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Biography

Kris Knight - Artists - GAVLAK

Kris Knight is a Canadian painter whose work revolves around representation, queerness and intimacy. He is interested in the portrayal of diverse modes of masculinity, creating work that celebrates tenderness, vulnerability and ambiguity.

Knight’s romantic figurative paintings and portraits are simultaneously intimate and remote, heavy and light, dense and playful; presenting emotional worlds: portals of the artist’s past and present, retreating from the muchness of the world as much as they reflect it. The reflexivity of his narratives is rooted in personal memory but also depict life in the present: imbuing his contemporary subject matter with historical art references and colour palettes. His pastel and tonal oil paintings conjure a series of shifting moods, themes and experiences that are connected by a wide range of positions regarding the private and public self. Working from personal images often collaged with found imagery, floriography and historical references, Knight’s paintings present a quiet, elegant world dominated by sensitivity and subtle melancholy

CV

KRIS KNIGHT

Born in 1980, Windsor, Canada. Lives and works in Toronto, Canada

EDUCATION

2003 AOCAD, Ontario College of Art and Design University, Toronto

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024 When The Sun Hits, Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris, France

2024 Superhost, Spinello Projects, Miami, USA

2020 Auscultate, Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montréal, Canada

2019 A Little Time Out, Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris, France

2016 Throwing Shadows, Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris, France

2015 Never-Never, Mulherin, Toronto, Canada

2014 Smell The Magic, Spinello Projects, Miami, USA

2013 Secrets Are The Things We Grow, Mulherin + Pollard, New York, USA

2011 Tragic Kingdom, Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto

2010 A Deadly Nightshade, Spinello Gallery, Miami, USA

2009 Farewell Log Cabin, Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto

2008 So Long Scarecrow, Spinello Gallery, Miami, USA

2007 How We Quit The Forest, Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects,

Toronto, Canada

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS & INTERNATIONAL ART FAIRS

2024 A Portrait of the Artist (Pool with Two Figures), Cob. Gallery, London, UK

Echoes of Paradise, Jane Lombard Gallery, New York, USA

Paréidolie with Galerie Alain Gutharc, Marseille, France (*Awarded the 2024

Pébéo Drawing Award)

Art Basel Miami Beach with GAVLAK, Miami, USA

2023 My Velvet Shadow, CLAMP, New York, USA

Unputdownable, MOUNTAINS, Berlin, Germany

A Sympathy of Untold Depths, Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montréal, Canada

Mon Beau Miroir, Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris, France

2022 Come Out + Play, Beers London, London, UK

XX, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, USA

The Own In The Foreign, Museum Bensheim, Benshiem, Germany

2021 Vase, Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris, France

Art Paris with Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris France

2019 Male, Galerie Thomas Fuchs, Stuttgart, Germany

A Portrait Show, VIVIANART, Calgary, Canada

As I Like, Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris, France

2018 Drawings, Clint Roenisch Gallery, Toronto, Canada

Drawing Now with Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris, France

Quoetus Floreus, Galerie Nicolas Robert, Montreal, Canada

2017 O! Watt Up, Foundation National des Arts et Plastiques/MABA, Paris, France

Spring Break Art Fair with Mulherin NY, New York, USA

Art Toronto, Solo Project with Mulherin NY, Toronto, Canada

2016 Sea, Sex and Sun, Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris, France

YIA Art Fair with Galerie Alain Gutharc, Brussels, Belgium

Homecoming, Thames Art Gallery, Chatham, Canada

2015 Full Moon, Spinello Projects, Miami, USA

The Language of Flowers, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada

2014 Lumières: Carte Blanche à Christian Lacroix, curated by Christain Lacroix

Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris, France (Catalogue)

FIAC with Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris, France

Guest Star, Mulherin + Pollard, New York, USA

SHAPESHIFTING : Contemporary Masculinities, College of Wooster Art

Museum, Wooster, USA

2013 Blue Gaze, Volta NY with Mulherin, New York, USA

10th Anniversary Show, Gallery Poulsen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Secrets, Galerie Thomas Fuchs, Stuttgart, Germany

CART Apartment, New York, USA

2012 13, Mulherin + Pollard, New York, USA

The Armory Show, with Katharine Mulherin, New York, USA

2010 The Reflexive Self, Mike Weiss Gallery, New York, USA

Zona Maco, Mexico Arte Contemporaneo, with Spinello Gallery, Mexico City,

Mexico

The Road Less Travelled, KMLA, Los Angeles, USA

2009 New/Now, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas, USA

2008 Sexy Time, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, USA

Pulse, Miami with Spinello Gallery

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, 31Grand, New York, USA

The Effect of Your Body, MCV/NYC, Brooklyn, USA

CIRCA Puerto Rico, with Katharine Mulherin, San Juan, Puerto Rico

ARTIST RESIDENCIES

2017 Maison d’art Bernard-Anthonioz (MABA), Nogent-sur-Marne, France

AWARDS

2022 Canada Council Research and Creation Grant

2019 Canada Council For The Arts Artist Grant

2018 Ontario Arts Council Mid Career Artist Grant

2014 Ontario Arts Council Mid Career Artist Grant

2014 Toronto Arts Council Mid Career Artist Grant

2011 Ontario Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant

2011 Toronto Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant

2008 Ontario Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant

2006 Ontario Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant

2006 Toronto Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant

2003 Graduate Award: OCAD President’s Medallion for Drawing & Painting

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

King Kong Magazine, Kris Knight: A Soft Touch, Mikel Benhaim, Autumn/Winter 2018

Art Maze Magazine, Kris Knight (Cover), Christina Nafziger, Summer Issue, 2017

BOYCOTT Magazine, Kris Knight, Ariel Kenig, Spring/Summer, 2016

The Walrus, Pretty Boys, Sasha Chapin, May 2016

L’Officiel Hommes Türkiye, Pastel Erotika, Günes Uysalefe, Sayi 9, Ilkbahar 2016

German Art, Jäger und Gejagte Claudia Bodin, January, 2016

L’Officiel Hommes NL Milde Rebelle, Door Kaira van Wijk, No. 9, lente/zomer 2015

Harper’s Bazaar Art, Kris Knight, (Cover) April 2015

Interview Magazine, Kris Knight by Frida Giannini, December/January 2015

GAYLETTER, Kris Knight in Full Bloom, Patrick Sweeney, Issue 02, 2015

Miami New Times, The Magic of Kris Knight, Jose D. Duran, December 1, 2014

The Globe and Mail, Kris Knight, Samra Habib, October 3, 2014

C★NDY, Kris Knight, Juan-Dario Gomez, Issue 7, Winter 2013/14

Fashion For Men, Kris Knight - Blue Eyes Pier Mario Simula, (Cover Story), Issue 02,

Winter 2012/Spring 2013

Public Art Magazine, Kris Knight (Cover), Issue #66, March 2012

Miami New Times, Refugees From Reality July 16, 2010

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Royal Bank of Canada, Canada

The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas, USA

The Oppenheimer Collection, USA

21c Museum of Contemporary Art, Louisville, Kentucky, USA

The Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, New York, USA

Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada

The Art Gallery of Woodstock, Canada

The Thames Gallery, Canada

Gucci S.p.A, Florence, Italy

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