Evan Penny: Why Do You Peel Me From Myself ?

Evan Penny at the ART TO Pop-Up @ SBG

 

This cycle of work, conceived as an installation, is related to the work from the Venice project Ask Your Body and takes its cue and title from the Alexander Nagel’s catalogue essay ‘Why Do You Peel Me From Myself?’.

The installation consists of three elements: ‘Hanging Marsyas’, a realistic sculpture of the mythological Marsyas, bound by the god Apollo as he prepares to flay the mortal of his skin; ‘Biomorphic Mirrors’, reflective gold-plated bronze sculptures enlarged from the impression created by squeezing clay into the palm of the hand; and a set of photographs showing the distorted image of Marsyas reflected in the Biomorphic Mirrors.

The hanging Marsyas is imagined gazing into a reflective mirror of his own flayed skin and asking, “Why do you peel me from myself?”. The photographic images, taken with my iPhone, become a kind of selfie. Marsyas’s horror at being confronted with his own skin provokes us to consider the implications of our relationship to the photographic/digital ”image” and its disorienting and disembodying effects.

Evan Penny, 2019

To visit the  ART TO Pop-Up @ SBG  please see below for pertinent details.

***

Evan Penny was born in South Africa in 1953, and immigrated to Canada in 1962. In 1975 he graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design, and completed Post-Graduate studies in sculpture in 1978. From his earliest sculptural busts in the 1970s through to his first nude sculptures in the early 1980s, Penny has devoted himself to an examination of how the concepts of sculptural realism have been influenced by classicism, romanticism, and – most importantly for the artist – by the advent of traditional and digital photography.

International exhibitions that have featured his work include: a touring solo survey titled Evan Penny RE FIGURED (Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany, 2011; Museum Der Moderne, Salzburg Austria, 2011/12; MARCA, Cantanzaro, Italy, 2012; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 2012/13, catalogue). A touring group exhibition titled RESHAPED REALITY – 50 Years of Hyperrealistic Sculpture (MUDEC, Museo delle Culture, 2020/21, Milan, Italy; Osthaus Museum, 2020 Hagen, Germany; National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, 2019, Taipei; Kunsthal Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2018; and National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia, 2017/18; ). Evan Penny’s work was featured in a group exhibition titled THE LOOKING GLASS, at the Art Gallery of Alberta, Canada, 2017; and in HUMAN SCALE at the National Gallery of Canada in 2016, to name a few.

An exhibition of new work was presented in a solo exhibition titled Ask Your Body (catalogue) at Chiesa San Samuele in Venice, Italy. The exhibition was curated by Michael Short and organized by TrépanierBaer; it ran in conjunction with the 57th edition of La Biennale di Venezia, from May to November, 2017.

Evan Penny is in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada; the Art Gallery of Ontario; the Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Hirshhorn Museum; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; Columbus Museum of Art; the Glenbow Museum; and the Portrait Gallery of Canada, Library and Archives Canada, to name a few, and in many significant private collections around the world.

***

ART TO Pop-Up @ SBG
Stephen Bulger Gallery
1356 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON
October 31 to November 7, 2020
Noon to 6:00 PM

The Stephen Bulger Gallery will be adhering to the City of Toronto health guidelines and is restricting occupancy. Making an appointment is encouraged by calling 416-504-0575. Walk-ins are welcome if space permits. Groups can enter every 30 minutes at a maximum of five people to facilitate social distancing. Masks are mandatory, and the gallery will provide hand sanitizer upon entry. Prospective guests should also note that a non-contact infrared forehead thermometer scan will also be mandatory upon entry.