TREVOR KIERNANDER
“This old house smells just the same”, 2018, mm/canvas, 60×60 in.
Trevor Kiernander’s art practice rigorously proposes a formal examination of the space of painting and drawing. Through the association and collision of multiple perspectives and the deployment of overlapping technical approaches, he explores the fundamental duality between background and foreground, and figure/ground relationships as forms. Growing up, he was heavily influenced and inspired by music (especially jazz and cut-up, sampled-based hip-hop, house, and techno), and expressed this love through DJing, becoming involved with the club and rave scene in the early ‘90s. The cavernous spaces that would hold these dark, all-night parties would lay the groundwork for his personal exploration of electronic music and painting. The compositions within the paintings play rhythmically throughout their own distorted space, which is often void of a horizon or particular points of perspective, reminiscent of being “lost in the music.” The construction of the paintings could be compared to that of counterpoint, where elements are independent, yet dependent on each other to create the whole. The image itself, a possible visible result of Musique Concrète or electroacoustics: the crafting of sonic environments to enhance emotions.
Canadian artist Trevor Kiernander’s artworks rigorously propose a formal examination of the space of painting and drawing. Through the association and collision of multiple perspectives and the deployment of overlapping technical approaches, he explores the fundamental duality between background and foreground, and figure/ground relationships as forms. Growing up, he was heavily influenced and inspired by music (especially jazz and cut-up, sampled-based hip-hop, house, and techno), and expressed this love through DJing, becoming involved with the club and rave scene in the early ‘90s. The cavernous spaces that would hold these dark, all-night parties would lay the groundwork for his personal exploration of electronic music and painting. The compositions within the paintings play rhythmically throughout their own distorted space, which is often void of a horizon or particular points of perspective, reminiscent of being “lost in the music.” The construction of the paintings could be compared to that of counterpoint, where elements are independent, yet dependent on each other to create the whole. The image itself, a possible visible result of Musique Concrète or electroacoustics: the crafting of sonic environments to enhance emotions.
Since 2014, Trevor Kiernander has been living and working in Montreal as an artist and instructor at Concordia University (since 2020). Prior to this, he spent seven years in London, England, where he completed an MFA at Goldsmiths, University of London (2009).
Kiernander welcomes the opportunity to engage with the community, which speaks to his experience as an instructor, and his general ethos of building community through the arts, such as the Pictura painting triennale he launched in Montreal in 2020. This citywide event recently completed its second edition, bringing together the works of 100 artists in more than 40 exhibitions. A catalogue was produced for each edition, showcasing the works of each artist, and including essays by Kiernander and the invited curators.
Kiernander’s research and practice has been awarded with numerous grants from the Canada Council, the Conseil des arts de Quebec, and the Conseil des Arts de Montreal, and he has participated in residencies and projects in the USA, Germany, UK, Morocco, and Russia. His parallel work as a DJ and producer has begun taking centre stage in his painting practice, and his research focuses much on the implications of music in painting, and the spaces they both create.
