P. Roch Smith - Comox Valley Art Gallery
P. Roch Smith (97) will be exhibiting Endgame at the Comox Valley Art Gallery.
An interest in the construction of male identity drives Smith’s work. Moving between sculpture and painting, Smith employs images of athletes, including hockey players and boxers, to reflect critically on the nature of masculinity. Using images of men in their most typically male moments, he challenges stereotypically masculine identities by overlapping images of aggression with subtexts of tenderness.
GI JOE™, the quintessential embodiment of the male identity, informs Smith's practice. The artist collects the action figure and GI JOE™ often appears in his work to as a way to denote the failure of traditional notions of maleness. Also present in his work is the concept of time – notably the idea of memory and how it works as a trigger for visual explorations. P. Roch Smith’s work is included in private, corporate and museum collections in British Columbia, Toronto and New York.
June 14 to July 26, 2008
Opening Reception
Friday, June 13 at 7pm
Artist Talk
Saturday, June 14 at 2pm