For this podcast, I met with artist David Merritt at his light-filled studio in London, Ontario, to discuss a recent exhibition that includes his work at the Art Gallery of Mississauga and his orientation to his art. David sees the word “liminal” as a way to describe his approach. In being liminal it is also challenging. It is on the threshold or in-between. This. Or That. Or Neither. Enigmatic.
Below is an excerpt from the exhibition catalogue of the recent group exhibition, co-curated by Shannon Anderson and Jay Wilson at the Art Gallery of Mississauga (AGM), describing David Merritt’s work:
David Merritt’s drawings and installations explore the natural and human traces that exist at the margins of our attention. Merritt reanimates the natural order of things to reveal an underlying, non-hierarchical structure that simultaneously simplifies and complicates how we experience the world around us. The works included in Inside. Outside. Of. look to systems of knowledge, navigation, and (re)orientation. His works on paper, for instance, delicately excavate maps to focus on their intricate trails of roadways and waterways. With the removal of all other visual elements, we can see how these systems interconnect like capillaries, as Merritt draws a visual connection between these topographies and our own anatomical structure. His found furniture pieces act as portals above, beneath, and through which his sculptural interventions teeter, hang, and bore. By conflating geography and anatomy, excavation and embodiment, he evokes the aliveness of all matter and their interconnectedness, regardless of scale. His intricate approach to materiality focuses on methods of accumulation, assembly and erasure in order to cultivate a finely attuned perceptual awareness.
In the AGM exhibition, entitled, Inside. Outside. Of., David Merritt’s work is included along with the works of three other Canada-based artists, Ella Gonzales, Émilie Régnier, and Shannie Tomassini. The first exhibition ran January 25 to April 13, 2025. This exhibition will also be shown at Foreman Art Gallery, Sherbrooke, Quebec, from October 17 to December 13, 2025.
Tami Kegley is an arts journalist living and working in London, Ontario. Her education and background as a performing and visual artist informs her point of view and deep passion for the arts in all forms. She also collaborates with her partner Page Graham in the promotion of the arts for their online arts calendar InsideOutsideLondon.CA.
A good discussion about the inclusion his work in the exhibition .Inside.Outside.Of. and part of the erasure used in his work. I understand the waiting / procrastination while awaiting the still inside to come to the activity of the work. It was nice to hear it in David’s words.
Thank you
Hey, Kim. Thanks for the listen. I very much appreciated David’s willingness to sit down and chat at his studio. “Inside. Outside. Of.” is at the Foreman Art Gallery until December 13, 2025.
Cheers!
https://foreman.ubishops.ca/inside-outside-of/