Nicholas Pye & Sheila Pye

"Errores de Vida" - Retrospective
In a collaborative work; Nicholas and Sheila Pye take both a delicate and dangerous look about relationships. Working in performance, film, video, installation and photography the duo explore the teetering dynamics underlying human relationships. Staging the things that can go wrong in a mutually dependent and suffocating partnership, the artists play out scenarios arising from the facets of life. They use themselves as subjects performing dualities of attraction, repulsion, dependency and loss. Their film/performances are presented as finished works, images reconfiguring a range of art historical antecedents from surrealist film, still life and narrative painting to nineteenth and twentieth century portraiture. Dark and beautiful, as well as challenging and funny their works are powerful emblems of the transformations that empower human intimacies. For Nick and Sheila however these objects are used for their state of erosion that is symbolic of change and renewal. Transformation is considered in dual portraits of the artists as well, where they resign their physicality to nature. Depicting an eerily serene submission to the realm of earthly cycles, their portraits suggest a psychological opening to the reality of impermanence.

Sheila Pye was born near Hamilton, Ontario. She studied painting, photography, and video at the Ontario College of Art and Design, where she graduated winning the top scholarship. She completed her MFA in film production at Concordia University in Montreal. Currently, she lives and works in Madrid Spain. Sheila has written, directed, and produced, 9 short films and is currently developing her first feature film 'The Young Arsonists'. Her work has been exhibited internationally in art galleries, museums and film festivals. She has been the recipient of numerous awards for her, filmmaking, and visual art. Sheila also maintains an active collaborative art practice, which integrates her interest in performance, cinema, and large format still photography.

Nicholas Pye was born in Torquay, England. He lives and works in Toronto. As a musician, Nicholas released and toured with 4 albums in the mid 90's. Moving from music to visual art Nicholas completed a Master of Fine Art degree at Concordia University in 2005, and received his undergraduate degree at the Ontario College of Art and Design in spring 2002. He maintains an active art practice, collaborating with Sheila Pye, which integrates their collective interests in performance, cinema, and large format still photography. (The Pyes have exhibited their work at museums such as The Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, The Power Plant, The Glenbow Museum, and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Their work has been screened in numerous international film festivals such as the Toronto International Film Festival, Locarno International Film Festival and Les Rencontres Internationales in Paris, Berlin, and Madrid. 

Presentation at Club Cultural Matienzo by "Colectivo Toronto", Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Supported by Canada Council for the Arts -Media Arts Section- Projects Grant to Media Arts Organizations, Groups and Collectives. Sponsored by the Canadian Embassy in Buenos Aires,

www.nickandsheila.com
www.nicholaspye.com
www.ccmatienzo.com.ar