Zalucky Contemporary
October 13th - November 17th 2018
You do not even need to listen; just wait. You do not even need to wait; just become still, quiet and solitary and the world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet. - Franz Kafka
Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montreal
April 7th to May 12th 2018
For now we see through a mirror, darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known...
Amidst the visual noise and clutter that seems to be an increasing and inevitable part of everyday life, the work in the exhibition Whatever Form This Moment Takes offers a much needed respite, a welcomed opportunity to slow one’s gaze and enter a more self-reflective state. Aside from demonstrating a high level of rigorous technique, Verburg, through these works, subtly allows for chance and the un-calculated to reveal itself. The pieces presented here convey highly determined sense of form and composition while simultaneously defying these qualities through a radiating sense of ephemerality. It’s as if the work is reduced to a trace of its former self, inviting our eyes to focus on something that exists somewhere between the material and the immaterial - somewhere between form and spirit...
Review, A Certain Silence, Jim Verburg at Zalucky Contemporary. Alex Bowron, Esse Magazine, May 2017
For his first solo show in Toronto, Dutch-Canadian multimedia artist Jim Verburg has presented a series of magnanimously minimalist works. With the background in film, photography, bookworks, and installation, Verburg developed the bulk of his current method during a printmaking residency for non-printmakers. Instead of relying exclusively on traditional approaches to this mode of production, he utilizes the tools of printmaking in exploratory and unintended ways, creating monochromatic compositions that stand as a testament to the balance between playful experimentation and a painstaking attention to detail.
Although categorically minimal, several of the works in A Certain Silence are markedly complex in their construction. Verburg has developed a notable method of layering materials in order you achieve his characteristic glow or “hum”. By painting directly onto a sheet of clouded Mylar, hinging it on plexiglass then setting it in front of the second piece of painted Mylar, he creates delicate portraits of depth, focus, and texture. This play of surface on surface adds dimension to the subtle visual noise already present where dust and debris prevents the transfer of ink from roller to support. With a sustained gaze, viewers will uncover moments of pure vibrating energy as though the paintings themselves are alive with breath. This is ever-present sense of movement is confident and exact, but still open to the rich history of an undefined present. As though aware of their own transience, the works seem to communicate an awareness of astounding beauty tempered only by the latent whiff of a pensive sadness.
Present also in these cascading tonal gradients and overlapping geometries is the pressure, resistance and rhythm of Verburg’s own body passing the roller back and forth over the pictureplane. The works are like monuments to the paint, ink, and powder graphite, and charcoal that made them. They revel in the nature of their material so that sheet of starched cotton tarlatan becomes yet another perfectly-suited medium for transference of a new optical unconscious. This is, in the end, an exhibition of unity, both universal and tangible. Each piece features distinct horizon and borderlines that delineate space for a more focused meditation. In particular works such as Untitled (afterimage) read like ancient philosophy, turning our thoughts both inward and outward. Our direct experience becomes a surrendering to what was, and what is yet to be. In this way, we are presented with the idea of perfection, so that moments of emptiness serve only to strengthen our experience of being here now. It is almost as though the works are holding on to our deepest secrets, not out of greed, but for the sake of a true and examined connection to a life worth living.
A collection of new works by Jim Verburg
September 6 - October 22 2016
Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montreal
...For the past several years, Verburg has developed a body of work that examines light and its various effects. As the art theorist and artist Alex Bowron stated, Verburg seeks to depict light in its many states, including “reflection, absorption, opacity and translucence.” And it is still the case here, particularly with the white works, where the framing method accentuates these effects. The Mylar is suspended in front of an off-white background, allowing the white paint to stand out even further, to vibrate even, heightening the sense of flotation. These images play with the impression of depth and space in very subtle and sensual ways, giving new, intelligent life to the genre of monochrome painting.
2016, (from the ongoing series reflected/repeated),
a choreographed work for the Toronto Dance Theatre,
part the the program Singular Bodies,
Performed by Justin de Luna
Music written and performed by Jim Verburg
Toronto ON
...The results were surprising and often beautiful. Sometimes the pieces felt like paintings come to life....Other pieces were more explorative and task-based. I’m thinking in particular of Jim Verburg’s Shape and Light #1, in which dancer Justin de Luna manipulated a white rectangle through a shaft of light, creating Rothko-like divisions on his improvised canvas and, later, prisms that revealed wedges of the colour spectrum. Dance, in any conventional sense of the term, came only from de Luna’s determination to direct light and shape, whether this meant lifting his legs to make shadows or twisting onto his side to reconfigure an effect. - Martha Schabas, Dance Review, Singular Bodies beautifully exploits the overlap between dance and visual effect . The Globe and Mail, Friday, Apr. 15, 2016
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...and Jim Verburg's elegant Shape And Light #1, with Justin de Luna, explores in a simple way what happens when you interrupt light. Here, the choreographic teams achieve quiet studies that seem genuinely cooperative. - Kathleen Smith, Singular Bodies, Uneven Show - Pairing visual artists and dancers delivers mixed results in Toronto Dance Theatre's Singular Bodies, NOW Toronto, APRIL 20, 2016
Part of the solo exhibition Afterimage,
(Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montreal 2014),
the group exhibition Far Away, So Close Part 1
(Access Gallery, Vancouver, 2014),
and the solo booth What is Missing / What is Seen
(widmertheodoridis (Zurich), at VOLTA NY, New York City, 2015
Verburg's multidisciplinary work subtly mines the complexities of relationships, and explores the quiet, spiritual, and intangible undercurrents that exist in everyday life. Often working with minimal or abstract shapes and images to create an emotional topography revealing the intricate layers that constitute intimacy, and the harmonies and dissonances inherent in a personal or interpersonal dynamic. His installations take shape as a poetic puzzle - where many individual pieces offer divergent perspectives and sit in relation to each other.
