OPENING NIGHT: MARCH 6, 7:00PM
ON DISPLAY: MARCH 6-28, 2015

Sometimes they refer to themselves as “tools”, but internationally renowned artists Kyle Herranen, Clint Neufeld and Marc Courtemanche have more in common than a light sense of humour: their work is all about tools.

Tools challenges society’s stereotypical gender roles and explores the endless possibilities of the artists’ respective materials.

“Our work goes well together. Each of us explores the notion of gender,” said Herranen. “While the pieces themselves are hyper-masculine, they are beautiful objects with feminine qualities,” he said.

Herranen is best known for his highly polished shallow relief resin sculptures that de-code contemporary notions of aesthetics. These socially constructed realities both parallel and reject nature and the environment. As an outdoorsman, along with fighting forest fires across North America for nine years, he is rooted in a bizarre, absurd, and meaningful intersection between nature and culture.

Neufeld, a sculptor, works with the concepts of masculine identity in the form of ceramic transformations of engines and transmissions. He paints them pink and light blue, adding flower details. Prior to pursuing a career in art, Neufeld spent three years with the Canadian military.

Courtemanche uses woodworking skills and applies them to clay. The results are objects that are visually taken for “real”, with a closer inspection revealing them to be made of a foreign material. Additionally, the decoration of various tools with vintage “country style” ceramic decals alludes to familiar decoration of functional domestic ceramic objects, while drawing attention to the handmade quality of the objects.

Together, the artists’ work perfectly complements each other in a show that challenges the viewer’s ideas of masculinity and art.