Together we can create a new future

Together we can create change. And, with incremental change, together we can build a positive future. It’s an idea as true when we’re looking for new ways to approach climate change, inequality or living with each other during — and after — a pandemic.

In this painting, “A Positive Future Built of Incremental Change,” Canadian artist Geoff McFetridge has positioned the people depicted in such a way that we can’t help but think of it as a metaphor for what can be achieved through collective action and support. The image — representing that positive future — is only possible with all of us, as individuals, playing our parts, acting together.

The individuals are stylized — McFetridge is both an artist and a graphic designer. Many of his images, including this one, echo or incorporate graphic design elements and patterned formations. There’s a familiarity to them that’s attractive and instantly communicates to us. “It should feel like something, rather than look like something,” he says.

His work waxes poetic on the human condition. Figures are arranged against flat tonal surfaces, often forming simple shapes in their solidarity. They lean on one another or melt, become one; they leap through space using heads as stepping-stones.

McFetridge was born in Calgary in 1971 and studied at the Alberta College of Art and Design and the California Institute of the Arts. Although he now lives in California, he’s represented by the Cooper Cole gallery in Toronto and exhibits around the world.

His most recent work consists of a series of paintings and drawings directly responding to the pandemic. He’s posted some of them on Instagram (look him up: @mcfetridge).

Discover more about McFetridge, and other artists at the gallery at coopercole.com. The physical gallery is open for viewings by appointment only.