303 Gallery is proud to present our fifth exhibition of paintings by Tim Gardner.
In his new body of work, Gardner tackles how the innate tension between man and nature has shifted according to time. As man continues to exist amidst a constantly shifting landscape, Gardner’s watercolors imply a quiet resignation to the impossibility of a harmonious existence between man and his current surroundings. In many of the paintings, central figures are poised amidst human interventions into the landscape – barriers, fences, walls and paved areas. The subjects are often pictured stoically, either assessing or contemplative. Both “Boy in Park” and “New York City Boy” feature a lone protagonist, accompanied only by his thoughts, drifting through the manufactured landscape of the city. Heads down, focused only on what lies directly in front of them, these young men seem unaware that they belong to something beyond themselves.
Similarly, in “Untitled (Man looking for beer),” the subject is oblivious to anything except the immediate. The landscape of refuse he inhabits could not be further from the simplicity of the natural world. Still, he seems to have found his place, a forager amidst the abject. Somewhat more optimistic are images in which the subjects seem to experience a moment of clarity, as if to look outward and inward simultaneously. In “Untitled (Boy on beach),” a young man in matching red shirt, hat and shoes walks a path through the sand, just passing a fence and looking out into the infinite. At this moment, he may be awakening from his own banality, discovering himself in the grander landscape of humanity.
Tim Gardner had an exhibition of new work earlier this year at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver. He will be included in the group show “Visions of British Columbia” at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2010. In 2007, he participated in a residency and had a solo exhibition at the National Gallery, London, which was accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog. A show of Gardner’s portraits was organized in 2005 by the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, and a hardcover catalog was published by Charta in conjunction with the exhibition. Recent group shows have included “All the More Real,” Parrish Art Museum; "New Work: Tim Gardner, Marcelino Goncalves, Zak Smith", SF MoMA; and the traveling exhibition "Will Boys Be Boys? Questioning Masculinity in Contemporary Art", organized by Independent Curators International.