Gerri York Heart_2_viii

Gerri York was born in London, England and completed a B.Ed. Degree (Hons) at St. Gabriel's College, (Goldsmith's) London and holds a BFA in Visual Arts from Emily Carr University, Vancouver. Her visual arts practice encompasses sculpture, printmaking, photography and drawing. Her work has been exhibited in a wide variety of exhibitions and juried shows, both in Canada and Internationally. An artists' residency was completed at Grafisch Atelier Utrecht (CBKU) in 2010.York has worked as an educator at the Vancouver Art Gallery and volunteered on the education committees of both the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Contemporary Art Gallery and is a past Board member of Malaspina Printmakers.' Exhibitions recently have included representation in the Capture Photography Festival during 2019 – 2016. Her artistic focus has specialized in photographic and print media that currently merges photography with sculpture, a praxis that concentrates on material employment. I am fortunate to have a practice in a collective studio setting located on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tseil-Watuth Nations. The studio is affiliated with Malaspina Printmakers’ where I was awarded a place in their Printermedia Residency programme. York's studio research is a continuation of the sculptural, material and spectral aspects of the photogram work, Folding),(see images Leaf, Boxface. The series, Distant, was shot as she waited to enter an Anthony Gormley installation, Blind Light. At the time, she was interested in the relationship between the participants inside the atmospheric exhibit, unable to see out, and the boundary between those waiting outside, able to observe those inside the installation. The images record the partially obscured visitors inside, struggling with outstretched hands to negotiate their way through the misty interior. This daunting atmosphere undermined a sense of space and ground, and called into question the subject of the work; those within and those on the outside. At this point in time, the photographs’ gestural focus chillingly reminds us of social distancing measures, typical of encounters we have in public spaces today during our catastrophic pandemic.The young boy (Boy_1v2) gazes outward and appears to be covering his face. A man with a backpack, (Hand1 v2) seems to stretch his hand tentatively towards an unseen outside hand. The image of a dominant outstretched hand (Hand2_v2) demands that you keep your distance. www.gerriyork.com

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