March 26 – May 10, 2026
Exhibition: ‘Companion Animals’ by Phil Irish
‘Companion Animals’ presents an innovative fusion of painting, photography, and site-based installation, responding to the vast and vulnerable landscapes of the Arctic. Using a custom-built frame to suspend painted elements – ranging from abstract gestures to representational forms – Phil Irish stages these components within the terrain, allowing the camera to capture an uncanny interplay between the ephemeral Arctic environment and painterly intervention.
In this work, the act of framing becomes metaphor as much as method. It reflects how we view the natural world through layers of memory, media, myth, and cultural bias. The Arctic, often perceived as desolate or “other,” is revealed here as intimate and interconnected- its melting ice echoing a planetary urgency.
There is a tension in the work between fragility and strength, between human mark-making and elemental force. By foregrounding beauty, vulnerability, and resilience, Irish encourages us to shift from a stance of environmental despair to one of active care and possibility.
Alongside a series of haunting photographs captured during the residency, the exhibition includes a new sculptural installation: a spatial “frame” that disrupts the gallery’s architecture, echoing the tension between presence and disappearance that defines the Arctic experience.
Project Background
In 2017, Canadian artist Phil Irish joined Canada C3—a landmark expedition that sailed the country’s coastlines to mark Canada’s 150th anniversary. On Leg 7 of this voyage, he spent nine transformative days tracing the northern edge of Baffin Island, embedded in a cross-disciplinary cohort of scientists, Indigenous leaders, artists, and activists. The conversations and environments encountered during that time catalyzed four years of creative output, steeped in inquiry, reflection, and a deepening environmental urgency.
Most recently, Irish’s journey brought him to Svalbard, a remote arctic archipelago, as part of the Arctic Circle Residency—an expedition aboard a sailing vessel where artists and scientists charted climate impacts in one of the most sensitive and rapidly changing regions on Earth. While the Arctic may seem distant and disconnected to many, Irish’s work pushes back against that illusion, revealing the intimate and often invisible ties that bind us to these frozen frontiers.
This project emerges from that experience—part expedition, part emotional reckoning, and part experimental studio practice.
An opening reception and artist meet-and-greet will be held on Sunday March 29 from 2-4PM.
A free Artist Talk will take place on Sunday April 19 at 2PM.
The artist would like to acknowledge the support of:
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Phil Irish
Phil Irish, from Ontario, Canada, makes paintings that are both fierce and beautiful. His practice extends painting into realms of collage, installation, photography and video.
His work has been shown at public museums, artist-run-centres, and commercial galleries across Canada. The Kolaj Institute, in New Orleans, featured his architecturally scaled installation “The Green Fuse”. In 2020, he competed in CBC’s Landscape Artist of the Year Canada.
His work was featured at the Quebec City Biennial, and three times shortlisted for the Kingston Portrait Prize.
Travel and artist residencies have played an important role in developing his themes. He has developed new work during residencies at the Symposium in Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec, The Banff Centre, and the Vermont Studio Center. In 2017 he began his arctic themes: he visited Baffin Island as part of CanadaC3, and in 2023 he explored Svalbard as part of The Arctic Circle residency.
He holds degrees from York (MFA) and Guelph (BA) and leads the art program at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario.
Photo left: courtesy of Canadian Art Daily
