Born and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, Jeff Bierk is a self-taught photographer with no formal education. In recent years, he has been documenting people and places in Ontario and working on the conceptual development of his artwork. He currently lives and works in Toronto.

Exhibitions

2010 - FAMILY PORTRAIT, CRAM Gallery; St. Catharines, Ontario

2010 - Sketchbook, Sleeping Giant Gallery; Toronto, Ontario

2009 - Recent Works, Fountain Contemporary; Toronto, Ontario

2008 - A Cycle of Vacancy, Fountain Contemporary; Toronto, Ontario

Artist Statement

My camera is my sketchbook; it gives me the power to impulsively capture things and frame glances – the images act as a record of my existence and help me heal. I preserve fragments of my daily life in photographic form, collecting, exploring, and revising memories, while sifting to make sense of my experiences. This is what intrigues me.

My photographs are a visual exploration of my surroundings at any given time. It is an obsession. They show my search for identity and beauty, my feelings of isolation, fear, confinement, loss, love, and abandonment. Photography is my outlet to explore what I am feeling and it is how I try to understand them. The images swallow me and I am completely taken away.  

About FAMILY PORTRAIT @ CRAM Gallery

Our family shapes us, as we are molded by the events that take place our life. The death of my parents disrupted the structure of my family, and has revealed to me the importance of family relationships, especially with my siblings.

My three brothers and I created the work in FAMILY PORTRAIT at CRAM Gallery. The subjects of the show are portraits of our half-siblings. We share the same father, but they have different mothers. The exhibition explores the structure and divides in our extended family. Through this collaboration we are employing the gifts passed on by our father, David Bierk and mother, Liz Aimers, and we are trying to hold on to what we have left. The work is as much about separation and the complexity of our relationships with our older half-brothers and sisters, as to honor our parents and their memory.

The CRAM exhibition is an opportunity for the four of us to work together on something conceptually and to create work that addresses our similarities as well as our differences. With the death of our parents the very structure of our family was broken and this work attempts to rebuild it.

The exhibition exposes schisms, but also unites us. Familial boundaries and separations are acknowledged, but in moving ahead we reject the negative and embrace the positive. Instead of looking back and holding on to our differences, we four brothers look to each other for a new vision to hold our family together.

This show attempts to bridge gaps and to heal wounds. The creation of these works and our collaboration strengthens the bonds of our family. The process is an attempt to rebuild the family structure and reclaim what we felt was lost.