Patrick Bermingham
Patrick Bermingham is an internationally-recognized artist whose career spans decades. With a BFA in Sculpture, Bermingham has studied with and apprenticed with several renowned artists, including Elizabeth Bradford Holbrook, Sir Anthony Caro and Tim Scott. Bermingham participated in the first Canadian Wildlife exhibition in 1974 together with Robert Bateman and A.J. Casson. Bermingham frequently travels to Chile to work in the studio of Francisco Gazitua, whose large scale public installations and sculptures can be seen in multiple countries, including three iconic public sculptures in Toronto and several in Chile. Bermingham has exhibited his work in the United States and Canada and recently completed a commission for the International Operating Engineers Union, Local 793 and created a memorial garden honouring the over 30 fallen members of the union. Bermingham also created a memorial sculpture for Lee Academy to honour an 11 year old student who died tragically in 2011.
“The attendees were plunged briefly into darkness. With the lights switched off, the Canadian artist discussed his technique and humans’ underappreciated ability to see at night. Artificial illumination is so widespread, he said, that “we’ve forgotten we have these primeval skills.”
Bermingham’s pictures are far from primeval, but they’re not exactly trendy. The artist paints with oils, most often on wood panels, in a nocturnal palette of gray, black and hushed greens, sometimes set off by a deep-blue sky. The show’s largest piece even forgoes the greens. Ten feet wide and monochromatic, “Study for Midway on Our Path” immerses the viewer in both night and woodland.