David B. Smith Gallery

Artist Biography:

Niall McClelland, 28, is a multi-disciplinary Toronto based artist, creating drawings, paintings, collages, sculptures and installations, tying together his own peculiar brand of fictional absurdity with his interest in graphic systems of identity and the language of mark making.

There is a strong material focus in his work, frequently limiting himself to a grey scale palette and readily available materials such as graphite, photocopies, ink and paper. The materials reflect the nature of the subjects who's identity the artist has chosen to explore and re-imagine, adding contemporary concerns to his initial points of reference. There is a sense of both recklessness and restraint in the work, markings that match the imagined fiery spirit of his fictional subjects, while also retaining a sense of solemnity and respect.

The work created for the David B Smith Gallery is a series of imagined, make shift and forgotten flags. Symbols of identity that have been lost in history, symbols of losers and the insignificant, overshadowed and tossed aside. This is an attempt to re-create identity systems for a series of fictional clubs and associations of some of those losers.