Angus Hamra, McLean Edwards, Henrik Godsk, Adam Lester, Andrew Salgado, Craig Handley, Ryan Schneider, David Griggs & Adam Spark
THE WEIGHT
Written by Robbie Robertson and brought to life by The Band, the song The Weight remains one of the most enduring reflections on the complexities of human existence. Across its verses, a wandering protagonist moves through a succession of encounters, gathering stories, obligations and fragments of other lives. By journey’s end, the burden he carries is no longer his own. It belongs to everyone he has met along the way.
The artists brought together in The Weight explore a similar terrain. Across painting, the figure emerges not simply as a subject, but as a vessel for memory, identity, longing and experience. Pilgrims, wanderers, dreamers, observers and archetypes populate these works, each carrying traces of lives both lived and imagined.
Portraiture has long promised access to the individual, yet its enduring power lies in its ability to speak to something universal. Beneath every expression resides an unseen world of hopes, responsibilities, fears and desires. What we encounter is not merely a likeness, but evidence of a life unfolding. The face becomes a point of connection between self and other.
Throughout the exhibition, artists approach the figure through vastly different visual languages. Solitary protagonists confront immense landscapes. Crowds dissolve individual identities into collective experience. Archetypal forms hover between myth and memory, while psychological portraits reveal identities that are fluid, fractured and continually evolving. Together, these works remind us that no life exists in isolation.
The exhibition proposes that the weight we carry is rarely singular. We inherit histories, absorb the experiences of others and are shaped by every encounter we make. Family, community, culture and memory leave their mark upon us, creating an invisible architecture beneath the surface of appearance.
In bringing together this diverse assembly of figures and faces, The Weight offers a portrait not of any one individual, but of our shared humanity. It is a reminder that behind every gaze lies a story, behind every story a life, and within every life the accumulated weight of being human.
The Weight
Written by: J.R. Robertson
I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin' about half past dead;
I just need some place where I can lay my head.
"Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?"
He just grinned and shook my hand, and "No!", was all he said.
Take a load off Fanny, take a load for free;
Take a load off Fanny, And (and) (and) you can put the load right on me.
I picked up my bag, I went lookin' for a place to hide;
When I saw Carmen and the Devil walkin' side by side.
I said, "Hey, Carmen, come on, let's go downtown."
She said, "I gotta go, but m'friend can stick around."
Take a load off Fanny, take a load for free;
Take a load off Fanny, And (and) (and) you can put the load right on me.
Go down, Miss Moses, there's nothin' you can say
It's just ol' Luke, and Luke's waitin' on the Judgement Day.
"Well, Luke, my friend, what about young Anna Lee?"
He said, "Do me a favor, son, woncha stay an' keep Anna Lee company?"
Take a load off Fanny, take a load for free;
Take a load off Fanny, And (and) (and) you can put the load right on me.
Crazy Chester followed me, and he caught me in the fog.
He said, "I will fix your rack, if you'll take Jack, my dog."
I said, "Wait a minute, Chester, you know I'm a peaceful man."
He said, "That's okay, boy, won't you feed him when you can."
Take a load off Fanny, take a load for free;
Take a load off Fanny, And (and) (and) you can put the load right on me.
Catch a cannon ball now, t'take me down the line
My bag is sinkin' low and I do believe it's time.
To get back to Miss Fanny, you know she's the only one.
Who sent me here with her regards for everyone.
Take a load off Fanny, take a load for free;
Take a load off Fanny, And (and) (and) you can put the load right on me.