Mike Hansen
REMIX 

January 18 – February 16, 2020

Join us for the Reception with the Artist: Saturday, February 8, from 2 – 5pm
Artist in Attendance!

In the popular lexicon, the remix is an alternative rendition of a song typically produced by another creator’s ear. It is this re-interpretation and re-imagining of the auditory experience that intrigues established Canadian artist Mike Hansen.  His current research and practice investigates noise as a tool for creating social situations. Exploring sound and noise, Hansen has developed a rich multi-media creative practice that encompasses painting, sound art, experimental music, and interactive installations.

In Hansen’s recent Remix Series, the artist composes free form improvised abstract paintings, inspired by music – typically free jazz, experimental and contemporary classical. He approaches the act of painting through a synesthetic eye – translating sound into bold, energetic, gestural canvases. Trained as a musician, Hansen deconstructs and breaks down the structure of music into visual formal elements, bringing the relationship of sound, colour and gesture into a single form. Acting as both artist and composer, he arranges visual elements – bold primary colour fields, ascending and descending shapes, punctuated with light or dark hues. Playing with depth and texture, each piece is oozing with audible expressiveness.

Through the physical act of painting, Hansen conceptually reinterprets a specific piece of music. Each work is displayed with a QR code, allowing viewers to scan and listen to the piece of music that inspired it. Hansen’s paintings embody a hybrid practice through his creative investigation of the synergy between the audible and the visual, to conjure deep resonances within the viewer. Visitors are invited to a multisensory sensory experience, opening up new pathways for the viewers engage with art.