Using light as visual inspiration, he employs various techniques in the creation of this recent body of work. Paint is rolled onto glass, then transferred and layered - powdered graphite is rubbed into translucent tape, cut and rearranged - black vinyl in a corner creates a new relationship between its reflective sides. These processes aren't necessarily tied to conventional disciplines, they are rather the result of an artist engaging with different methods and materials to create layered dynamics of interplay & tension. Verburg couples a minimal design sensibility with emotional concerns, creating a dialog where each tempers and informs the other. These subtle, often quiet works reference a projection or photocopy, offering translucent layers that the viewer is invited to be absorbed by. Shapes and light patterns are photographed and formed, painted, folded, cut, placed, reflected and repeated, providing a visual metaphor for personal reflection and introspection - exploring the subtle layers inherent in everyday thoughts, negotiations, and experiences.
- from the press release What is Missing / What is Seen, widmertheodoridis (Zurich) at VOLTA NY, February 2015
An artist publication featuring documentation of selected works from the ongoing series REFLECTED/REPEATED. 26 posters, 13 double sided pages, , creating a new relationship between the individual works.
a ONE COLOUR POSTER SERIES / CATALOGUE
26 posters, 13 double sided pages,
unbound, stacked, and folded once.
22.75 x 17 inches unfolded
2015, Edition of 1000
ISBN 978-0-9921337-5-7
Including the text:
WHEN LIGHT BECOMES FORM: THE WORK OF JIM VERBURG
by Alex Bowron
Launched at the New York Art Book Fair,
MoMA Ps1, September 2015
2015. Oil based ink painted on frosted mylar.
from the solo exhibition
What is Missing / What is Seen, Light becomes Form,
the Horizon Rests into View.
(2015, Galerie Nicolas Robert (Montreal),
at the Texas Contemporary Art Fair, Houston TX),
the group exhibitions Chroma (Inman Gallery, Houston TX),
and Galerie Nicolas Robert at the Feature Art Fair (Toronto ON).
from the solo exhibition
What is Missing / What is Seen, Light becomes Form,
the Horizon Rests into View.
(2015, Galerie Nicolas Robert (Montreal),
at the Texas Contemporary Art Fair, Houston TX),
the group exhibitions Chroma (Inman Gallery, Houston TX),
and Galerie Nicolas Robert at the Feature Art Fair (Toronto ON).
Inman Gallery Houston
Although the most obvious theme to the work in Chroma is the artists’ shared use of mindful process and almost monochromatic palettes, the more telling comparison might be the way in which all three overstep those boundaries... Jim Verburg’s improvisatory transfer process, accumulating thin translucent layers of oil-based ink, takes on the depth and luminosity of photography. The rich blacks, smooth gradations and nebulae of white specks bring to mind the vacuum of the night sky or an empty scanner bed while staying firmly grounded in touch and technique... The affinities between the works are the more striking because these artists don’t, under other circumstances, pursue similar ends. They each arrived at this mutually intelligible language from fairly disparate precincts, and part of the fun is in comparing dialects...Jim Verburg expressly imparts emotional character to his treatment of light and transparency. In fact, what unites these artists, and what marks their meeting as noteworthy, isn’t so much that they all find themselves in the same place, but that they’re all just passing through.
- excerpts from the press release for the group exhibition Chroma, Inman Gallery Houston, October 30, 2015 – January 2, 2016
WHAT IS MISSING / WHAT IS SEEN,
and THE EXTENT OF WHAT'S ALREADY THERE.
2015, work part of the 2 person Visiting Artist Exhibition
at Open Studio Toronto,
and WHAT IS MISSING / WHAT IS SEEN, solo exhibition with widmertheodoridis (Zurich) at VOLTA NY (2015, New York City)
Vinyl strips on the wall and window of a vitrine,
each circle 6ft in diameter,
art of the the group show Domestic Queens,
FOFA Gallery, Montreal. 2011
2010 - 2013
Folds and photocopies.
