Gregory McHarg has brought his prairie (Edmonton) practice to Toronto, specifically to the MFA program at York University. His thesis exhbition, Moduli, is the culmination of these last two years in his new physical and cultural environment. McHarg’s work can be seen to contain the diverse traditions of modernist abstraction and pop art. These two movements are fused here through the artist’s peroccupation with the modular grid.

McHarg’s modules of choice are generally common and familiar. They become unfamiliar by the manner in which they are visually knit together. The viewer is invited to look upon intricately articulated fields wherein discipline and pleasure, structure and play coexist. The variable of viewing distance underlines the dual nature of these pieces as both diverse facts and formal unities. The artist wishes simultaneously to exalt and to question the convention of modularity.

The Art Gallery of York University is one of the few university galleries in Canada that offers its resources to students enrolled in the graduate programs in Visual Arts. Each year, the AGYU hosts two MFA thesis exhbitions. These exhibitions showcase the work of advanced students in this program, preparing them for their ongoing careers. The MFA Thesis Exhibitions are part of an endeavour by the AGYU to extend our relationship with the Faculty of Graduate Studies, thereby enriching our commitment to the development of Canada’ s future professionals.