Over 2022 and 2023, a series of four exhibitions of the work of Tim Whiten, curated by four different curators, took place at four different galleries in southern Ontario: the McMaster Museum of Art, curated by Pamela Edmonds; the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, curated by Leila Timmins; the Art Gallery of Peterborough, curated by Chiedza Pasipandoya; and The Goldfarb Gallery (then the Art Gallery of York University), curated by Liz Ikiriko. Altogether, these four exhibitions acted as a fifty-year retrospective of Whiten’s career, a visionary image maker who transcends boundaries, bridges worlds, and defies categorization.
In keeping with the sweeping potential of Whiten’s work, the galleries and curators came together to collaborate on a very special catalogue of sorts, documenting the exhibitions as a whole and, in the process, documenting, at least as much as possible, the multifaceted range of Whiten’s trajectory. Befitting the depth of his explorations, and in respect for his desire that his work be sensed rather than read, the catalogue is heavily weighted towards documenting of the work, with essays from each curator touching on the elemental cores of his practice, and of their understanding of this practice as gained through a full and intimate engagement.
Elegantly designed by Cristian Ordóñez, the book is a proper acknowledgement of the debts owed to this prolific and generous maker and educator.