ERIN HUNT
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Erin Hunt: Plans for the Future
J.K. Contemporary
October 18 – November 30, 2025
Press Release
J.K. Contemporary is pleased to present Plans for the Future, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Erin Hunt.
In a select group of small oil paintings and found objects, subtle concentrations of colour and touch invite a closer look. In Hunt's recent work we see a spatial language that is developed elementally, nearer to that of drawing.
Visually subdued paintings emphasize qualities of colour and surface through layers that vary in consistency and texture across thin, transparent, granular, dry, and opaque. Together with acts of scraping or staining that expose light from the canvas or linen beneath, a residual accumulation of colour shapes a particular spatial or compositional tone.
A central image or seam emerges in many of the works. An axis that appears to function as both meeting place and dividing line. The paintings carry traces of working slowly and reflectively in a remote landscape. For Hunt, this is a daily practice that informs a sense of looking and touch.
In this body of work Hunt reflects on the complexity of distance, which is at once physical, emotional, and temporal. In the exhibition one encounters material registers of transformation or translation at different proximities. Among them for example, a crumpled tin pie plate found along the shore, shaped by time in the sea. In a painting entitled Made of Wood, the subtle phenomena of a dream is translated into a layered painting of oil and translucent watercolour.
From a corner of the room one hears a lingering signal from the early universe picked up and transposed into the analog sound of a radio quietly playing the static between stations. This trace of the oldest light, known as the cosmic microwave background, is described by some astronomers as not only residual but possibly relational. Suggesting a cosmos shaped by longing and a subtle pull among things.
A larger painting,Pearly Everlasting, sits apart. Made over two and a half years, it is named after a flower known for its longevity and dryness. A painting that over time, slowly transformed from its original visual reference, a found plastic flower, to the geometry of an open box. Its material image emerges in washes of pale blues and two geometric grey-pink shapes, an intimacy of lightwaves reflecting the allurement at work within a longer span of attention.
Together this group of work composes a kind of muted soundscape. A birthday party seen through a window, where the audible is felt through the act of looking. Hunt's work hints at legibility across a divide. A small painting entitled Finger Space, refers to the instruction given to children learning to write to leave a space between words. Here space becomes a way to create meaning. Separation and distance forming the conditions of connection.
Erin Hunt is a Canadian artist living and working on Fogo Island, Newfoundland. This is Hunt’s second solo exhibition with J.K. Contemporary. In 2025 Hunt was long listed for the Sobey Art Award. Her work has previously been exhibited at the 2023 Bonavista Biennale, NL, The Rooms, St. John’s, The Plumb, Toronto, Fogo Island Art Gallery, Fogo Island, The Painting Center, New York, and Front Gallery, Houston. Hunt’s work is held in both private and public collections, including The Rooms and the City of Ottawa, ON.
J.K. Contemporary 11a Town Hall Rd. Joe Batt's Arm, NL A0G 2X0 +1 709 658 3691 jkcontemporary.com