Introduction of the artist:

Ron TERADA (Canada)

Born in 1969, Vancouver, Canada. Lives and works in Vancouver. Selected solo exhibitions: 2011 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago / 2011 Justina M, Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto / 2010 Hayward Gallery, Project Space, London / 2010 Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre, Canada / 2010 Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK / Selected group exhibitions: 2012 When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco / 2012 Art Histories, VOX, Montreal / 2011 Shore, Forest and Beyond: Art from the Audain Collection, Vancouver Art Gallery / 2010 It Is What It Is, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa / 2010 Act V: Power Alone, Witte De With, Rotterdam.

Introduction of works:

Who I Think I Am, installation, dimensions variable, 2011, courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver

Jack, arylic on canvas, 102×81cm each, 2007, courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver

Who I Think I Am, pigment ink print, 56.5×48cm, 2010, courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver

Who I Think I Am, off-set print on uncoated paper, 58×42cm, 2010, courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver

See Other Side of Sign, pigment ink print, 112×140cm, 2006, courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver

You Have Left the American Sector, vinyl on extruded aluminum, galvanized steel, wood, paint, 305×305×41 cm, 2005, courtesy
Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver

Stay Away From Lonely Places, white neon, brushed aluminum, plexiglas, wood, paint, 2005-2006, courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver

Big Star, gold and white neon, 58.5×46cm, 2003, courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver

Canadian artist Ron Terada has developed a practice whereby he explores and challenges the institutions of painting, the “photoconceptual school” that is predominant in his native Vancouver and the notion of the object in art. His early work consisted of brief texts drawn from popular culture painted on monochrome backgrounds, conflating representation – the texts were often descriptions - with the implied autonomy of abstraction. More recently, while still focusing on the way that language is used, Terada has more or less moved away from painting, preferring material drawn from non-art life, such as signage, advertisements and publications.

Terada is renowned for an exhibition he made in 2003 at Vancouver’s Contemporary Art Gallery based entirely on its own promotional material – sponsors’ logos, branding and so on - thus effectively dematerializing the art object. His work seen here is a kind of philosophical rejoinder. A sculptural piece, made from MDF, it resembles a stack of cardboard boxes inscribed with the words ‘Who I Think I Am’. The original boxes actually were from a printing company that made and delivered the catalogues for Terada’s recent exhibition at Ikon Gallery (Birmingham, UK) - and so the words are the title of the exhibition. They suggest individuality and self-analysis but then these boxes could not be more alike in their blankness. They allude to Andy Warhol’s Brillo boxes, thus evoking Popism, but their kind of humour is very different. It is wry, deadpan, and mixed with melancholy, as detached as it might be extremely personal.