Back Gallery Project is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition of works by RBC Painting Award finalist Andrew Maize with the gallery.

For his first solo exhibition in Vancouver at Back Gallery Project the artist made the transcontinental trip by train from Nova Scotia, photo-documenting every freight train that the he encountered along the way. The results of this repertoire of images informed the work that was produced while working at Malaspina Printmakers. Other works in the exhibition were created during a residency at the Burrard Arts Foundation, the results of these two collaborations is a new body of work produced in Vancouver, that will be exhibited during the month of July at the gallery.

Andrew is an trans-disciplinary artist whose process oriented approach explores language, movement [gravity / time / space] and the patterns of human systems. Maize often assumes the role of a facilitator/composer while working through material explorations, collaboration and public participation. His practice exists somewhere between the performance itself, where he sets parameters and aspirations and explores them thoroughly, and craft where he is curious and celebrates qualities inherent within materials. The material or performance is a catalyst for larger conversations – the expression a result of connection to space, people and place. Maize loves the rain and feeling insignificant, bringing an optimism to his shifting and critical curiosity, taking seriously both the conceptual framework and materials as a starting point, to engage the audience in political, psychological, historical and geographical contexts. As an arts educator and organizer, he is involved in collaborative projects such as White Rabbit Arts, the Circus of the Normal and the Lunenburg School of the Arts. Maize was shortlisted for the 2015 RBC Painting Competition.

We would like to thank Malaspina Printmakers and the Burrard Arts Foundation for this collaboration.