John Haney: Grapple
For his exhibition Grapple, John Haney presents multiple works that respond to a mysterious object he found on a Newfoundland beach. The object turned out to be a severely rusted, hand-made anchor. Haney’s use of alternative photographic processes and semi-abstract images — both positive and negative iterations of the photogram — is an attempt to reinvigorate and preserve the degrading object, and to reanimate it in the process of image-making. Through multiple iterations of its shadows, the relic of the anchor becomes a rich metaphor; at the same time, in its mysteriousness, it slows the viewing process, asking us to find understanding in the midst of an image culture that is at once overloaded with information, and wanting for meaning.
John Haney’s work runs the gamut of photographic media, and ranges from the documentary to the abstract. While his practice is diverse, it is united by an ongoing consideration of places and objects in transition. Recent projects have been thorough re-considerations of traditional, darkroom-based processes, serving as opportunities for chance to intervene through material encounters. Always aware of the lamentatory aspect of photography, Haney often explores trace as a way to reconstitute meaning, as it pertains to both subject and photographic object.
About the artist
John Haney
Born in Toronto, Haney has lived between Ontario, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland, all places which have heavily informed his work. He was long-listed for the 2011 Sobey Art Award in the Atlantic category, and was nominated for the Scotiabank Photography Award in 2012. His work has been shown in Canada, the U.S, and Germany. He earned his BA from Mount Allison University in 2001 and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Guelph. He lives with his family in Hamilton, Ontario.
View More Exhibitions
exhibition
January 19.2023 / April 30.2023
This work chronicles the artist’s experience of pregnancy amid reports of high maternal mortality rates experienced by Black women in the U.S.
exhibition
January 19.2023 / May 14.2023
The first exhibition to explore pioneering feminist artist Mary Kelly’s long engagement with activist movements.
exhibition
January 19.2023 / April 30.2023
Connecting aspects of Indigenous cosmology to wider cultural meanings, this exhibition speaks to the idea of seeing through space.
exhibition
January 19.2023 / May 14.2023
This exhibition speaks to the connections between art and social activism and to the visual aesthetics that emerge from protest.
exhibition
January 19.2023 / April 30.2023
Taking root during pandemic lockdowns, this installation acknowledges loss while offering a space for grief and mourning.
exhibition
September 14.2022 / December 31.2022
Curated by Middlebrook Prize recipient Erin Szikora, Homecoming engages land, language, and community, offering strategies to rethink our relationships to home.
exhibition
September 14.2022 / December 31.2022
Examining intersections between botanical explorations and colonization, Anahita Norouzi focuses on the plant colloquially referred to as giant hogweed.
exhibition
September 14.2022 / December 31.2022
This exhibition of Haudenosaunee souvenir beadworks responds to the history of ethnographic collecting by celebrating personal, economic, and cultural value.