On Saturday, April 5th, 1-3pm at Art Metropole in Toronto, there will be a book launch of three publications through Small Walker Press, including "Midnight Deer Abstractions" with writings by Erin Knight alongside images of my paintings.
Also, the librarian at the Art Gallery of Ontario Library and Archives just purchased all three Small Walker Press publications. Please see below for more info on all three publications and next Saturday's event:
I will be having an exhibition of my paintings at the Niagara Pumphouse, March 26th-April 27th, 2025. There will be an opening reception on Sunday, April 6th, 2-4pm. Thanks for taking a look. :)
Thanks for taking a look! https://great-lake-swimmers-merch-store.myshopify.com/
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Midnight Deer Abstractions
Geoff Farnsworth and Erin Knight
Edited by Catherine Parayre and Nicholas Hauck
St. Catharines, ON / Vienna, Austria: Small Walker Press / Salon für Kunstbuch, 2024.
Graphic design by Bernhard Cella
ISBN 978-1-990208-34-8
Midnight Deer Abstractions is about limitless in-betweens, vast spaces where slight variations contain all the precisions of colour and diction, rendered immediately nebulous. Poetry and painting provide sanctuary where layers of selves are layered with memory and dream, which are in turn layered with creative process. As poet and painter, Knight and Farnsworth are attuned to each other’s practice and the spectral selves their processes create. They invite us to think, read, and look “between foreground and background” for the traces and sketches of identities, whose edits are vague, always disappearing to be retraced, resketched. Just as Knight’s poetry occupies a space between certainty and uncertainty, Farnsworth’s images play with presence and undecidability. Here is “an alphabet a kaleidoscope of brushstrokes / and blurs” that leaves us comfortably, colourfully, wrapped in a riddle: what is the difference between tangerine and clementine?
There will be a book launch at Someday Books in St. Catharines on Tuesday, Sept. 24th, 4-6pm for both 2024 publications, which includes A Glossary of Illegibility by Linda Carreiro and Lan "Florence" Yee. More information is available at https://brocku.ca/miwsfpa/stac/2024-swp-publications
My painting of tony Dekker used as new album cover for the Great Lake Swimmers
My portrait of Tony Dekker is the new album cover for the newly released Great Lake Swimmers double LP, “In Pieces: An Acoustic Retrospective”.
This 4 x 4 foot oil painting is currently available for purchase. Please contact me directly at vermassa@gmail.com
or phone me at (289) 213-2472
For more info on this album from the band:
“We’re very excited to (finally!) share some (sort of) new music and let you know about a project that’s been in the works for several years now.
Today we’re announcing the upcoming release of our double LP, “In Pieces: An Acoustic Retrospective,” a collection of scaled-back versions of songs from across the twenty-year, eight-album Great Lake Swimmers catalogue, on Oct. 4th, 2024. Alongside the LP and CD release will be a companion piece annotated book of the collected Great Lake Swimmers lyrics from 2003-2023.
To kick things off, we’ve just dropped new acoustic versions of ‘Your Rocky Spine’ and ‘Changing Colours,’ exclusively on Bandcamp for #BandcampFriday today.
For the next 24 hours, Bandcamp waives its fees, and 100% of sales go directly to the artist. So it’s a great time to advance-order the album, CD or book and get one of these limited edition pressings, which ship on or around Oct. 4th.
The singles will hit streaming platforms next Friday, but if you want a sneak peek (and to support us directly), head to Bandcamp today!
To celebrate the release, we’ve also added December shows in Ontario:
Dec 4: Kingston - The Broom Factory Dec 5: Guelph - Sonic Hall Dec 6: Hamilton - Westdale Theatre Dec 7: London - Aeolian Hall Dec 12: Toronto - Longboat Hall
Find the link in our bio to listen to the new tracks, pre-order merch, and find more information on all of our upcoming tour dates.
Cover painting by @geofffarnsworth
Design by @natashagwen
Recorded and produced by @joelapinski @thewowsound
Photo by @joelapinski”
Tomorrow, Oct. 5 at 6pm , Mann Gallery at 13th Street Winery will be hosting an artist talk between myself and Dr. Lauren Corman.
