activity
A list of exhibitions, talks, reviews, publications, and other notable events.
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A Marker to Measure Drift opened January 22, 2021 at the Kamloops Art Gallery. Surveying over 15 years of my practice the works in this exhibition find their locus in our continuously developing scientific cosmology informed by quantum and astro physics research. Displaying a number of performative sculptures and apparatus-based photographic works, the show continues my interest in reflecting on natural phenomena through fabricated means.
https://kag.bc.ca/exhibitions?p=0&action=exhibitions&subaction=view&ID=1610
The exhibition title was borrowed from a book of the same name by Alexander Maksik.
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Honoured to be one of the jurors for the 2020 Capture Photography Festival selection process, alongside esteemed co-jurors Diana Freundl, cheyanne turions, and Capture Director Emmy Lee. At times challenging with so many strong submissions, the process was made enjoyable by the insights and thoughtful dialogue from all involved. Looking forward to a great Festival lineup this Spring...!
https://capturephotofest.com/announcing-the-2020-selected-exhibitions-jury/
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My large daguerreotype la Lune Perdue is on view as part of the 40th Anniversary exhibition WHEN THE SUN DEPARTS FOR A NEW HORIZON at Corkin Gallery Toronto, Sept 14 - Oct 27, 2019.
http://www.corkingallery.com/exhibitions/when-the-sun-departs-for-a-new-horizon
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Alternate Sights (with Léna Mill-Reuillard) opens April 5th as part of the 2018 Capture Photo Festival. Opening reception April 12th 6PM-9PM at Back Gallery Projects. Curated by Annie Briard and Erin Siddall.
http://capturephotofest.com/exhibitions/alternate-sights/
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Movement Without Moving presented at VU Photo in Quebec City, January 12th - February 18th, 2018. My sincere thanks to Anne-Marie, Fanny, Hubert, David, Ariane, Peio, and the rest of the crew at VU & Mois Multi for a successful exhibition.
Installation images courtesy Hubert Gaudreau, VU Photo.
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01502 - MKT - OS Scott Massey explorations in Light_v6_MM_YouTube from Scott Massey on Vimeo.
Late Spring Banff Artist in Residence, with curator Lorenzo Fusi. A month long residency at the Banff Centre concentrating on two new bodies of sculptural work. Another amazing group of people, fantastic Sunday hikes, and tons of productive time. Thanks to everyone at the Centre for all the assistance, especially Micheal Doerksen in the sculpture studio (great pours Michael!) and also thanks to Jennifer Chiasson who organized the short video project above.
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To mark the 2016 Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver gala fundraiser, I created The Party Crashers. These are limited edition scaled-down cast bronzes of five near-earth asteroids (99942 Apophis; 4179 Toutatis; 951 Gaspra; 1036 Ganymed; 25143 Itokawa.) The seemingly benign presence of these small forms belies the immense latent power the real asteroids possess with their near earth crossings. Each bronze comes with an asteroid information strip in it's own hand-sanded maple capsule container. Contact the Contemporary Art Gallery about availability: http://www.contemporaryartgallery.ca/#news
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In September 2016, I embarked on a residency in Atina, Italy for two weeks with the Lumen Collective (UK) and 19 other artists from around the world. The focus of the residency was astronomy and cosmology; Atina was an amazing place to see the night sky and enjoy a bit of rural mountain living in Italy with a great group of people. Monday market was a highlight: best hand-made salumi I've tasted...!
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Black Hole Sun
Opening reception January 23, 2016, 6 - 8pm, Exhibition runs January 23 - February 27, 2016
Black Hole Sun presents new works by Blaine Campbell and Scott Massey combining their interests in astronomy, cosmology, and quantum physics. The various photographs, installation works, and sculptures investigate the very small and the very large, as the works urge us to ask questions about the nature of existence and the troubling duality of light as both medium and pure energy. They examine figurative and literal aspects of the seemingly unknowable, unfathomable, or invisible, brought to light through sustained engagement and investigation.
732 Richards Street, Third Floor, Vancouver B.C. V6B 3A4 604.632.1590 | www.republicgallery.com
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To fall by eye
Part of the exhibition To fall by eye, The Day Breaks will be presented at Gallery44 Toronto. Opens Friday September 11, 2015.
https://gallery44.org/exhibitions/fall-eye
To fall by eye explores the apparatus of image making through works that foreground the objects of their creation. Turning the focus inward to examine the technology of their own making, the works in this exhibition form a diverse constellation of reference points that coalesce around notions of fragility in technology and an attempt to reckon with its uncertainty.
Installation images courtesy Toni Hafkensheid.
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Unstable Ground
Burnaby Art Gallery. April 17, 2015 to June 21, 2015
Scott Massey’s on-going photographic series A Path Must Always Curve (Horizon Shift) records the visual effects of the earth hurtling through space, a well known but commonly overlooked phenomenon. This accelerated movement is the reason we feel gravity, witness sunrise and sunset, and view the stars turning slowly overhead at night. Subverting the use of an astronomical tool called a motorized equatorial mount that visually counteracts the rotation of the earth allowing for a fixed view of the stars, Massey employs a large format camera in place of a telescope. The photographs resulting from this process portray the earth’s shift over the course of lengthy nighttime exposures. Produced in various locations removed from the deleterious effects of light pollution, the works are displayed with their resulting shifted “horizons” aligned with the gallery floor, countering all illusion of earthly stasis.
