randolph and Robert Lindsey. In 2017, he co-curated Entangled: Two Views on Contemporary Canadian Painting with Senior Curator Bruce Grenville for the Vancouver Art Gallery. An earlier version of the exhibition Robin Peck: Crania was exhibited at Or Gallery, Vancouver, June 15- July 28, 2018. MacWilliam is a Professor Emeritus in the Audain Faculty of Art at Emily Carr University of Art + Design where he taught from 1988 to 2017.

Doug Kirton is an artist and educator living in Kitchener, Ontario. His paintings have been exhibited across Canada and internationally since 1980. His touring exhibition Doug Kirton: Times of Uncertainty, Paintings 1983 - 1999 curated in 2000 by Will Gorlitz and Joe Wyatt was organized and circulated by the London Regional Art Museum and the University of Waterloo. His work is represented in numerous public collections including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Museum London, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Shanghai Art Museum. He received his BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and an MFA from University of Guelph. Kirton is Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo where he teaches painting.