The Church and Capitalism share a long, volatile history that has moved between phases of antagonism, acceptance and appropriation. In 5,6,7: Economies of Good & Evil, Mitch Robertson playfully ponders Christianity's corporate makeover in a series of multiples, rubbings, paintings, hand-tinted photographs and a modular church.
Long interested in the faith-based appeal of industries surrounding celebrity, tourism, and myth, Robertson finds links between advertising and iconography,and questions the contemporary meaning of good & evil.
Evaluating the anatomy of an increasingly consumer-friendly brand of faith, Robertson translates sacred claims into basic, human questions. He does so not from the perspective of a theologian or religious scholar, but as a curious bystander whose lapsed faith fuels a project that is at once irreverent, earnest and insightful. With subtle interventions and satirical mass-production Robertson surveys sensitive, yet necessary territory, garnering praise for what critic Gary Michael Dault describes as an "uncanny ability to generate big meaning from effortless (or apparently effortless) gestures."
Mitch Robertson was born in 1974 in Woodstock, Ontario and grew up in rural southwest Ontario. He studied at York University and graduated from the Toronto School of Art in 1997. He currently lives and works in Toronto. Robertson began exhibiting in 1998 and has shown across Canada and New Zealand, as well as in the USA, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, England, Germany, Scotland and Australia. His work is included in numerous public, corporate and private art collections nationally and internationally.
5,6,7: Economies of Good & Evil is organized by Plug In ICA, Winnipeg and Oakville Galleries.
Curated by Steven Matijcio
