River Underground: Heather Goodchild and Margaux Smith

River Underground

Heather Goodchild
Margaux Smith

Opening:
Thursday, 1 December from 6-9pm

Exhibition:
1 December, 2022 - 21 January, 2023

"Nothing remains the same: the great renewer,
Nature, makes form from form, and, oh, believe me
That nothing ever dies."


- OVID, Metamorphoses, Book 15 (Rolphe Humphries translation).

CRG is thrilled to announce the opening of River Underground at 190 St Helens Avenue in Toronto.

Working independently and in collaboration, Margaux Smith and Heather Goodchild present an installation of new paintings, textiles, and ceramics. Exploring imagery evoked by Ovid's Metamorphoses, dream analysis, and collected moments from daily life, Smith and Goodchild invite you to step through the veil into the realm of the subconscious. Reflecting on the slippery experience of reality at the transitions between waking and sleep, the mundane and the mythical, they seek to decode moments of personal transformation and find resonance with the experiences of the viewer.

Margaux Smith uses layers of paint, drawing, and collage to convey the body's state of constant transformation. The process of revision creates semi-abstract surfaces that replicate the instability of images and bodies. Born in Toronto, Smith received a BFA from OCAD University and went on to complete a Master of Information at the University of Toronto. Throughout her works on paper, Smith incorporates grids, graphs, and data alongside portraiture and figuration. She currently lives and works in Toronto.

Margaux Smith would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council.

Heather Goodchild is a multidisciplinary artist exhibiting internationally and throughout Canada since 2001. Recurring themes in her work include symbolism, rituals, morality, personal development, and the collapse of the hierarchy of artistic disciplines. She received the Chalmers Arts Fellowship in 2019 and was recently at the Varda Artists Residence program (California) and the Skopelos Foundation for the Arts (Greece). Goodchild exhibited at the Textile Museum of Canada in 2013, was the Artist in Residence at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2012, and in 2020 showed at The Rooms, St John's NL. She recently exhibited at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts (2021) and at IA&A at Hillyer, Washington DC (2022).

Heather Goodchild would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.