Alex Bierk | Memory Memory Memory

About

"Summertime skin, sun-faded colours, new life, trees pruned around power lines, freshly painted road lines, messages in graffiti, guard rails, construction, cigarettes, pills, factory windows, wildflowers, dusk, road signs, reflections, night, the moon, streetlights, people on porches, pink clouds, windows open, cut grass, skateboarders, kids, fast cars, burnt rubber tracks, back roads, young love, initials carved in wood, your tattoos, small town, rock and roll, relapse, overgrowth, death, shadows, beautiful light, summer air, fireworks, the water. 

When I'm driving through the city I notice how the colours have aged - faded greens, faded blacks that look green, inky blues, indigo skies, brick walls, steel, concrete, rust. My windshield gives everything a different hue, and the changes in the landscape make me feel changed.  Looking out can mean looking back. Something happens to the watercolour, too, as it’s laid and dries; it starts off black and ends up blue, or purple. It's unknown how it will turn out – sometimes how you've planned, and sometimes differently. I remember summertime and being a kid, and I see it all over again now, living where I grew up, the same scenes. Memory, memory, memory."  – Alex Bierk

Alex Bierk  (Born 1982, Peterborough, ON. Lives and works in Peterborough, ON, CANADA) has presented his paper works in exhibitions in Copenhagen, Paris and Stockholm. He recently completed a public mural project with the City of Peterborough, Ontario  and has a book was published this spring by Swimmers Group (Toronto, ON). His work is held in the collections of the Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank and the Art Gallery of Peterborough. In 2013, he was a finalist for the Kingston Prize, a national bi-annual portrait competition, and has since been the recipient of grants from the Toronto and Ontario Arts Councils, as well as the Canada Council for the Arts. Alex has exhibited his paintings in group and solo exhibitions in Canada, the United States and internationally as well as numerous art fairs: UNTITLED (MIAMI), Art Toronto, Papier 14 (Montreal). He lives and works in Peterborough, Ontario.