Kirk Gower
A graduate of Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Kirk Gower (1988) is a Vancouver based artist whose work explores themes of masculinity, gender constructs and queer identity in contemporary painting. Gower has participated in numerous shows across Canada. His work has been recently shown at the Seymour Art Gallery: New & Emerging, Kariton Art Gallery: Figures in Motion, and the Vancouver Mural Festival. Kirk’s work has been featured in Suboart Magazine, Visionary Magazine, SAD Magazine, The Globe and Mail, Daily Hive, and Vancouver Sun, among others.
In his practice, Kirk explores queer identity. The paintings he creates often begin as sumptuous, highly rendered portraits. He then adds decorative elements such as flowers to imply meanings and emotions he associates with the figure.
After the base painting is completed, Kirk adds graffiti-like content in thick paint. By introducing this content, which is often child-like shapes, colours, and symbols, he defaces the image and encourages new readings of his work.
Kirk’s work explores how different artistic techniques create different responses from the viewer. He is interested in the way oil paint has the ability to both seduce and repulse the viewer. He is fascinated in this push and pull and the teetering of this invisible line. He likes to simultaneously elevate the portraits he creates and subvert them using the same material. At the core of Kirk’s practice is a reminder to the viewer that what they are seeing is fabricated and that images all around us are manipulated.
Find Kirk online at:
Website: http://www.kirkgower.com
Instagram: @kirk.f.gower
What initially sparked your interest in art?
I grew up surrounded by a family of creative individuals, though not necessarily “artists”. My father was an automotive painter, my mother went to fashion school, and my grandmother was an avid gardener. It came naturally for me to create, and it started with drawing. As a child I carried a sketchbook around and would fill it with figures and portraits. This followed me through adolescence and into adulthood, although at one point I traded my pencil for a paintbrush.
What connects your work together and what keeps you creating?
My work is very personal, and I use my paintings to communicate what I find difficult to otherwise say. Working through complex feelings often results in dreamlike or surrealist imagery. Despite painting in a realistic style, the compositions I create are highly contrived, and many images are mashed together. Although it’s not always obvious, I’ll often insert clues alluding to this, such as a shadow cast in the wrong direction or grouping together flowers that couldn't possibly be in bloom at the same time.
I also like to explore the materiality of paint in my work and find it intriguing how various artistic techniques can elicit diverse responses from viewers. Oil paint has the power to push and pull the viewer and sometimes I try to do both at times, creating a tension in the work.
Describe your work using three words?
Fanciful, sumptuous, queer.
What are you most proud of as an artist, whether it’s a specific moment or who you are as an artist?
I painted my first mural for the Vancouver Mural Festival in 2022. This was out of my comfort zone as I usually paint in the privacy of my home studio. The experience of interacting with the community and working with other people was a great experience. I am also very proud of the piece that I produced. My mural was made to honor the work of Dr. Peter Jepson-Young. In his CBC series, the “Dr. Peter Diaries”, Dr. Peter documented his battle with AIDS and humanized the epidemic for many Canadians. Before his death in 1992, he founded the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation, creating a place where people with AIDS could receive compassionate care right through to the end of their lives.
If you could be in a two-person exhibition with any artist from history, who would it be and why?
Felix Gonzalez-Torres. First and foremost, I am a huge fan and it would be an incredible honor. I am awestruck by how he is able to communicate emotion and connect with the viewer through the deeply personal nature of his work. While the subject matter and medium of our work are very different, he has influenced my work in many ways.
