Valérie Blass, Laurie Kang, Christina Mackie, Liz Magor
Do Redo Repeat
March 19–May 7, 2022
If I can’t practice, I can’t practice. If I’m hurt, I’m hurt. Simple as that. It’s not about that at all. But it’s easy to talk about and sum it up when you just talk about practice; we’re sitting here, and I’m supposed to be the franchise player, and we’re in here talking about practice. I mean, listen, we’re talking about practice. Not a game! Not a game! Not a game! We’re talking about practice. Not a game; not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it’s my last, not the game, we’re talking about practice, man…But we’re talking about practice, man. What are we talking about? Practice?...We’re talking about practice, man! We’re talking about practice! We’re talking about practice...We ain’t talking about the game! We’re talking about practice, man!
—Allen Iverson, May 7, 2002
Valérie Blass, Laurie Kang, Christina Mackie, and Liz Magor each exploit iteration and duplication—in their processes, in the distinct individual works they produce and in their overall “practices.” In the past three years, we have collectively and individually shared the experience of extended routine in relative isolation, altering our understanding of time and making the act of repetition an integral concept in our lives. In dialogue, each artist here uses the iterative as a generative force.
Valérie Blass’ most recent works repeat forms, materials and perceptual strategies, yet remain distinct, with each work building on and jumping off to the next. Mixing “real” objects and their copies, the mimic and the mimicked stand with and upon each other. Our perception is questioned in her use of doubled objects and surfaces, along with changing natural and cultural patterning, their camouflage confronts our visual presumptions.
Two large scale works of Liz Magor from the early 2000s also challenge our viewing experience. Each sculpture takes advantage of casting as a multistage process, revealing the simulated object while exposing the real. From the hollow nature of cast sculpture, the work’s interior is used not just as a purely formal or perceptual phenomenon, but points to the psychological potential of an internal volume and its related human behavior. But still, that which is hidden continues to be only partially revealed and reiterated.
The most recent works of Laurie Kang articulate the potential of recurrent materials, compositions and related techniques as analogous to the body and its processes. Kang expands upon the cultural specificities and future potentials of found objects by using digital and analogue sculptural and photographic technologies. By altering scale, multiplying an object and shifting its physical composition, the natural, the industrial and the overlooked are embodied and experienced anew.
Less explicitly referential is Christina Mackie’s watercolour work, a medium she has consistently returned to, here with a focused series that have been described as “emotional landscapes.” While her expansive, multi-medium practice builds upon both scientific and natural processes, this work draws a correlation from the intangible human internal experience to the tangible nature of colored pigment suspended in water, drying on paper. While echoing substance and scale, the work floats between abstract to potential representation. In an expression of the inexpressible, the works accrue significance together through time and iteration.
Valérie Blass (b. 1967, Montreal; lives/works: Montreal) received a BFA (1998) and MFA (2006) from the Université du Québec à Montréal. She has presented notable solo exhibitions at Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2019); Oakville Galleries; Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2019); Artspeak, Vancouver (2015); Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2012). Blass’s work has been included in numerous group exhibitions including at Musée Zadkine, Paris (2021); Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (2021); Centre d'art contemporain d'Ivry – le Crédac (2019); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2017, 2011); La Biennale de Montréal (2016); Vancouver Art Gallery (2016); and Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (2016). She was the 2017 recipient of the Gershon Iskowitz Prize and in 2013, she presented a new commission for the Public Art Fund, New York.
Laurie Kang (b. 1985, Toronto; lives/works: Toronto) received her MFA from the Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College, New York (2015), and her BFA from Concordia University, Montreal (2008). Her recent solo exhibitions include Helena Anrather, New York (2021); Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Canada (2019); Oakville Galleries (2019); and Interstate Projects, Brooklyn (2018). Her work has been shown in group exhibitions at New Museum, New York (2021); SculptureCenter, New York (2020); Remai Modern, Saskatoon (2019); Cue Art Foundation, New York (2019); Cooper Cole, Toronto (2017); Kamias Triennale, Quezon, Philippines (2017); and The Power Plant, Toronto (2015). She is currently the first artist in residence at Horizon Art Foundation, Los Angeles.
Christina Mackie (b. 1956, Oxford, England; lives/works: London, England) studied at the Vancouver School of Art and Saint Martin's School of Art, London. Recent solo exhibitions include Hospitalfield, Angus, Scotland (2021); Spazio Culturale Antonio Ratti, Como (2018); Tate Britain, London (2015, 2007); PRAXES, Berlin (2014); The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2014); and Nottingham Contemporary (2013). Her group exhibitions include Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como (2021); Galleria Spazia, Bologna (2020); Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2017); Kinman Gallery, London (2016); and Tate Liverpool (2015). She received the Annual Award from the Contemporary Art Society, London (2011); Award for Artists, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, London (2010); Oxford-Melbourne Fellowship (2010); and Beck's Futures Prize, ICA London (2005).
Liz Magor (b. 1948, Winnipeg; lives/works: Vancouver) studied at the Vancouver School of Art and at Parsons School of Design, New York City. Her solo exhibitions include Carpenter Center for the Arts, Cambridge; the Renaissance Society, Chicago; the David Ireland House, San Francisco (2019); The Modern and Contemporary Art Museum of Nice; Kunstverein in Hamburg; and Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich (2017). Her work has been included in group exhibitions including Le Crédac, Ivry‑sur‑Sein (2020); Musée d’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2019); Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2017); Glasgow Sculpture Studios (2016); and Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal (2012). She is the recipient of the Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2021); Gershon Iskowitz Prize (2015); and the Governor General’s Award (2001). She has exhibited at documenta 8 (1987) and represented Canada at the Venice Biennale (1984).
