April 1 – 30
Reception: Sunday, April 13th 1-3pm
About the Show:
You’re rummaging through the garage to borrow a few playing cards, then you search through your dad’s toolbox and locate some electrical tape. You use the tape to fasten the cards between your bike spokes, and then you’re off! The engine of your bike is audibly revving, just you and the open sidewalk. The wind is blowing through your hair, but the sun is starting to dim. You’ll be able to make a few more neighbourhood laps and manage to be home in time for supper.
Travelling and the use of transportation is a part of life. A part so ingrained in our society that the influence of vehicles and driving starts young, through toys, video games, and parental influences. Cars give us opportunities in life to explore outside of the bubbles we are born into and to try to make something of ourselves. Being able to explore as we see fit can open us up to a world of possibilities. A world where we can follow our dreams and desires. Although, bringing these hopes to fruition can prove to be draining and difficult.
As a young child you’re constantly bombarded with the promotion of cars and the freedom of transportation. Hot Wheels tracks, Barbie’s pink corvette, and video games, were integral to many of our childhoods. We competed with our friends through these simulations, imagining what it would be like to one day drive in real life and romanticising what it symbolized: freedom, independence, and growing up.
The interaction with cars throughout life will undoubtedly play a role in your life story. The memories of cramming into the family van, playing Mario Kart with your neighbours, or eventually, buying your first car (just to name a few), are permanently placed as bookmarks to use later in our memory recall.
The freedom of the open road, a cliché, but it’s a line that is hammered into our minds from an early age. Driving can represent freedom and possibility, but it can also represent change, good and bad. Driving is loss of time, loss of funds, or it can make you feel like everything is moving too fast.
For me, as an artist, cars represent aesthetic beauty and are a subject matter that I adore painting, on a surface level. But over time I have looked into why cars are so alluring to me and have explored why I tend to be as equally captivated by an old junker as I am to a pristine classic muscle car.
Exhausted, is a collection of paintings that present cars and driving through images of vehicles, toys, and video games. I have explored the cars that have influenced me and those that have played a role in my life’s story. As a collection, Exhausted celebrates the beauty and esthetics of cars, while simultaneously exposing a story about life. A story that is likely relatable to many viewers. There is something about cars as a subject for painting, beyond looks, handling, and horsepower. Cars are memory, transportation is freedom, and life is exhausting.
About the Artist:
Jamie Cardow (he/him) is a self-taught artist, born and raised in Guelph, Ontario. Jamie works with acrylic and oil paints on canvas.
The subjects of Jamie’s art range from toys and food, to portraiture and interiors, though they all share the commonality of exploring nostalgia and chasing the feeling of reminiscence and sentimentality through realism.
Jamie is currently working on investigating the role of memory and the nuance between authentic memory and those resurfaced by viewing photographs. Dissecting the role of memory through investigating how nostalgia and romanticization contrast in their connection.
Jamie has shown his work locally in Guelph through juried shows as well as solo exhibitions.
