Saturday, May 3 – Saturday, May 31, 2025
Opening Reception: Friday, May 9, 6-8 PM

“Art is a way of seeing, and we see differently, but together we create a fuller picture.”

– Robert Rauschenberg and Susan Weil

For David Hill, the process of assemblage is one predominately to do with visual play. A riff. These works are constructed very intuitively from an emotional state of freedom, unmaking and re-association of disparate elements that carry personal as well as collective memories. They are in a sense shapeshifters.

For Christine Mack, the inspiration for her photographs comes from a deep desire to capture the mysteries found in ordinary subjects, whether urban or rural, landscapes or portraits. She always combines the passion for the medium of photography with her desire to explore experimental imagery.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Christine Mack learned while studying the great masters, that it was important to start presenting her own point of view. Becoming interested in subjects that were in a state of flux, she soon was attracted to images of things that were tarnished or stained, cracked or decomposed, crumbled and in disrepair; things that had a past and now changed with time.

The negative was the starting point in the interpretation of her subjects, but the darkroom presented another layer for the viewer to interpret and experience. Today the digital darkroom provides a similar freedom.

Christine has also always liked alternative photo based processes that blur the distinction between photography and painting, once again moving beyond the traditional print. She has in the past experimented with Cyanotype, Gum Bichromate and Polaroid Transfers.

All this visual magic can enhance or disturb the ordinary and seems to be Christine’s common approach to presenting the world around her. Over the years her inspiration has come from a deep desire to capture the mysteries found in ordinary subjects, whether urban or rural, landscapes or portraits.

Combining the passion for the medium of photography with her desire to explore experimental imagery and her career as a photo educator and fine artist have given her the skills to make photographs that are very personal memories but also very universal images.

Christine Mack has been a constant student of photography.  At age 15, her parents gave Christine her first camera. Embarking upon what was to be her photography journey, she began to see the world through the eyes of the camera. She continued on to formally study photography at York University and Humber College while studying painting and drawing at the Ontario College of Art.    

As a Photo Educator for 30 years, Christine taught photography classes as well as workshops exploring with her students the many possibilities within photography.

To learn more about commercial photography, she enjoyed making studio portraits along with taking on smaller work for clients.

It was through persistence and determination that she continued to produce and exhibit her own photographic images. 1988 was the beginning of exhibiting her personal photo art and this has continued in galleries throughout Ontario.

With her own photography Christine always tries to break the rules of literalism, preferring the use of alternative photo based processes that sometimes blur the distinction between photography and painting. Her life has always been immersed in photography through the work she chose, the partner she married and the travelling she has pursued.

chris_mack_photos   |   christinemack.com

––

For David Hill, the process of assemblage is one predominately to do with visual play. A riff. These works are constructed very intuitively from an emotional state of freedom, unmaking and re-association of disparate elements that carry personal as well as collective memories. They are in a sense shapeshifters.

The viewer is challenged to make associations and impose their own stories when engaging these pieces of fabricated nothingness.

Let your eyes wander and your imagination travel to new places as you unravel the new associations of shape, colour and texture. In so doing a link will be established connecting the past and the future.

“I am intrigued with combining the remnant of memories, fragments of relics and ordinary objects, with the components of technology. It’s a way of delving into the past and reaching into the future simultaneously.” – Betye Saar

Relax and enjoy.

David Hill has been surrounded by photographs since his birth in Hamilton. He did not grow up here but rather in many Ontario towns. After an honours BA at the University of Guelph and a short time at Ryerson in the late 70’s, he began his photographic adventure in Toronto.

Following the influence of family albums and the always present cameras his photo career took him on an interesting meander through the world of portraits, products, places and ultimately personal artwork. Led strongly by a desire to be creative and original, David’s creative horizon has expanded in recent times to include assemblage.

As a counterpoint to the rigours and precision required in 35 + years of commercial photography, these assemblage efforts are intuitive and free. There is a sense of Dada and Surrealism that settles in these works. No rules. The viewer is challenged to make associations and impose their own story when engaging with these pieces of fabricated nothingness.

Since the mid 1980’s David has regularly exhibited with his wife Chris Mack and on his own. They have shown their photographs together in Toronto, Midland and recently in Hamilton.  The continuation of these efforts in recent years has unfolded for David in the form of his assemblages as they take a larger role in his artistic journey.

artbydah