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Verne Harrison, #7 Dan, giclée on Oce photo paper, edition of 1 (1978) [Jacana Contemporary Art, Vancouver BC, Jun 16-Jul 11]
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Verne Harrison, #19 St. Clair River, giclée on Oce photo paper, edition of 1 (1978) [Jacana Contemporary Art, Vancouver BC, Jun 16-Jul 11]
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In Circa 1978, Verne Harrison presents a series of giclée prints enlarged from Polaroids he took while working in the Alberta oil fields. Interspersed with a few glorious shots of landscape and skies, his pictures of small-town Canada are populated with small-town people wearing late-70s clothes and hairdos. The original snapshots were each digitally printed 18 x 22 inches for the show. While the pictures create a portrayal of workers during the oil boom, they also capture in a nostalgic way – to a great extent due to the post-apocalyptic lighting and colours of the Polaroid medium – the sensibilities of the 70s in all its funkiness.
Verne Harrison was born in Sarnia, Ontario in 1955. He completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Western Ontario in 1985 after studying Fine Art at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. He continues to live and work in Guelph, Ontario.
Harrison, who uses a wide variety of media, has been exhibiting since 1982 in a variety of galleries. From self-portraits to public sculpture, he has an ironic style with a strong cultural bias and sense of humour. His work is in several public and private collections in Canada and the United States.
In recent years he has exhibited in Shakespeare Made in Canada: Finding the Bard in Contemporary Portraiture (2007), at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre (2006), and in Transactions: 11 Artists from Canada at the Chongqing Art Museum, China (2008). Currently he is the gallery co-ordinator at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre where he has been employed since 1992.
www.jacanagallery.com
