Catriona Jeffries

Rennie Collection is proud to present the first comprehensive survey of Canadian artist Damian Moppett.

The work of Damian Moppett charts a self-reflective studio practice spanning photography, sculpture, drawing, painting and video, often using one medium to examine another. His expansive Watercolour Drawing Project (2003–2008) is to be exhibited at Wing Sang in all of its breadth is a ruminative omnibus of artistic process, reference and representation. These 100+ sibling works range from prodigiously detailed portraits of his studio in flux to costumed self-portraiture to studies of the works of beloved art-historical predecessors. As this series anthologizes his diverse practice into a personal archive of imagery, it depicts a unique and romantic account of thoughtful, ascetic artistic practice.

Moppett's work frames the rigors of conceptualism through the dynamic formality of his compositions and wistful consideration of his context. This belies a complex thought process paired with the compulsions of making. With Fallen Caryatid (2008) a pivotal figurative sculpture, Moppett crystallizes his long drawn consideration of balance and gravity, begun in his Calder-influenced Stabile series of floor-bound mobiles. Though caryatids are a common architectural motif of antiquity, sculpted female figures which act as weight-bearing columns, Moppett’s version carries nothing, her fingers grasp towards the ceiling. Within the context of his surrounding œuvre, this work conveys the crux of our relationship towards history, is it burdensome, or ephemeral? Is it a phantasm we can only clutch at as its influence emanates all around us?

The exhibition will also feature a new aluminum mobile work produced specially for this presentation. Hovering, yet falling, broken though intact, this work will estimate further Moppett’s long time formal fascination with suspension, collapse and gravitas.

The exhibition is accompanied by a supporting catalogue featuring an essay by Dr. Cliff Lauson, curator of the Hayward Gallery, London, UK.

Born in Calgary, Alberta in 1969 and currently living and working in Vancouver, Damian Moppett attended Emily Carr College of Art and Design and received his Master of Fine Arts from Concordia University, Montreal. He has exhibited widely including at The Power Plant, Toronto; The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal; and the Witte de With, Rotterdam.