Mike Gough – You Are Here

Christina Parker Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by Mike Gough. YOU ARE HERE is available for viewing both online and in the main gallery.  

Gough’s new works are mixed media on panel paintings that reveal a recurrence of symbols and ideas creating an archetypal visual language that express the human condition. 

 If we are lost and looking for direction we may turn to a map and find a “You Are Here” marker that identifies where we are and where we’ve come from.  This marker can act as an invitation – welcoming us into the world represented on the map.  It demonstrates the bigger picture and it highlights familiar landmarks and symbols. 

With this in mind, the paintings in this exhibition are just that – an invitation.  These are images that offer moments of solitude, opportunities for escape and the possibility for the viewer to lean on their own memories and their own experiences to create narratives within the paintings.  Color blocking, simple lines, and nondescript shapes create a foundation influenced by the Newfoundland landscape and cultural iconography that still provide vacancy for the viewer to cast upon.

You Are Here asks us to not only savour the present moment but look to the past to help ground us, teach us and guide us to where we want to be. These paintings are a reflection of my own memories and the impressions Newfoundland has made on my mind and my heart. 

Mike Gough was born in Corner Brook, NL. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in 2007, a Bachelor of Education from Memorial University in 2009 and in 2010, a Masters of Fine Arts from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design in London, England.  

Mike Gough was the winner of the Excellence in Visual Arts (EVA) People’s Choice Award in 2015 and was shortlisted for the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council Emerging Artist of the Year in 2013. He has been the recipient of numerous Arts and Letters Awards and was selected for both the Elbow Room Residency Program (2013) at the Rooms Provincial Art Gallery and the Artist in Residence (2016) at 2 Rooms Contemporary Art Projects in Duntara, on the Bonavista Peninsula, NL

Gough has exhibited nationally and internationally in over 40 exhibitions. His work is found in corporate and public collections in the UK and across Canada, including The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, Humber College, Toronto, ON,  Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Corner Brook NL, the Municipal Collection, City of St. John’s, and Global Affairs Canada. Gough’s work is in numerous private collections in Canada, the USA, the UK, Germany and the  United Arab Emirates Royal Family.

You Are Here celebrates Gough’s seventh solo exhibition with the gallery. The artist gratefully acknowledges the support from the Ontario Arts Council.

To download the visual catalogue, click here.

To download Mike Gough’s CV, click here.

August gallery hours are Monday, 12-4, Tuesday – Friday, 11-5, Saturday, 12 -4. We ask that guests observe social distancing protocols, and for groups of 6 or more to make appointments. 

We are pleased to welcome you back to the gallery and look forward to seeing you soon.