Micah Lexier To Showcase New Series On Pattison Outdoor
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Winnipeg-born Micah Lexier, now a Toronto-based artist, collector and curator, will launch his Hands Holdings Things (2015) series of images in partnership with PATTISON’s Art in Transit program April 1, running to May 29.
The eight-image series will be displayed on street level outdoor media products at several locations across Winnipeg on PATTISON Outdoor Advertising.
Lexier’s Hands Holding Things is a collection of photographic images of the artist holding or manipulating objects culled from his extensive archive of used books and other found objects.
Lexier has drawn from this archive numerous times to make a variety of projects, including vitrine displays, a lightbox piece for Louis Vuitton Maison Toronto, and most recently a video which was shown in Lexier’s survey exhibition at The Power Plant during the 2013/14 season. In that video, Lexier used his hands to manipulate objects against a simple white background. Hands Holding Things is an extension of that video, producing a sequence of still images in which Lexier’s hands are as sculptural as the objects they hold.
In order to generate the imagery, Lexier performed in front of the camera while watching his actions on a live monitor. Each of Lexier’s images is evocative in its own right. But the more you see of them, the more you come to understand that each is part of a larger, mischievous campaign playing out across the city.
“I am a big fan of ‘teaser campaigns’ that start out with an unexplained, enigmatic image, only to be followed up a few days later with a more elaborate advertisement that reveals what is being advertised,” said Micah Lexier. “At first glance, my images appear to be standard product photography. But the more you look at them, the less you’re sure what it is that you are looking at.”
On March 24, 2015, Lexier was announced as a recipient of the 2015 Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. The award, selected annually by independent peer-assessed committees, is given for distinguished career achievement.
Lexier has had over 100 solo exhibitions, participated in more than 200 group exhibitions, and has produced a dozen permanent public commissions. His work is in numerous public and corporate collections including, the British Museum (London, England), the Contemporary Art Gallery (Sydney, Australia), the Jewish Museum (New York, NY), and, in Canada, at the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
Sharon Switzer, national arts curator and programmer for PATTISON Onestop, says, “The series is both playful and a bit perplexing. It’s the tension between the familiar banality of the objects and the thoughtfulness of the artist’s long-term fascination with them that makes the work so intriguing.”
Art in Transit represents PATTISON Onestop’s ongoing arts and culture program, presenting thought-provoking projects that enhance the shared environment and transports commuters, shoppers and city-dwellers, if only momentarily, out of their daily routines.
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