Joseph Hartman: The Artist’s Studio

The artist’s studio can be a sacred place, a vacuum, a social gathering site, a habitat of personal anguish, or growth – sometimes all these things at once. It is an intimate space where an artist creates the objects that will publicly represent their practice – the factory where work is made and sometimes too, the stage that presents it. For all its complex ingredients, the studio is essentially a portrait of the artist.

Spanning nearly five years of work by Hamilton-based photographer Joseph Hartman, The Artist’s Studio is an exhibition of large-format photographs of studio interiors, shot around the country. These photos provide rare behind-the-scenes views into the production spaces of some of Canada’s most well known contemporary artists (such as Pierre Dorian, Robert Davidson, Wanda Koop, Duane Linklater, Kent Monkman, Mary Pratt and John Scott) alongside more emerging practices.

The exhibition coincides with the release of a full-colour catalogue, featuring over 100 images from the photo project, a curatorial essay, and interview with the artist (Black Dog Publishing, 2017).