From Boston to Edmonton
Peterborough artist Tim Merrett preparing new paintings for exhibit in Alberta
A local artist is gearing up for his next solo show after recently selling out at a gallery in Boston.
Tim Merrett will be exhibiting a new collection at Edmonton’s Peter Robertson Gallery from June 23 to July 7.
Although it’s still months away, there’s no time to put his feet up. Merrett hopes to create up to 10 new paintings for the show.
For this collection, the 45-yearold is setting aside his linear, neat-and-tidy style to showcase a more aggressive, chunkier design.
He’ll be using found objects to accompany his paintings, which derive from appropriations.
“A lot of the paintings touch upon things like mortality, memory and loss,” he said.
When the appropriations are paired with found items, it drags them into a contemporary sense, into the now, Merrett explained.
“It’s something that is somehow revealing on how I may see the world,” he said.
Merrett recently wrapped up a show in Boston, where he had nine oil paintings in a solo exhibit at Newbury Fine Arts.
The exhibit ran for most of December and all nine paintings were sold on opening night. It was Merrett’s third one-man exhibit at the gallery.
The father of one paints out of a studio on Water St. in the historic Braund Building. He’s been there for about six years.
He’s worked out of numerous city studios, however, including those of the late David Bierk.
Merrett studied under Bierk as an apprentice for several years until the renowned artist died in 2002.
Learning to paint from Bierk wasn’t a step-by-step method Merrett pointed out – it was like osmosis.
“It was more like a transfer of knowledge.”
Bierk taught Merrett how to paint, stretch canvass, run a studio and transport paintings.
The downtown resident said his time with Bierk meant everything to him and was the catalyst behind his career.
“I look back at that time with great fondness.”