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Contemporary Art Gallery

555 Nelson Street
Vancouver, Canada
Open from Tuesday to
Sunday 12 pm → 6 pm

Admission always free
ArchiveExhibition
20 Jul 90until11 Aug 90

Mark Grady

The Small Museum Part I

555 Hamilton St

A sepia toned painted portrait of a figure wearing a shirt containing text that reads “ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE.”

Mark Grady creates paintings that are distinguished by their subject matter, monochrome tonality, framing, and relation to the issues of appropriation and the use and re-use of historical material. In each of these instances the works from 'The Small Museum' pierce not only the history of painting's conversation with these matters, but also the assumptions surrounding the ways that art historical influence and reproduction photography interact. It is the purpose of this brief note to describe these works, offer some interpretation of their pro­gram, and probe some of the possible rationales behind such a methodological strategy.

-Bill Jeffries, excerpt from “The Interrogation of Painting – The Artist as Rhetor: Mark Grady's Small Museum” in The Small Museum: Part I, 1998

2 large framed paintings in a gallery. One is a sepia-toned painting showing two young people splitting rocks with pickaxes. In the foreground there is German text and a long building in a white oval.
Three paintings of different sizes on a gallery wall. The paintings are all sepia-toned images with black text. The painting in the foreground shows a person standing, and the text reads "Portrait."
3 large paintings on the walls of a gallery. The one in the centre shows a repeating silhouette of a red scooter. One shows a face with eyelashes and splatter, and the other is a landscape with text.
2 large paintings in the corner of a gallery. The one on the left shows an ornate gate pattern and backwards yellow text reading "Los!" The one on the right shows a building, workers, and German text.

Documents

Essay: "The Interrogation of Painting – The Artist as Rhetor: Mark Grady's Small Museum," Bill Jeffriespdf565kb
A sepia toned painted portrait of a figure wearing a shirt containing text that reads “ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE.”
2 large framed paintings in a gallery. One is a sepia-toned painting showing two young people splitting rocks with pickaxes. In the foreground there is German text and a long building in a white oval.
Three paintings of different sizes on a gallery wall. The paintings are all sepia-toned images with black text. The painting in the foreground shows a person standing, and the text reads "Portrait."
3 large paintings on the walls of a gallery. The one in the centre shows a repeating silhouette of a red scooter. One shows a face with eyelashes and splatter, and the other is a landscape with text.
2 large paintings in the corner of a gallery. The one on the left shows an ornate gate pattern and backwards yellow text reading "Los!" The one on the right shows a building, workers, and German text.