Andrew Dadson at Daniel Faria Gallery

Artist: Andrew Dadson

Exhibition title: Colour Field

Venue: Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto, Canada

Date: April 18 – June 1, 2024

Photography: all images courtesy of the artist and Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto

Daniel Faria Gallery is pleased to present Colour Field, Andrew Dadson’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.

Central to Dadson’s work is a deep interest in the social contracts shaping the natural world, from which he creates artworks that reflect on the landscape and highlight a constantly changing environment. On the surface, his language of abstraction references the history of the monochrome, bringing to mind Malevich, Ryman, or Rothko, but underneath that surface runs an affinity with performance. Evidence of process, duration, and time all play an integral role in his work.

In his new “wave” paintings, Dadson incrementally builds up layers of oil and acrylic on linen using a pallet knife. Below their monochromatic surfaces are hidden layers of kaleidoscopic colour, the works undergoing a shift in colour as each layer covers the last. Hints of this history still shimmer through as, upon closer inspection, we may find traces of blues, yellows, and pinks under a seemingly white surface. The lines at the bottom of the canvas are the heaviest, mimicking gravity’s pull. The durational quality of these works—the repetition of gesture through which they take form—reflects the slow, geological effects of time on the earth’s varied surfaces. But rather than recreate the appearance of such natural phenomena, Dadson recreates their processes. From a distance, his abstract paintings could be read as lines in the sand left by the changing tides, ripples from the wind passing over a field of grass, or, zooming out further, mountain ranges and valleys as seen from an aerial perspective. Dadson’s works often contain both the macro and micro: the texture of each grain of sand or clump of earth, and also the colossal dunes and ridges they form.

The photographs which, it could be argued, are foremost paintings, can be traced back to Dadson’s 2003 series Painted Lawn, in which he painted various yards in Vancouver black (his parents’ included) and then photographed the result. In her essay for Dadson’s solo exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Emmy-Lee Wall writes, “Responding to Vancouver’s history of highly composed photography, Dadson documents his Painted Lawn interventions so that the photograph stands in place of the painting, acting as a photographic monochrome.”

In his more recent photographs, Dadson focuses on urban areas where nature is either threatened by development, or has persevered despite development. He uses a natural biodegradable pigment to paint patches of grasses, weeds, or flowers, which he then photographs, the evidence of his mark making eventually washed or blown away by the elements. The four photographs in Colour Field feature grasses from a Vancouver farmland that is under threat of development due to the expansion of the nearby highway. Around each painted patch is a frame of green, untouched landscape, a brief suggestion of scale beyond the camera’s lens. The horizon is only visible at the very top of the image, which has a flattening and abstracting effect, pushing the viewer right up against the literal field of colour. Displayed in a row, they create a more expanded view, as though offering window-glimpses at a larger world beyond.

Andrew Dadson is a multidisciplinary artist who employs a variety of mediums including painting, photography and installation. He has had solo exhibitions at: Nino Mier Gallery, Brussels (2023); Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles (2021); Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto (2019); 313 Art Project, Seoul (2019); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2017); Galleria Franco Noero, Turin (2017); and David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (2015). His work can be found in numerous collections, including: Audain Art Museum, Whistler; Collection Francois Odermatt, Montreal; Kadist Foundation, San Francisco; Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles; Rennie Collection, Vancouver; and Vancouver Art Gallery. Dadson lives and works on the unceded territories of the Squamish, TsleilWaututh and Musqueam peoples in Vancouver, British Columbia.