....as it is....: Tim Whiten

April 9 to May 28, 2006

Keith and Winifred Shantz Gallery

TIM WHITEN:…as it is….

Tim Whiten is an internationally recognised artist. He has exhibited his work in major exhibitions of drawing and sculpture throughout North America, South America, Mexico and Asia. He is represented in numerous private, corporate and public collections, including Canada's National Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Shell Oil, Imperial Oil and the Toronto Dominion Bank.

Whiten is Chair of the Visual Arts department at York University, where he received the Dean's Teaching Award from the Faculty of Fine Arts in 1999-2000.

Whiten studied under noted psychologist and philosopher Oscar Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer was concerned with the nature of faith and its effect on the world around us. This exploration continues throughout Whiten’s art practice - man's place in the scheme of things has provided motivation for his investigations of the traditional ideas of man as expressed in culture.

For the last few years Whiten has created work that acknowledges the dignity of labour, work and relationships. The pieces on view at the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery were inspired by his father and his work as a skilled tradesman and his mother and her activities as a home-maker, in the truest and most loving sense of the word. Using the imagery of commonplace objects such as plumb bobs, bricks, rolling pins and other tools, Whiten transforms them into something magical and otherworldly. He creates an environment where these simple objects take on multiple meaning and significance.

Glass is thought of as something fragile and delicate. By making “tools” with it, Whiten challenges us to think of things in a new way. It is a statement about innovation and vision, and of having the skills and ability to make it happen. This is something Whiten does naturally as an artist. What he is telling the audience though his use of “tools” as inspiration is that all work, when it is done well, is worth respecting and honouring.

On one level the exhibition is an act of homage by a son for his parents. The use of their “tools” is particular and deliberate. But this exhibition also works on a symbolic level, reminding the audience of the spiritual, emotional and intellectual “tools” that our parents, and past generations, have left us as legacy. How we use those tools will ultimately create the society of which we are a part.

Tim Whiten is represented by the Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto, ON.

Parsifal - cast glass 

T after Tom - cast glass, etched glass, brass, limestone

Mary's Permeating Sign - cast glass