Derek Liddington
Assistant Professor, Studio Art
BFA Media Arts Honours, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
MFA, Western University
PhD candidate, Western University
Some thoughts on my research and painting.
A continuous thread in my work is an interest in cultural memory and visualization through the language of abstraction, realism, and modernism. My paintings make visible the often invisible; the micro and macro subjects and experiences that we encounter daily. Personal moments—such as a dinner with family, a conversation, a fight, a loss of a loved one, looking up at the clouds—are visually connected to more communal forces, such as farming, deforestation, logging, geological time, and cultural taste. These encounters can often feel disconnected.
As a connective tissue in my painting is the correlation between memory and abstraction. Memory is deceiving, and with that deception it simplifies and naturally abstracts space, light, colour and time. To trust a memory, or to trust a story, as a means of pictorial making, it is to trust your experience. That experience is not developed in solitude, it is formed through conversation, interaction and collaboration; memories are a part of social history.
Liddington’s work has been shown internationally, including performances in Athens, Greece and Onagawa, Japan, and select exhibitions of his painting/installation work in Toronto (AGO), Madrid (ARCO), Berlin (Art Berlin Contemporary), and New York (NADA). He is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, as well as, the Canada Council creation grant for his project “The trees weep, The mountains still, The bodies rust”. This project was developed for the Musée d’art de Joliette (2021) and toured to the Richmond Art Gallery (2022/23) and at Contemporary Calgary (2024). Currently, he is working towards a solo presentation of his work at Museum London in 2027. Liddington has had recent solo presentations at Cambridge Galleries (Ontario, Canada), Southern Alberta Art Gallery (Lethbridge, Alberta), AKA Artist Run Center (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), and the Art Gallery of York University (Ontario, Canada).
A central part of Liddington’s practice is his use of residencies. These include: the Glenfiddich Artist Residency Program (Dufftown, Scotland), AGNES Etherington Art Centre (Kingston, Canada), Art Gallery of York University (Toronto, ON), AKA artist-run (Saskatoon, SK), Onagawa AIR (Japan) and upcoming at the Banff Centre (2026)