Dr. Lauren Corman is an Associate Professor of Sociology (Brock University) and an environmental sociologist who teaches in the areas of environmental thought, contemporary social theory, and critical animal studies. Her research centralizes anti-racist, anti-colonial, queer, and feminist understandings of social relations and the more-than-human world.
Dr. Corman is currently working on a book project entitled, Zoonoses: A Critical Animal Studies Bestiary, with Dr. Chloë Taylor, which will feature 26 original works by local painter and colour worker, Geoff Farnsworth. Drawing on years of friendship, and a mutual aim to highlight the subjective worlds of human and nonhuman animals, the collaboration will feature critical perspectives on COVID-19, stories of animals associated with the pandemic, and the precarious connections that link us.
This is a free event with limited seating.
Book your seat now, please RSVP by email to info@manngallery.ca
CHCH Morning Live visited Mann Gallery the other day to talk with a few of us about the gallery, the current exhibition up of my work and the work of Kyle Clements, and to watch art demos by myself and Alex Chorny. Have a look here by hitting the PLAY CHCH SPOT button below group photo:
I had the opportunity to sit down with Walter Sendzik on 610 CKTB a few evenings ago to discuss my art path, the great community in St. Catharines, and to talk about my exhibitions up now at Mann Gallery and the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. Please click on the link below to go to the audio cut to hear this:
I have two exhibitions up right now!
At Mann Gallery (formerly 13th Street Gallery at 13th Street Winery), I am showing with Kyle Clements. 33 of my paintings are on the walls and this exhibition is on until October 21st, 2023. Please see poster for more details:
Concurrently and in partnership with this exhibition, the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts has an exhibition of some of my small paintings and drawings. This show runs until October 22nd. Please see poster below for more details:
It has been very busy in the studio lately with two upcoming shows! Please see posters for both shows below. I will have new work showing with Kyle Clements at Mann Gallery, formerly known as 13th Street Gallery and still located on the grounds of 13th Street Winery. The opening reception and first day of this exhibition is Saturday, September 23, 2-5pm. Also, there will be an artist talk with myself and Dr. Lauren Corman at the gallery on Thursday, October 5, 6pm. This is a free event, but seats are limited, so please reserve a seat through the gallery: info@13thstreetgallery.com
Also, in partnership with Mann Gallery, I will have an exhibition of some of my small paintings and drawings at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. The opening reception is Sept. 26, noon-2pm. Also, Marilyn I. Walker’s Small Walker Press will be publishing a book pairing my paintings with the writing of Erin Knight, Canadian writer and Contributing Editor to Open Book: Ontario.
My paintings will be featured in two exhibitions coming up this September 2023. I will have an exhibition of my new work shown at 13th Street Gallery alongside the paintings of Kyle Clements. Our work should contrast and gel well together with his abstracted urban pieces against my new nature oriented paintings featuring elements of painterly abstraction and the surreal.
For you calendar, exhibition dates for this 13th Street Gallery show is September 23 to October 21, 2023.
Also, I am currently working on a project with Brock University’s Walker Cultural Leader Series. My paintings will be paired with the creative writing of a writer to be announced and coming out in a small publication book form through their Small Walker Press. There will be an accompanying exhibition in September 2023. More information will be announced soon.
My work was just featured in the “Curator’s Pick” by the COVERT Collective. Bart Gazzola wrote his article based on my portrait painting of the painter, Frank Auerbach, which is currently available at 13th Street Gallery in St. Catharines. You can check out the article with this link:
https://curatednow.ca/geoff-farnsworth-frank-auerbach-2021/
Also, if you are interested in having your portrait painted, I am currently taking on portrait commissions. Please contact me for more information, thanks!
The new Great Lake Swimmers album, Uncertain Country, is featuring my painting on the album cover. Imagery was in collaboration with Adam Vollick who did the album art design. The album was recorded in various Niagara locations by local talent, the Wow Sound. The album is now available on vinyl LP and CD. Check out the Great Lake Swimmers website for pre-order info.
Upcoming exhibition in September 2023 featuring new paintings by Geoff Farnsworth and Kyle Clements at 13th Street Gallery in St. Catharines, Niagara, Canada
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