9 October 2018 through 10 November 2018
Reception for the artist Thursday, 1 November 2018, 7 – 9pm
Curated by David MacWilliam and Jonathan Middleton
CSA Space is pleased to present a new drawing installation by Vancouver-based artist Garry Neill Kennedy. Remembering Names is the most recent iteration of an ongoing project by Kennedy dating back to the early 1970s when he began attempting to “remember the names of everyone I ever met.” Eric Cameron wrote about Kennedy’s project in the May 1977 issue of Artforum: “Trying to remember the names of all the people he had ever known was a way of taking stock.”
Of late, Kennedy has been experiencing significant memory loss and during this time has wanted to revisit work that he began decades ago. Making this exhibition is not only personally timely, but also one that echoes contemporary social media practices where names are markers and indicators of social networks.
Garry Neill Kennedy has been an important conceptual artist and educator in the Canadian art world since the late 1960s. His work has been presented nationally and internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions including most recently: Ya Ummi, Ya Ummi… at the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina; Entangled: Two Views and Vancouver Special at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Three volumes of his drawings were published by READ Books in 2015 and his book NSCAD, The Last Art College: Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1969-1978 was published by MIT Press in 2012.
In 2004 Kennedy was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada and also received a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. His jury citation called him "one of the most distinguished figures in Canadian art.”