Part of the artist book/publication
O/, Divided/Defined, Weights, Measures, and Emotional Geometry
(2013, Daziboa Montreal)
First featured in the solo exhibition One and Two, at Galerie B-312 as part of the Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal 2011,
Part of the solo exhibition Untitled Installation (Weights and Measures)
from the ongoing series (I see your point, and I understand your perspective - maybe there is no clear direction, no right or wrong answer. Maybe I’m just seeing it differently - or maybe we’re saying the same thing), Artspace (Peterborough ON, 2013)
and the group exhibition More Than Two (Let It Make Itself), curated by Micah Lexier, The Power Plant, (Toronto ON, 2013)
UNTITLED INSTALLATION
(I SEE YOUR POINT AND UNDERSTAND YOUR PERSPECTIVE
- MAYBE THERE IS NO CLEAR DIRECTION, NO RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWER. MAYBE I'M JUST SEEING IT DIFFERENTLY
- OR MAYBE WE'RE SAYING THE SAME THING)
2012, fluorescent lights, paper, wood and string,
Convenience Gallery Toronto
Untitled (Zero Sum Game)
2011, folded newsprint publication in stacks
various dimensions
each piece, 22 x 35 inches unfolded
from the solo exhibition One and Two, Galerie B312,
le Mois de la Photo a Montreal (2011),
and the group exhibition Intimacies, Martha Street Studios (2013, Winnipeg)
A smaller, second Portuguese edition and installation was created for the group exhibition Primeiro Estudo: Sobre Amor, curated by Bernardo Mosqueira at Luciana Caravello (2014, Rio de Janeiro)
from the ongoing series:
O/, Divided/Defined, Weights, Measures, and Emotional Geometry
2013, Risograph prints
11 x 17 inches
Part of the artist book/publication
O/, Divided/Defined, Weights, Measures, and Emotional Geometry
(2013, Daziboa Montreal)
Work part of the Axe Head Art Exchange (AXE), a project created and administered by ARMAR (Spain), in collaboration with Bill Clarke (Canada)
from the ongoing series:
O/, Divided/Defined, Weights, Measures, and Emotional Geometry
2013, Blind letterpress from polymer plates.
11 x 17 inches
Part of the artist book/publication
O/, Divided/Defined, Weights, Measures, and Emotional Geometry
(2013, Daziboa Montreal)
Work featured at Art Metropole (2013, Toronto),
and by Art Metropole at Art Basel Miami (2013)
Slideshow: A First Look at Art Basel Miami Beach
in Canadian Art Magazine Online, view article and slideshow here.
from the ongoing series
(I see your point, and I understand your perspective - maybe there is no clear direction, no right or wrong answer. Maybe I'm just seeing it differently - or maybe we're saying the same thing.)
Jim Verburg
102 pages, colour offset, hard cover, 2013
Edition of 400
ISBN 978-2-922135-41-1
Book launched September 2013 at Formats (Montreal)
and in November, at Art Metropole (Toronto)
Shortlisted for Best Printed Publication
at the Gala des Arts Visual (2014, Montreal)
See the nominees here.
Shortlisted for the Art Gallery of York University’s
2013 Artist Book of the Moment.
See the full list here.
Untitled (red #1, from the ongoing series reflected/repeated)
Oil based ink painted on mylar. 18 x 14 inches
part of the solo exhibition WHAT IS MISSING / WHAT IS SEEN,
widmertheodoridis (Zurich) at VOLTA NY (2015, New York City)
Mention in Canadian Highlights at New York's Art Fairs,
Canadian Art Magazine online. To read the article click here.
2011, enlarged and mounted photocopy,
96 x 63 inches
First featured in the solo exhibition One and Two,
Galerie B-312, the Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal 2011,
Scenes from Here (with Eamon Mac Mahon),
curated by Claire Sykes, Circuit Gallery,
Feature Exhibition for the Contact Festival
(Toronto ON, 2012)
the solo exhibition Untitled Installation (Weights and Measures) from the ongoing series (I see your point, and I understand your perspective - maybe there is no clear direction, no right or wrong answer. Maybe I’m just seeing it differently - or maybe we’re saying the same thing),
Artspace (Peterborough ON, 2013)
and the solo exhibition What is Missing / What is Seen
(widmertheodoridis (Zurich), at VOLTA NY (New York City, 2015)
2014, Temporary site specific installation, reflective paper folded and adhered to a wall with an external spotlight. 30 x 30 inches
Part of the solo exhibition Afterimage,
(Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montreal 2014),
the group exhibition Far Away, So Close Part 1
(Access Gallery, Vancouver, 2014),
Oil based ink painted on newsprint.
2014, 24 x 36 inches
art of the solo exhibition Afterimage,
(Galerie Nicolas Robert Montreal, 2014)
from the solo exhibition
What is Missing / What is Seen, Light becomes Form,
the Horizon Rests into View.
2015, Galerie Nicolas Robert (Montreal),
at the Texas Contemporary Art Fair,
Houston Texas
White Mylar layered on black museum board.
2014, 30 x 35 inches
Part of the solo exhibition Afterimage,
(Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montreal 2014)
