Winnipeg artist Patrick Treacy questions adult perceptions of childhood through his multi-layered, narrative paintings and drawings. Employing fairytale characters, toys, and art historical referents, Treacy’s And exposes the myth of childhood innocence.
The exhibit — running from November 4 to December 4 in Gallery 1C03 — features teasing, prodding, pulling, and various other manipulations. His art aims to dispell the notion of simplicity and happy endings in childhood stories and realities.
And follows on the heels of Children’s Hour, a solo exhibition of Treacy’s work held at Winnipeg’s Main/Access Gallery in 2003, which introduced local audiences to the first artistic results of his collecting and researching childhood memorabilia. Children’s Hour, And, and a third, future exhibition form the trilogy of a larger series entitled Telling Tales.
For And, Treacy will present a selection of journal drawings as well as four large paintings. “The drawings show my explorations of particular toys or my experiments with groups of toy characters,” Treacy explains. “Some drawings develop into a series of narrative events.”
Treacy, a recipient of Manitoba Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts grants, has focused his art on the themes of family, his relationship to his father, and the question of male subjectivity. Recent solo shows includeChildren’s Hour at Main/Access Gallery in Winnipeg (2003) and Who Said: Subjections of the Self at Definitely Superior Art Gallery in Thunder Bay (2002) and at Site Gallery in Winnipeg (2001).
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 4, 2004
4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Artist’s Talk: Monday, November 8, 2004
12:30 p.m.
The University of Winnipeg
Gallery 1C03 (Centennial Hall)
Admission is free
