Born in London, Ontario, Doug Kirton received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1978, and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Guelph in 1994. As both an artist and as a professor, Kirton has earned the respect and fondness of his peers and students. He joined the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo (UW) in 2001. For his exceptional teaching, Kirton was honoured with the UW Distinguished Teacher Award as well as the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2010. His knowledge and excitement for learning inspires new generations of artists year after year. Kirton was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2002. He has exhibited across Canada as well as the United States, Europe and China, and his work is found in many private and public collections including the Shanghai Art Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Wellington Street is the most recent addition of Kirton’s work to the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery’s Permanent Collection.
Will Gorlitz was born in Buenos Aires and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Over the course of a career spanning nearly forty years, Gorlitz has exhibited his work internationally and held teaching positions at numerous institutions, most notably at the University of Waterloo and the University of Guelph. In 2008, Gorlitz’s work was the subject of, nowhere if not here, a touring survey exhibition organized by the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery. March was included in both nowhere if not here and Bloom (2004) at KWAG prior to its acquisition for the Permanent Collection in 2010. Gorlitz has examined a range of subjects in a manner which creates a bridge between individual experience and broader philosophical concerns. His choices of subject include landscapes as seen from the vantage of a car windshield, details of locations on a globe, cut flowers, and watery surfaces. In March, we see a subject that is central to the genre of still life painting – a floral bouquet – rendered in a blur as if submerged in water or seen through a veil of tears. The circular shape of the canvas reinforces a parallel to the eye and the role that both vision and perspective play in shaping meaning. As viewers, we are invited to consider the purpose and limits of representation, as well as the social and temporal references that inform how we interpret images.