Curatorial Tour: Erin McSavaney: Spaces of the Everyday

Join us for a curatorial tour of our exhibition, Erin McSavaney: Spaces of the Everyday.

About the Exhibition
The Spaces of the Everyday exhibition came about after a thoughtful conversation with Erin McSavaney in which the role of architecture in painting first drew the curator’s attention to his practice. His depictions of houses and urban architecture offer a visually striking and intellectually provocative intersection of two historically divergent painting modes. McSavaney’s works are rendered with photographic precision—indeed, he uses a camera as a kind of sketchbook—evoking the immersive quality of high realism; meanwhile, at times, hard-edge abstraction takes over the subject matter as scenes are disrupted—sometimes subtly, sometimes boldly. Each of these traditions embodies a distinct discourse of image-making.

What makes McSavaney’s work so compelling is the way he brings seemingly incompatible approaches into dialogue within the same canvas. Images render smoothly as the viewer’s attention passes seamlessly through the picture plane into a spatial realm—whether it is a garage, a café, or a set of stairs. The collection of paintings in this exhibition often adopts geometric forms, flat colours, and stark boundaries that contrast with his pure documentation of the photographic and drawing sketchbooks. This intervention reminds viewers that they are looking at a constructed image. McSavaney’s work thus becomes a sophisticated negotiation between illusion and literalism, prompting reflection on how we see, interpret, and assign meaning to images.

About the Artist
Erin McSavaney focuses on architecture, specifically the often-overlooked abandoned warehouses, factories, loading docks, and alleys within urban environments. His works reference photography in their format, while also relating to hard-edge abstraction and formalism with his use of straight lines, bold compositions, and intersecting planes. “Architecture is a mirror to humanity,” McSavaney says. “More specifically, over time, buildings move from reflecting their environment and an architectural ‘vision,’ to revealing their inhabitants and activities.” Since graduating from Capilano University in 1998, McSavaney has exhibited across Canada as well as in Seattle and Portland. He is represented by Equinox Gallery in Vancouver. He lives and works in Courtenay, BC.