Barbara Balfour: Living & Dying

Presented in conjunction with Printopolis.

Barbara Balfour’s exhibition is comprised of a varied edition of lithographs shown as a non-linear series. In place of evoking the polarizing terms life’ and death’, these prints are considerations of the more elusive, blurred processes of living and dying. In Living & Dying, the text functions as a script that changes with the inflection of colour.

But at what point does living become dying? From what vantage point can you best detect this? When does this become that?
Excerpt from Balfour’s text entitled A Matter of L and D

BARBARA BALFOUR is a Toronto-based artist who has exhibited prints, multiples, and installations, in addition to undertaking curatorial and professional printing projects. An Associate Professor and Head of the Print Media Area in the Department of Visual Arts at York University, she teaches theory and print-based studio courses. Her current practice, supported by a SSHRC Research/Creation grant, deals with artists’ writing, within and parallel to art production. Other research relates to notions of selfishness, reproducibility, and mortality.

Upcoming events related to Barbara Balfour’s Living & Dying:

YYZUNLIMITED publication
With texts by Caroline Seck Langill and Barbara Balfour
Available for free at YYZ

Canadian Art Gallery Hop
Barbara Balfour in conversation with Dan Adler
Saturday, September 25, 2010, from 1:00 PM to 1:30 PM

Artist’s Talk
Friday, October 22, 2010 at 5:00 PM
Concurrent with Printopolis, Open Studio’s symposium on printmaking

Image: “Living & Dying,” 2010, lithograph, 15″ x 21″. Photo credit: Tom Blanchard.

Read the review of BARBARA BALFOURS exhibition from the January 2011 edition of Art in America.