SHAPESHIFTERS Vol.1

David Diviney : From here to yonder

EXHIBITION OPENS FRIDAY, JULY 13, 2007, 6PM

with visiting artist DAVID DIVINEY in attendance ARTIST TALK 8PM

Third Space Gallery launches SHAPESHIFTERS, a series of exhibitions that focus on contemporary Canadian sculptural practices. The first in the series is a solo exhibition by Kamloops, BC–based artist David Diviney, whose diversity of forms and techniques positions him as a utilitarian folk artist. From here to yonder is a presentation of sculptures that blend trompe l’oeil, fabrication, replication and invention toward a satirical investigation of pop culture.

The broader subjects of folklore within pop culture has long served as a starting point in Diviney’s work. This direction has been influenced in part by his own autobiography: he was born and raised in the foothills of Appalachia, and as a result has a keen interest in the provisional savvy and self-sufficient ways of the “Mountain People” of rural America. This interest is mirrored in a methodology loosely based on the backwoods ingenuity and creative gestures of this culture. His sculptures draw upon rituals of hunting to the language of the streets, directly responding to aesthetic trends in both. As a result, his ongoing sculptural production is rooted in visual structures of rural expression as filtered through a study of found objects and imagery.

David Diviney received his BFA from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia and his MFA from NSCAD, Halifax. He has exhibited his work widely and has had recent solo exhibitions at the ODD Gallery, in Dawson City, Alternator Gallery in Kelowna BC, Artcite in Windsor ON, Helen Pitt Gallery in Vancouver BC, Gallery 101 in Ottawa ON, Axenéo7, Gatineau QC and Galerie Verticale in Laval, QC.

SHAPESHIFTERS received generous project assistance from the City of Saint John Community Arts Program. Additional support comes from the Telegraph Journal, Picaroons Brewing, T4G, Punch Productions and the Province of New Brunswick.

From here to yonder continues until August 25, 2007