The National Gallery of Canada is delighted to announce further details of Steven Shearer’s solo presentation at the 54th Venice Biennale in June.

For his presentation, Shearer will build a nine-metre high, free-standing mural that will act as a false front for the Canadian Pavilion and respond to the scale of the adjacent pavilions. The mural will feature a poem written by the artist and function as a new entrance for the Pavilion via a tool shed-like structure. The monumental mural will draw from the vocabulary of Black/Death metal music, conjuring the sublime, nihilistic power of language, and will aim to provoke a visceral response in viewers. Inside the Pavilion will be a number of figurative paintings, drawings and sculptures that suggest an alternative side of dissent and social alienation, simultaneously exposing the vulnerability of the human subject and examining its relationship to the outside world.

Adopting and elaborating upon styles and themes specific to the history of figure painting, such as those associated with Symbolism, Expressionism and Fauvism, Steven Shearer draws formal and thematic parallels between art history and forgotten or discarded aspects of contemporary society. Spanning a variety of mediums, from figurative painting and drawing, to found-image collages, text-based works, sculptures, laser-jet prints and posters, his work stems from his ongoing compilation of thousands of images which are culled from sources such as fanzines, online message boards and image shrines on personal websites.