Limited Edition Print

Jon Sasaki - Limited Edition Print
For purchase online or in person at the Gallery
$1200 + HST

The first in a series of limited edition prints to be commissioned by KWAG and offered for sale to the public.

"Jon is someone to watch on the Canadian art scene," comments Gallery Executive Director, Shirley Madill. "In introducing this project, as a way to both highlight young Canadian artists and raise support for stewardship and enhancement of Permanent Collection, Jon was an excellent choice for the first commission. With this numbered edition, buyers are assured of originality, great quality, an investment and ongoing enjoyment."

Sasaki's new piece is inspired by a Tom Thomson work in the Gallery's Permanent Collection. Recently, Sasaki has been fascinated by the Canadian landscape. In this work he uses macro photography to chart the surface of the Tom Thomson painting revealing what appears to be a hidden landscape. He focused on a tiny section of the painting (the intersection of three small brushstrokes) that under his artistic direction is transformed into what resembles an aerial view of a hilly landscape, a river and some geological rock formations that take shape over eons as various forces act upon them. For Sasaki, the painting too is not immune to some of these transformative forces: "Moisture, heat, cold, expansion and contraction are reconfiguring its surface as well. Cracks appear and brushstrokes slide around like tectonic plates. This painting is not static and in studying it magnified a hundredfold, we see how mutable it really is."

The prints may be purchased online, or in person at the Gallery. The price is $1200 + HST, and the print may be taken at the time of purchase or shipped to your destination of choice (please contact the Gallery with shipping inquires as the cost of shipping will vary depending on the destination). Proceeds from the sale of the work go towards KWAG's Permanent Collection, for future acquisitions and the ongoing care of the Gallery's works of art.

Jon Sasaki works with video, objects, performance, installation and interventions, producing work that mixes humor and pathos, usually with discomforting or gently antagonistic results. His work may be familiar to local audiences from his 2011 solo exhibition at KWAG, Good Intentions. Part of a national tour organized by the Doris McCarthy Gallery at the University of Toronto, Good Intentions has also been on view in partnership with the Kenderdine Art Gallery (University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon), Southern Alberta Art Gallery (Lethbridge, AB), MacLaren Art Centre (Barrie, ON), Art Gallery of Grande Prairie (Grande Prairie, AB) and the Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina SK). He has participated in group exhibitions at VOX (Montreal), the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Owens Art Gallery (Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB), Simon Fraser University Gallery (Burnaby, BC), as well as the 2006, 2008 and 2012 editions of Toronto's Nuit Blanche. He holds a BFA from Mount Allison University, lives and works in Toronto and is represented by Clint Roenisch Gallery.

Jon Sasaki, A quarter inch square of a Tom Thomson painting, 2013, Ultrachrome HDR pigment ink on Canson Baryta Photographique 310gsm acid-free paper. Image: 40.6cm x 61cm (16" x 24"), Sheet: 50.8cm x 71.1cm (20" x 28") Edition of 25, Commissioned by the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery. © Jon Sasaki. Courtesy of the artist.