The expression “nailing it” is meant to comment on the success, skill or clever completion of a task, but often, the idiom is employed sarcastically in regard to efforts that have comically failed. As is true in language, life and art, things are not always what they seem, or are perhaps capable of holding a multiplicity of meanings at once.

nailing it, a solo exhibition by Mandy Espezel, presents a new body of work at TREX Space. The exhibition features oil paintings and site-specific interactions with the gallery space.

Espezel began creating this work during their time in the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, New York in the spring of 2023. The canvas-esque support material for the oil paintings are found textiles salvaged by Espezel from a surplus warehouse in Brooklyn. The material, which contains variations in colour and texture, was a practical choice for availability and affordability, but also functions symbolically when contextualized within Espezel’s broader practice of examining the intersection of artwork and the body. Viewers can imagine the found textiles as stand-ins for skin and the paintings perhaps as our inner workings – both physical and psychological.

Within the work, Espezel expertly strikes a balance between critical thought and approachability. They employ lively colour and amorphous shapes to broach more contentious subjects within the cultural zeitgeist such as gender identity, bodily autonomy and structural hierarchies. One may feel kinship with the work and the way it straddles orderliness and messiness, much like our own bodies and lives. Contemplating the edges of the work, the beginning of the environment, and where they themselves fit into the equation, viewers are left to ponder precisely the context in which they (individual) and we (collective) are “nailing it”.

nailing it Public Reception | SAT June 22 | 3-5 PM | FREE

Join us at TREX Space on Saturday, June 22 from 3 – 5 PM for a drop-in Public Reception for nailing it, our latest exhibition featuring new works by Lethbridge-based artist Mandy Espezel. This solo show presents oil paintings and site-specific interactions with the gallery space that investigate the intersection of artwork / body.

The artist will be in attendance for the duration of the reception and complimentary light refreshments will be available. We look forward to seeing you there!

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About the Artist

Mandy Espezel is a Canadian artist of mixed settler/European descent originally from northern Alberta. They grew up in the community now called Fort McMurray; an urban service center in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, located deep within the boreal forest of Treaty 8 territory on the traditional lands of the Cree, Dene, and the unceded territory of the Métis. Mandy attended the University of Alberta for their BFA, where they concentrated mostly on painting and drawing, and received an MFA from the University of Lethbridge. Working within the expanded field of painting, they explore manifestations of anxiety, desire, humour and failure through material-intuitive processes. Their work has been supported by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Canada Council for the Arts, and they have participated in numerous exhibitions and residencies within Canada and abroad. In the Spring of 2023 Mandy was Artist in Residence with the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, New York, where much of the work for this exhibition was begun. Mandy is currently based in Sikoohkotoki/Lethbridge, Treaty 7, in the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy.

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TREX Space is located in downtown Medicine Hat, #2 - 516 Third Street SE