b. Estevan, Saskatchewan | Lives and works in Toronto, Ontario
EDUCATION
2019-2023 | BID, with Distinction, Toronto Metropolitan University, ON
2015 | MFA, University of Guelph, ON
2011 | BFA HONS, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC
2007-08 | Select classes, Fine Art, Grant MacEwan University, Edmonton, AB
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017
Brick Wave Suede and Lilacs Too, Richard Rhodes Dupont Projects, Toronto, ON
2016
Tyler Blue for an Ex Moon, Pushmi Pullyu Gallery, Toronto, ON
2015
Falling Face Sunshine Chaser, G Gallery Projects, Toronto, ON
Blue-Grey-Grid Feeling, Boarding House Gallery, Guelph, ON
2014
Equal Parts of Unequal, Zavitz Gallery, Guelph, ON
2013
Boys and Girls in Water, Incubator Series, Latitude 53, Edmonton, AB
2011
All the Delighted Ones, Haven Social Club, Edmonton, AB
2010
Every Thing Pink, Upstairs Gallery, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017
What is Left? What is Right?, Forest City Gallery, London, ON
2015
AutoFeeling, Katzman Contemporary, Toronto, ON
No Pressure, Capacity 3 Gallery, Guelph, ON
2014
So it Goes, Boarding House Gallery, Guelph, ON
2013
The Rip-Roarin’ Refinery, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Same Difference, Boarding House Gallery, Guelph, ON
Biggie Smalls, Zavitz Gallery, Guelph, ON
2012
AV Art Show No. 5, ARTery, Edmonton, AB
Easy Street, reclaimed space on 124th St., Edmonton, AB
Sewing the Heartland, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Beaver Fever, The 410 Project, Mankato, Minnesota
2011
BMO First Art!, Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, Toronto, ON
Not So Easy Street, The Fifty Fifty, Victoria, BC
TADA, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC
Where Are They Now, Dales Gallery, Victoria, BC
The Art of Calm, Victoria Emerging Art Gallery, Victoria BC
2010
Objects of Affection, Upstairs Gallery, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC
Minute, Audain Gallery, Victoria, BC
Victoria Emerging Artists, The Avenue Gallery, Victoria, BC
AWARDS | GRANTS
2017
Emerging Artist Grant, Ontario Arts Council
2015
Canadian Federation of University Women Award, University of Guelph
2014-2015
Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Master's Scholarship, University of Guelph
2014
College of Arts Dean’s Scholarship, University of Guelph
College of Arts Dean’s Material Bursary, University of Guelph
2013
Masters Growth Fund Entrance Scholarship, University of Guelph
College of Arts Dean’s Scholarship, University of Guelph
College of Arts Dean’s Material Bursary, University of Guelph
2012
Project Grant for Individual Artists, Edmonton Arts Council
2011
BMO First Art! British Columbia representative, University of Victoria
Award for Excellence, University of Victoria
2010
Victoria Emerging Artist Award, Victoria, BC
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2015
AutoFeeling, Lead Organizer / Curatorial Assistant, Katzman Contemporary, Toronto, ON
2011
Easy Street (w. Aubrey Burke), reclaimed space on 124th St., Edmonton, AB
Not So Easy Street (w. Aubrey Burke), The Fifty Fifty, Victoria, BC
TADA, BFA Graduate show, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC
2010
Portrait Show, Upstairs Gallery, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC
Objects of Affection, Upstairs Gallery, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC
2009
Re-Gifted (w. little rubber duck collective), Deluge Contemporary Art, Victoria, BC
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Co-Founder and Manager, Coffin Factory Artist Studios, Toronto, ON, 2015-2019
Board of Directors, G Gallery Projects, Toronto, ON, 2016
Curatorial Assistant and Lead Organizer, AutoFeeling, Katzman Contemporary, Toronto, ON, 2015
Teaching Assistant, Core Studio SART*1060 (1st yr.), University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, 2014
Teaching Assistant, Core Studio SART*1060 (1st yr.), University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, 2014
Teaching Assistant, Drawing III SART*4090-01 (4th yr.), University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, 2013
Artist Representative, Public Art Selection Committee, Edmonton Arts Council, Edmonton, AB, 2012
Guest Artist, AGA Museum School, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, 2012
Special Events and Marketing Coordinator/Gallery Assistant, Harcourt House Artist Run Centre, Edmonton, AB, 2010
SELECT CATALOGUE ENTRIES | AUCTIONS & DONATIONS
2018
Esse Magazine, VenduSold, Montreal, QC
C-Magazine Auction, Toronto, ON
2015
AutoFeeling, Exhibition Catalogue, Toronto, ON
2011
BMO 1st Art!, Exhibition Catalogue, Toronto, ON
TADA, BFA Graduate Exhibition, University of Victoria
Maegan’s recent paintings explore affect and emotive space while questioning the possibilities of the face.
Richard Rhodes on Maegan Rose Mehler’s solo exhibition
Brick Wave Suede and Lilacs Too
What are these shaped abstractions? Their genesis isn’t geometric. The quick strokes of oil paint laid down in swooping curves and crosshatch grids might share that territory, but the wooden supports that hold the wall don’t. The rough, rounded shapes follow loose contour outlines or break into bifurcating shapes that have a figurative aspect, a representational buzz that alludes to the body or, specifically, to the head seen from the front, the side, the back, or sometimes a three-quarter view.
We register them as faces then, held by edges that sometimes suggest an open mouth, a furrowed brow or a ponytail. They are portraits where the features dissolve not into anatomical elements but rather skeins of colour, texture and graphic energy. Identity is meshed with atmosphere here. The paint we see is not the extension of flesh that it often is in figurative painting. Instead, Mehler’s thin luminous marks and glazes tie us to landscape and arenas of space and perception. The heads transpose inner life into something outer, something with complex spaces and changing horizons. They are socialized entities rather than psychological ones.
There is a metaphor here for the changing nature of contemporary painting as it forges a tacit truce in the wars between representation and abstraction that shaped modern painting in the last century. Mehler’s work buries that animus and replaces it with a new, easy integration that presumes a recognition of painting’s capacity to hold attention and create meaning via its literal materiality and its engagement with the rich intersections of images and memory. Her paintings declare themselves stakeholders of both worlds. Abstraction is an integral part of our nature. It’s expansive potential is in our heads. So she shows them to us.