From Punctum to Passion: From Less is More to More is Better and Back Again in Drawing

“Drawing is a fundamentally philosophical act, an act of faith and a belief in magic. The moment the artist’s first mark literally and metaphorically punctures the surface of a blank sheet of paper – it both affirms and denies that surface – and in so doing, it positions itself at the centre of our consciousness.” (Margaret Priest, 2016)

Through pencil dots, conté dashes, charcoal stumpings, wash scumbles, ink glyphs, hatchings, scratchings and erasures, Margaret Priest invites you to examine the rich materiality and the implied metaphysics found in a group of AGO drawings by artists whose work has informed and inspired her own artistic practice.

Margaret Priest (b.1944 – Tyringham, England) was raised and educated in London, where she received her MFA from the Royal College of Art. She moved to Toronto, Canada in 1976. Known for her drawings and three-dimensional critiques of modernism and the built world, Priest works at the intersections of architecture, design, urban histories and personal memory. Since 1970, she has exhibited in museums and public and private galleries in England, Europe, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and the USA. Though retired from teaching, she is Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph and a visiting lecturer at universities and schools of art and architecture in Canada and the USA.

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Drawing, Je t’aime