Exhibition Catalogue available from the Burnaby Art Gallery. Design courtesy Stacy Noyes, LuzForm.
Interview with ShawTV Go! West Coast team.
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Light Adjustments
Dazibao, Montreal. December 4, 2014 to February 7, 2015
Through a series of works which seem to borrow from the mechanisms of scientific observation and demonstration, Massey plays with the limits of visual perception, forcing us to modify, or sometimes to correct outright, our intuitive reading of what we see. Each of his works is carefully written, both in its choice of subject and in the very means by which the image is created, as if he were seeking to achieve not an objective representation (of landscape, light, time, the forces of the universe) but rather a kind of absolute. By idealising the mechanisms of representation, Massey’s work examines our desire to “see as a means of knowing”. Recipient of the eighth annual production-dissemination residency offered by PRIM and Dazibao.
Installation images courtesy Richard-Max Tremblay.
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The PAVED Arts Anti-Advertising Billboard ProjectScott Massey, Vancouver, BC.September - November, 2014.
In early July, 2014, PAVED Arts issued a nation wide call for submissions for what was generally termed an “anti-advertising” project. Given that the centre programs a billboard space on an ongoing basis, the project is intended to critique the very nature of this venue, as an art work that ironically takes on the format of public billboard advertisements. In short, the project should in someway implicate the ongoing colonizing movement of advertising in public urban spaces. Of the 56 submissions that were received, the “Outstanding Outdoor” project by Vancouver-based artist Scott Massey was selected.Trading off of what Massey describes as the “ubiquitous design of the Pattison logo seen on all Pattison Outdoor Advertising billboards,” his work amplifies the logo into a subject for our consideration. In this way Massey draws visual and literal parallels between the double 'T's of “Pattison,” the double 'L's of “Pollution”, the alliteration and the syllabic construction of both wordmarks. As well, Massey's gesture enacts a pithy critique of the oft' times Utopian rhetoric contained in advertising, and, conversely, the troubling notion of visual pollution-- whereby manipulative imagery circulates in the public sphere and is regularly placed into our brains unbidden.In the artist's own words:“Outdoor advertising is nearly impossible to avoid seeing. It is pervasive and, by virtue of its purpose, meant to stand out and obscure everything else in the vicinity. In essence, it is visually “loud”. But perhaps because of its desirable appeals to love, sex, happiness and material wealth, it remains largely uncontested in the public sphere. This is a puzzling phenomenon when, contrasted with the outspoken criticisms and laments from the public over some public art installations, the effects of this visual advertising clutter are rarely discussed critically.”
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Spectrum Studies jury selected for latest issue of Pipeline Magazine, Hong Kong.
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Timepiece shortlisted for the Altitude Development at UniverCity SFU Burnaby.Proposal was based on the idea of a collective clock for the community, with the creation of an architectural lighting element installed inside of a vertical niche on each of the two adjacent buildings.
Render courtesy Chris Kowal.
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Exhibition title text has been assembled from a letter handwritten by Albert Einstein, and was originally embossed on the hardcopy exhibition invitation.
Let's Reach c Together
The Charles H. Scott Gallery is pleased to present a new body of work by Vancouver artist Scott Massey. The sculpture, photography, and video works in the exhibition explore cosmology, quantum physics and universal constants. Linked by the physical properties of light and the paradigm-shifting potential of the ground glass lens, each work expands the notion of our collective journey through time and space.
Let's Reach c Together - Artist TalkThursday July 4, 2013 at 7pm. Join us at the Charles H. Scott Gallery on Thursday July 4th for a talk by Scott Massey. The artist will be speaking about his exhibition ‘Let’s Reach c Together’ currently on show until July 14th.
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Artist talk with Malcolm Levy, Wil Aballe Art Projects, May 23rd 2015
Modern Painters, October, 2013 Exhibition review, Spectrum Studies at Wil Abale Art Projects.
In a practice that limns the evasive subjects of light and time's passage, Scott Massey makes material choices matter. “Spectrum Studies” presents his effort to form a “durational landscape,” a film work to be completed next year that subtly summarizes a 24-hour period through diverse filters, films, and imaging technology. At Wil Aballe Art Projects, Massey presents the photographic studies that make up his preparations; beautiful objects straining to chart the evolution of a day through a single frame.
Spectrum Studies
Wil Aballe Art Projects October 10 - November 2, 2013
Our “visible” spectrum actually comprises a relatively narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum. Utilizing special filters, imagers, and optical technologies, it is possible to extend this visible range to include radio waves, microwaves, infrared, heat, ultraviolet, X-ray, and other areas outside of our normal range of experience. Astronomers and scientists regularly make use of these technologies to expand their research into areas that are otherwise inaccessible. Spectrum Studies is a series of landscape photographs taken by a Hasselblad using custom laser-cut dark slides. Massey has adopted an infographic technique to create a composition that contains visual clues as to the complexity of the images, captured in a pie-graph formats representing a single photographically related visual exploration.