Michael Pittman will give an artist talk in conversation with writer and artist Craig Francis Power on Thursday, September 25, at 7pm, at Christina Parker Gallery.
Join us at the gallery to learn more about Michael’s brilliant exhibition "the dark places", which takes inspiration from a 160km five-day paddling trip along the shores of Beothuk Lake and the entire length of the Exploits River.
"I have created a body of artwork which navigates the complexities of the grieving process and attempts to contextualize it within the geography of the Exploits River watershed," writes Michael. "Elaborating on past work, which often presented grief as a vast or impenetrable wilderness, this project proposes to find passage through its seemingly unnavigable enormity by establishing waypoints within the environment."
Bios:
Michael Pittman was born in Newfoundland and Labrador to parents of Indigenous and settler descent. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Memorial University, and a practice led research Master’s degree on the visual culture of Newfoundland and Labrador from the South East Technological University in Waterford, Ireland. His work is included in public and private collections in North America and Europe and his paintings have been extensively exhibited at home and abroad.
Pittman has participated in multiple residencies, including the 2025 Artlink Ireland/Crux Art International Atlantic Exchange at Fort Dunree, Ireland and Fogo Island Arts’ Outport Interiors Residency (2010). In 2012, The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery curated a significant solo exhibition of his artwork comprised of over 5 years of visual explorations. In 2013 he was a semi-finalist for the Sobey Art Award, Canada’s pre-eminent award for contemporary Canadian art, and the following year his work was included in a comprehensive exhibition of Newfoundland and Labrador artists at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
Pittman’s work was shown in Venice, Italy as part of the Benetton Foundation’s Great and North during the 2017 Venice Biennale, and in 2018 his work was included in Future Possible, an exhibition resulting in a major publication marking the first comprehensive art history of the province. In 2021, he was invited to participate in the Bonavista Biennale, where his artwork was featured alongside some of the most exciting names in contemporary art. Here he began his current body of paintings, which investigates the intersection of trauma, grief and the environment through landscape painting.
Over the past decade, Michael Pittman has been the recipient of multiple grants and awards for his artwork, which frequently references the physical environment, traditional knowledge, and hidden histories of the places to which he is connected.
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Craig Francis Power is a visual artist and the award-winning author of three novels. Total Party K*ll (Breakwater, 2024), his first collection of poetry, is an exploration of addiction and sobriety through the vernacular, imagery, and lore of Dungeons & Dragons, the Fantasy-themed table-top role-playing game. He is the winner of SubTerrain’s Lush Triumphant Award for Poetry in 2023, the Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Award for Poetry in 2024, and his work will be included in the forthcoming Best Canadian Poetry (Biblioasis, 2025) in November. He lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland (Ktaqmkuk) with his wife, daughter, dog, and cat.
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