In the exhibition Stay Right Here, painting becomes an artistic mode through which Aiden accesses personal memories and imagines alternative realities. In Aiden’s practice, her physical studio space becomes a dwelling place for dreaming. In large-scale shaped canvases, imagery of doorways and windows from Aiden’s previous homes function as a place of origin in the work. Memories, even those unremembered, line the walls of the spaces we grew up in, they are embedded and woven into its architecture. This imagery is used as a space to hold and embrace playful mark-making and colour application. While their reference to home architecture is rooted in real spaces, Aiden’s paintings are also imaginary. Paint is scraped, poured, canvases cut and collaged, all representing moments spoken and movements made in domestic spaces. This collection of work examines how the painted mark traces memory, these paintings become a vessel that holds on to what is remembered while giving way to the plasticity of those memories.

MEDIUMS

acrylic and pastel on shaped canvas

ARTIST BIO

Aiden Kirkegaard is a painter working in Vancouver and a recent 2024 MFA graduate from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Aiden received her BFA with a Minor in Art History from the University of British Columbia Okanagan in 2020. In 2023, Aiden received the Canada Graduate Scholarships-Master’s Award (CGS M) for her research studies at Emily Carr. Aiden has participated in solo and group exhibitions in galleries across British Columbia such as Dal Schindel Gallery, Libby Leshgold Gallery, Seymour Art Gallery and the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art. As an artist dedicated to community engagement alongside her painting practice, Aiden has also worked in positions at galleries and as an art instructor over the years. Aiden would like to acknowledge that she is a guest creating work on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations.