Bio

Atticus Gordon is an emerging Ottawa-born artist working in painting and painting-based installation; he currently works between Ottawa and Chicago as he pursues an MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Gordon’s works are playful imaginary worlds that push towards a revaluation and reimagining of our world and simultaneously probe the meaning and structures of contemporary painting. Gordon has received the Ottawa Art Gallery Award of Excellence, the SAW Prize for New Work, and grants from the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Ottawa. His works have been exhibited in Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax and Berlin. Gordon’s paintings are located in public collections of the city of Ottawa and Montreal. Gordon is also a curator, writer of art criticism, and co-founder of Nosy Mag, a non-profit publication examining Ottawa’s art and culture.

Artist Statement

Gordon’s practice revolves around the question of meaning-making in the painting medium, bending and pushing the codes of painting to explore new and exciting realms. With this in mind, he incorporates new technologies and extends the potential of painting into three dimensions. Working from collected images, archival imagery, and his own photographs, he creates new environments and narratives that reimagine history, space, and the contemporary experience. Gordon’s works are constellations of ideas and images, fractured narratives where time and space collide. Out of this confluence, his work grapples with what it means to live now, how histories influence lived experiences and how imagination mediates our notions of past, present and future. Yet, his work is also subtle, exploring the everyday intimacy and emotions embedded in spaces. A digital influence runs through his works, tethering painting to new image-making practices. Through the extended medium of painting, Gordon’s works explore the complex realities of the present.

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