Black and White and Everything In Between: A Monochrome Journey

Drawn almost entirely from the Gallery’s permanent collection, Black and White and Everything In Between: A Monochrome Journey explores the modern beginnings and contemporary manifestations of the monochrome, revealing its enduring appeal. The exhibition invites viewers on a sensorial journey through rooms of black abstraction, shades of grey, and white-on-white expression—with vibrant interludes of colour—to consider how the monochrome can articulate conceptual, cultural and political meanings. Featuring over 100 works by more than 50 artists in a range of styles, genres, themes and mediums, A Monochrome Journey uses colour as an organizing principle, creating unexpected juxtapositions that allow us to see familiar work in new ways.

The monochrome is often associated with painting and a rejection of a representational impulse and stylistic flourish in favour of a singular colour or combination of black and white. It became an important form of painting in the early twentieth century among artists who viewed abstraction as an effective means to counter the artistic constraints of the time. The monochrome is commonly associated with Russian artist Kazimir Malevich’s emblematic painting, Black Square (1915). However, its genesis can be traced to much earlier examples and beyond Euro-American borders to include the landscapes and calligraphy in pre-modern Chinese, Japanese and Korean ink painting. The monochrome has continued to have a robust presence in the twenty-first century, as artists investigate colour, surface, sound and light in new and idiosyncratic ways.

Featured artists include: Josef Albers, Vikky Alexander, Joan Balzar, Marcel Barbeau, Iain Baxter, Niels Bendtsen, B.C. Binning, Shannon Bool, Paul-Émile Borduas, Tom Burrows, Eric Cameron, Neil Campbell, Andrew Dadson, Gathie Falk, Brian Fisher, Yves Gaucher, General Idea, Jean Goguen, Jack Goldstein, Mona Hatoum, Megan Hepburn, Colleen Heslin, Robert Indiana, Robert Irwin, Denis Juneau, Elad Lassry, Evan Lee, Khan Lee, Roy Lichtenstein, Lui Shou-Kwan, Ken Lum, Anish Kapoor, Liz Magor, Teresa Marshall, Agnes Martin, Ron Martin, John McCracken, Guido Molinari, Michael Morris, Claes Oldenburg, Guy Pellerin, Ed Ruscha, Ruby Singh, Keith Sonnier, Jeffrey Spalding, Diana Thater, Wang Tiande, Glenn Toppings, Mina Totino, James Turrell, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Neil Wedman,  James Welling, Rachel Whiteread, Paul Wong, Isabel Wynn, Victor Vasarely and Sun Xun.