Earthly Delights

Necessary Arts Collective, July 10-17 2023

Earthly Delights is an exhibition of exploratory works which investigate the various meanings of “site” as it pertains both to location and materials. Jude uses raw wood surfaces as insipient points for developing the colourful, constructional images they call “paintings.” In these works, Jude deliberates with colour and mark-making to build spaces and movement on the surfaces of the wood panels. The paintings featured in this exhibition are a potpourri of joviality, frivolity, and brazen indulgence. Through playful mark-making and dynamic colour relationships, the paintings sardonically reflect the (often unearned) privileges attached to fun, desire, and consumption.

Just as Jude views the raw wood they paint on as both site and implement to their creative process, they also view the locality of this exhibition as a site and implement for addressing systemic inequity in our communities. These paintings act as a reflection on these inequities, while serving as a potential vehicle for action against systems being critiqued. On average, 20% of households in Guelph are food insecure, meaning that they do not have consistent, reliable access to nutritious food. Many emergency food services are seeing an unprecedented spike in visitorship, particularly due to unregulated and unjust inflation of grocery prices and rent. Necessary Arts Collective neighbours the Royal City Mission, who provide between 1,400-1,800 meals through their drop-in meal program every week. 50% of profits from paintings sold through this exhibition will be donated to the Royal City Mission in recognition of their ongoing dedication to mitigating food emergencies in Guelph.

View more documentation of the show HERE!