PAINTER8 - Whisper @ Modart Gallery, Miami

Jul 21 - Sept 7, 2018

Past exhibition: July 2018
Whisper, a mental health awareness art exhibition

The concept explores and presents to the viewer what it is like to live with, or support someone who lives with, mental illness from eight varied perspectives through intimate paintings. This exhibition was informed by research, interviews with clinical experts and lived experience. This exhibition addresses a crucial conversation in today’s society: One in five adults in America experiences a mental illness in any given year and one in 25 adults lives with a serious mental illness such as major depression or bipolar disorder*. People with undiagnosed mental illnesses live in silence, often without a support network or access to adequate resources and treatment.

The exhibition presented more than 24 new artworks created by 8 Canadian contemporary visual artists: Chrissy Cheung (Vancouver), Tom Cummins (Vancouver-Auckland), Gavin Sewell (Montréal-NYC), Jennifer Hamilton (Laurentians-Montréal), Tim Rechner (Edmonton), Dawna Mark (Calgary), Sarah Allen Eagen (NYC) and Craig Talbot (Cardston, AB)

Download the Whisper Exhibition catalogue

 

Dawna Mark - “Sometimes depression is hard to see, other times it stares you right in the face.”

Craig Talbot - "I am most bothered by the social stigma of mental illness. Despite mental health awareness, if I tell someone I am mentally Ill they look at me with fear and aversion. I hope projects like Whisper and other projects can help raise awareness, and improve the public perception of mental illness.”

Jennifer Hamilton - “Shantih Shantih Shantih” is a wish for peace...Peace for me, Peace for everyone I know, Peace for all sentient beings..

Chrissy Cheung - “There is no such thing as a short story. The more you look, the more you understand. My ruminiation is a tabloid for anxiety and depression.”

Gavin Sewell - ‘’This project makes me feel there’s a relationship between people meeting the challenge of mental illness and making art: both practices aim to balance passion and reason, reality and imagination.’’

Tim Rechner - “Anxiety and depression are subjects I know intimately. The work I’ve created for Whisper is based on personal struggles. It is important for us as artists to address mental illness at this key moment.

Tom Cummins- "It’s not the contortion of reality that makes me anxious, it’s the underpinnings of the concept. I’m interested in the artifacts of our existence, their utility and their symbolism."

Sarah Allen Eagen- “One of the many challenges of mental illness is that sufferers may “look” sick. Because mental illness is often invisible, people don’t take it seriously. Mental illnesses affect so much more than just the sufferers’ bodies: they affect friendships, relationships and their sense of identity. My paintings use the visual vocabulary of physical illness to describe mental illness and to help give it a physical form and a face.”