Geoff McFetridge at COOPER COLE

Artist: Geoff McFetridge

Exhibition title: Nature Mart

Venue: COOPER COLE, Toronto, Canada

Date: November 17, 2023 – January 20, 2024

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and COOPER COLE, Toronto

COOPER COLE is pleased to present Nature Mart, a solo exhibition with Geoﬀ McFetridge. This marks the artists fourth exhibition at the gallery.

In this exhibition, McFetridge focuses on our human connection to the natural world and prompts viewers to question its role in our lives. Do we merely exploit nature for nourishment, wealth, and entertainment, or are we part of a larger, interdependent system?

Through a tantric and transitive process of mark making, these images evolve from an abstract state of the unknown, and are revealed organically during the creative process. In this body of work, McFetridge aims to explore and expand on his conceptual thought processes related to ideas of understanding and evolution. These paintings are meant to question modes of consciousness, intelligence, empathy, ethics, freedom, and responsibility, while encouraging a contemplation of our place within the natural world and the larger ecosystem.

Geoﬀ McFetridge (b. 1971, Calgary, Alberta, Canada) is interested in how images exist in-between or outside of language, and in turn how this encourages more open-minded approaches to cognition. In his paintings, images become language; in the artist’s words, “it should feel like something, rather than look like something.” In the pictorial spaces he creates, definitions are less finite and can slip between interpretations. As indicated by their titles, many of his paintings whimsically play with the bodily experience of design, using simplified figures to both think about forms and collective experiences.

McFetridge received his BFA from the Alberta College of Art and Design and his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. McFetridge was part of the infamous Beautiful Losers exhibition which debuted in downtown New York in 1991 and went on to tour the world. He has continued to exhibit in international galleries including Cooper Cole, Toronto; Half Gallery, New York; V1 Gallery, Copenhagen; Gallery Target, PlayMountain, Tokyo; and Heath Gallery, Los Angeles. McFetridge has also been included in museum exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; Contemporary Calgary, Calgary; the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Yale University Art Museum, New Haven; Museum of African American Art (MAAA), and The Geﬀen Contemporary at MoCA; Los Angeles. McFetridge currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Geoff McFetridge, Nature Mart, 2023, exhibition view, COOPER COLE, Toronto

Geoff McFetridge, Negotiating the 2 Sided Landscape, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 50 in (127 x 127 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, A Reasonable Disconnection With the Interconnectedness of All Things, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 40 in (127 x 101.6 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, My Violent Protector, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 40 in (127 x 101.6 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Tennis, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 40 in (127 x 101.6 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Learning Anti War From Herbavores but Teaching the Forest About Revenge, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 50 in (101.6 x 127 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Wearing Each others Clothes, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 in (101.6 x 101.6 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, A Still Small Voice, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 45 x 30 in (114.3 x 76.2 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, A Learner and A Teacher, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 34 x 30 in (86.4 x 76.2 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, U.R. (Underwater Resistance), 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 34 x 30 in (86.4 x 76.2 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Another Head to Hang our Thoughts In, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 26 in (76.2 x 66 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, A Kids Guide To Unlearning Shallow Ecology, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 26 in (76.2 x 66 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Untitled (Nature Mart) Study #1, 2023, Pencil on vellum, 12.5 x 10 in (31.8 x 25.4 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Untitled (Nature Mart) Study #2, 2023, Pencil on vellum, 10 x 12.5 in (25.4 x 31.8 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Untitled (Nature Mart) Study #3, 2023, Pencil, gouache on vellum, 10 x 12.5 in (25.4 x 31.8 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Untitled (Nature mart) Study #4, 2023, Pencil on vellum, 10 x 12.5 in (25.4 x 31.8 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Untitled (Nature Mart) Study #5, 2023, Pencil, gouache on vellum, 12.5 x 10 in (31.8 x 25.4 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Untitled (Nature Mart) Study #6, 2023, Pencil on vellum, 12.5 x 10 in (31.8 x 25.4 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Untitled (Nature Mart) Study #7, 2023, Pencil, ink on vellum, 12.5 x 10 in (31.8 x 25.4 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Untitled (Nature Mart) Study #8, 2023, Pencil, ink on bond, 8.5 x 11 in (21.6 x 27.9 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Untitled (Nature Mart) Study #9, 2023, Pencil on vellum, 12.5 x 10 in (31.8 x 25.4 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Untitled (Nature Mart) Study #10, 2023, Pencil, gouache on vellum, 10 x 12.5 in (25.4 x 31.8 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Untitled (Nature Mart) Study #11, 2023, Pencil on vellum, 10 x 12.5 in (25.4 x 31.8 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Untitled (Nature Mart) Study #12, 2023, Pencil on vellum, 12.5 x 10 in (31.8 x 25.4 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Untitled (Nature Mart) Study #13, 2023, Pencil, gouache, on vellum, 12.5 x 10 in (31.8 x 25.4 cm)

Geoff McFetridge, Untitled (Nature Mart) Study #14, 2023, Pencil, gouache, on vellum, 12.5 x 10 in (31.8 x 25.4 cm)