Transparent Architecture as Support – Opening Reception

Burrard Arts Foundation is pleased to present recent works by artist-in-residence Sean Mills.

Vancouver based artist Sean Mills’ recent practice has seen him meticulously exploring the materiality of paint to test the boundaries of its objectmaking potential. Having graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art & Design in 2010, Mills has been methodically experimenting with the laborious accumulation and layering of material to create sculptures, three-dimensional paintings and works on unconventional surfaces that examine light, space, and time. Occasionally paralleling the concerns of institutional critique, his laborious work addresses ideas of transparency in both a literal and figurative sense.

During his three month residency at Burrard Arts Foundation, Mills has been using architectural glass as a support to repeatedly layer transparent paint. Installed away from the walls, the resultant works are viewable from all angles, denying a privileged viewpoint while being able to be seen through. The works alter with their environment: activity around the paintings becomes framed as subject and they become sites for events, movement and actions while the accumulated paint acts as a lens to simultaneously allow and distort looking.
(text by Elliat Albrecht)

Transparent Architecture as Support will be on view at Burrard Arts Foundation from May 14th to June 20th, 2015.