A Place for Everything
Bronson Smillie
FEBRUARY 12 TO APRIL 30, 2023
Installation view.
Bronson Smillie. Felt Drawing #12, 2023. Found paper, polycrayon, pencil crayon, cork pad, felt pad, stickers, framed. 19.25 x 11.25 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Felt Drawing #11, 2023. Found paper, polycrayon, pencil crayon, cork pad, felt pad, stickers, framed. 19.25 x 14.25 inches.
Installation view.
Bronson Smillie. Asterisk to Nowhere #5, 2022. Paper pulp, bar rag, artists frame. 12 x 11 x 2 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Debris Flow Bungalow, 2022. Modified wooden letter press case, paper pulp. 4 x 9.5 x 1.5 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Debris Flow Bungalow, 2022. Modified wooden letter press case, paper pulp. 4 x 9.5 x 1.5 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Cushion Carving, 2022. Found upholstered cushion, fabric samples. 15 x 30 x 1 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Cushion Carving (Detail), 2022. Found upholstered cushion, fabric samples. 15 x 30 x 1 inches.
Installation view.
Installation view.
Bronson Smillie. Debris Flow Hotel, 2023. Modified cassette storage case, paper pulp, bar rag, postage stamp, felt pad. 18.5 x 24 x 3 inches
Bronson Smillie. Debris Flow Hotel, 2023. Modified cassette storage case, paper pulp, bar rag, postage stamp, felt pad. 18.5 x 24 x 3 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Debris Flow Hotel (Detail), 2023. Modified cassette storage case, paper pulp, bar rag, postage stamp, felt pad. 18.5 x 24 x 3 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Debris Flow Hotel (Detail), 2023. Modified cassette storage case, paper pulp, bar rag, postage stamp, felt pad. 18.5 x 24 x 3 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Debris Flow Hotel (Detail), 2023. Modified cassette storage case, paper pulp, bar rag, postage stamp, felt pad. 18.5 x 24 x 3 inches.
Installation view.
Installation view.
Installation view.
Bronson Smillie. Asterisk to Nowhere #1, 2022. Paper pulp, bar rag, artists frame. 12 x 11 x 2 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Asterisk to Nowhere #1, 2022. Paper pulp, bar rag, artists frame. 12 x 11 x 2 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Asterisk to Nowhere #1, 2022. Paper pulp, bar rag, artists frame. 12 x 11 x 2 inches.
Installation view.
Bronson Smillie. Asterisk to Nowhere #2, 2022. Paper pulp, bar rag, artists frame. 12 x 11 x 1 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Asterisk to Nowhere #2, 2022. Paper pulp, bar rag, artists frame. 12 x 11 x 1 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Asterisk to Nowhere #3, 2022. Paper pulp, bar rag, artists frame. 12 x 11 x 2 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Asterisk to Nowhere #3, 2022. Paper pulp, bar rag, artists frame. 12 x 11 x 2 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Asterisk to Nowhere #1, 2022. Paper pulp, bar rag, artists frame. 12 x 11 x 2 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Asterisk to Nowhere #4, 2022. Paper pulp, bar rag, artists frame. 12 x 11 x 2 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Asterisk to Nowhere #1, 2022. Paper pulp, bar rag, artists frame. 12 x 11 x 2 inches.
Installation view.
Installation view.
Bronson Smillie. Debris Flow Duplex, 2023. Modified wooden trinket display case, paper pulp, felt pads, knob, plastic. 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Debris Flow Duplex, 2023. Modified wooden trinket display case, paper pulp, felt pads, knob, plastic. 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches.
Bronson Smillie. Footnotes (1-7), 2023. Coffee decanters, paper pulp, bar rags, felt pads, postage stamps, plastic, wood. Overall dimensions variable; 7 x 8 x 8 inches each.
Bronson Smillie. Footnotes (1-7), 2023. Coffee decanters, paper pulp, bar rags, felt pads, postage stamps, plastic, wood. Overall dimensions variable; 7 x 8 x 8 inches each.
Bronson Smillie. Footnotes (1-7) (Detail), 2023. Coffee decanters, paper pulp, bar rags, felt pads, postage stamps, plastic, wood. Overall dimensions variable; 7 x 8 x 8 inches each.
Bronson Smillie. Footnotes (1-7) (Detail), 2023. Coffee decanters, paper pulp, bar rags, felt pads, postage stamps, plastic, wood. Overall dimensions variable; 7 x 8 x 8 inches each.
Bronson Smillie. Footnotes (1-7) (Detail), 2023. Coffee decanters, paper pulp, bar rags, felt pads, postage stamps, plastic, wood. Overall dimensions variable; 7 x 8 x 8 inches each.
Bronson Smillie. Footnotes (1-7), 2023. Coffee decanters, paper pulp, bar rags, felt pads, postage stamps, plastic, wood. Overall dimensions variable; 7 x 8 x 8 inches each.
Installation view.
A Place for Everything, Bronson Smillie’s first exhibition at the gallery, articulates the artist’s ongoing collaboration with decommissioned materials in contempt of their function and toward their aura.
The alphabetical, the chronological, the notational and the serial are methods by which disparate symbolic elements harmonize on a line or grid to convey meaning. Smillie makes a metaphor of these methods, spinning symbols from pre-existing auction-lot and street-side things to conspire with the grid and its image-making potential.
In Debris Flow Bungalow (2022), Hotel (2023), and Duplex (2023), pestled, pastel postage aggregate buzzes in the dust that collects our inventory, shaping a new field of objects once tasked to store stuff. Cassette tapes and letter presses are but media’s memory. Within these containers, as well as on found industrial ledger papers, Smillie charts color and form as topographical arrangements. Notation becomes a song.
Footnotes and asterisks buttress the body of language, pointing us elsewhere, or at least close by, for further explanation. Annotation in this sense explains the artist’s mode of making: treating the existing elements of an object as opportunities for deeper extrapolation: the volume of glass coffee decanters, a little drawer, a faded setee. Rags now beckon language and felt pads mark-make. Poet Rosemary Flutur recently observed of Smillie’s hand as “tender like his intervention, which is less a dismantling than a delicate adjustment.”
Bronson Smillie (b.1992, Calgary, Alberta) currently lives and works in Montréal, Canada and holds a BFA in Painting and Drawing from Concordia University. Solo presentations include Tempo 85, Espace Maurice, Montréal, Canada (2022); NADA New York, with april april (2022); and Forever is Closing in, MoMAPS311, Ottawa, Canada (2019). Group exhibitions include AXENÉO7, Gatineau, Canada (2022); Petrohradská Kolektiv, Prague, Czechia (2021); Five AM, Calgary (2019); Untitled Arts Society, Calgary (2018); and Eastern Bloc, Montréal, Canada (2017), among others. Smillie was recently awarded the ARTCH Emerging Artists Grant.