Drew Mosley | Biophilia

Drew Mosley | Biophilia
Feb 8 - 22

Reception: Saturday, February 8
@ 3 - 5 pm
Artist Talk @ 3:45 pm
Join us for an artist talk by Drew Mosley

RSVP your attendance to responses@wallspacegallery.ca

Wall Space Gallery is proud to present Drew Mosley’s latest solo exhibition “Biophilia”. Biophilia refers to the deep human desire to commune with and be integrated in nature. Mosley’s compositions in acrylic on canvas address our contemporary environmental crisis through the delicate relationships between various lifeforms; at times engaged in literal balancing acts, and others a symbiotic agreement. They are a reminder that being human means being fauna; we are no more separate from the natural world and its intricate ecosystems of care than roots are from
the ground.

Mosley’s canvases are populated with insects, amphibians, aves and elements of the human body teetering atop objects in precarious balances or being weighed against one another on scales. Hourglasses and skulls are objects heavily symbolic of memento mori, stark reminders of the inevitability of death. In Mosley’s works, they reference a deeply felt anxiety over our unsteady future.

The presence of humanity appears only as fragments of the human body; a heart or a worn skull. In “The Final Test”, a stoic owl clasps a scale in its beak, weighing a human heart against a snail and butterfly. This piece is Mosley’s contemporary reimagining of the Egyptian after-life ceremony in which the human heart is weighed against the feather of the Goddess Ma’at; goddess of truth, justice, and cosmic balance.

For Mosley, “The Final Test” depicts “determining how your life has been lived against your harmony with nature. An appropriate narrative to explore in these uncertain times, with climate concerns, the collapse of ecosystems, and the rapid extinction of species at an all-time high."

Set against backgrounds of abyss-like
phthalo blue-greens, Mosley’s references to death are offset by his infusion of
the colours of new life and growth; grass greens, sky and ocean blues, and the
bright orange pop of a monarch butterfly’s wings

Urgent in their warnings to move away from callous treatment of nature, and reconnect with our affinity for the environment, his paintings are not depictions of hopelessness, but of Nature’s power to reconfigure itself and continue thriving. In “Prophets”, a human skull takes on new purpose as a snail’s home, as if to say that nature will heal, humans only need to decide if we want to be present for it.

- Tiffany April, Curator

Biophilia Catalogue

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Drew Mosley forms fantastical narratives inspired by the study of natural history, mycology, ancient civilizations and social evolution. His works tie together contemporary concerns of collapsing ecosystems, hyper-consumerism, and capitalism in a Dutch Renaissance style. Played out across Mosley’s canvases
are stories of misguided notions of wealth and social status. In a world with an uncertain future, the characters populating Mosley’s fairytale environments offer examples of empathy, community and reverence for nature. Mosley’s overall oeuvre speaks to a desire for a shared existence with greater environmental and social consciousness.

Drew Mosley is a contemporary painter based in Ottawa where he divides his time between an exhaustive studio practice, and various carpentry and woodworking projects in the Ottawa Valley. He has exhibited extensively in solo and group shows both nationally and internationally, including; Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, USA, and Greece.