Don't You Like the Green of A?

Paul Petro Contemporary Art is pleased to present an exhibition of recent work by Montreal-based artist Nelson Henricks. The following text is from the original exhibition, Don't You Like the Green of A?, curated by Mark Lanctôt, which premiered at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, November 2022 - April 2023.

"Don't You Like the Green of A? is based on the correspondences between letters and colours specific to Joan Mitchell's synaesthesia––a condition that Henricks happens to share with her. Synaesthesia is a neurological syndrome in which perception by one sense automatically triggers a perception in one of the other senses. This connectivity between senses may be manifested in different ways. For example, in grapheme-colour synaesthesia, numbers or letters are associated with colours; in music-colour synaesthesia, people perceive colour by hearing a sound or music. This new project returns to a structure that Henricks previously adopted in at least two works: Monochrome A to Z (Synaesthesia Paintings) (2012-14) and Monochrome A to Z (for Grapheme-Colour Synaesthetes) (2012). In the former work, a series of twenty-six monochrome paintings of an identical small size, show the colours that Henricks associates with each letter of the alphabet. In the latter work, each of the twenty-six drawings presents a single letter, repeated until the surface is entirely covered. Don't You Like the Green of A? is made, instead, from Joan Mitchell's associations between letters of the alphabet and certain colours and is presented as a more elaborate combination of these associations. The installation also features monochrome paintings, but they are accompanied by wallpaper, as well as a business suit and smock that reflect Mitchell's chromatic alphabet. Specifically, the coloured checkerboards that cover these elements reproduce the sequence of letters in the alphabet (on the wallpaper and the smock) or spell out the title of the installation, Don't You Like the Green of A? (on the business suit and the wallpaper).” -- Mark Lanctôt

For the exhibition at Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Henricks reprises this body of work. A single-channel video work acts as keystone to the installation. It features two versions of Henricks: one wearing the business suit, and the other wearing the smock. The relationship between the two characters is humorous and open-ended. Every now and then, the artist holds out a microphone to capture the sounds that the colours used in Mitchell's paintings might make. For some people with synaesthesia, letters (here associated with a colour) trigger a sound or tone. Thus, Henricks follows an approach he established in 2012, addressing synaesthesia not only as a subject but also as a methodology. Other objects in the space––photos, costume elements, and hybrid photo-painting-masks, extend Henricks research into Joan Mitchell’s synaesthesia in ways that challenge conventional boundaries between art, design, and craft.


Nelson Henricks was born in Bow Island, Alberta and graduated from the Alberta College of Art. He moved to Montréal in 1991 and received a BFA from Concordia University. He recently completed a PhD at Université du Québec à Montréal. Henricks has taught art history and studio art at Concordia University, McGill University, UQAM and Université de Montréal. His writings have been published in exhibition catalogues, magazines, and anthologies. A curator and artist, Henricks is best known for his videotapes and video installations, which have been exhibited worldwide. A focus on his video work was presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as part of the Video Viewpoints series in 2000. Henricks is the recipient of the Bell Canada Award in Video Art in 2002, the Prix Giverny Capital in 2015, the Prix Louis-Comtois in 2023, and the Prix Robert Forget in 2024. An exhibition of his work was presented at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in 2023. Henricks' work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal and others. He is represented by Paul Petro Contemporary Art in Toronto. For more information, visit www.nelsonhenricks.com.