A Thin Place

Nathalie Karg Gallery is pleased to present A Thin Place, a solo exhibition featuring gouache paintings by Alex Bierk. The exhibition explores language's limitations, capturing what falls through the gap between intention and expression. "The title of Bierk's show, A Thin Place, refers to this moment when the veil lifts and the fragile space between worlds is briefly revealed. That suspension is a site of great risk and danger. It is also the site of infinite possibility." Alex Bierk (b. 1982, Peterborough, ON) is a self-taught artist working in oil and watercolor, known for his meticulous, time-intensive process and deeply personal imagery. Using unembellished photographs as source material, he reconstructs his compositions through a precise grid system, creating works that balance technical rigor with quiet emotional depth. His paintings transform everyday subjects, pills, passing light, highways, and cars, into meditations on resilience, longing, and the unseen forces shaping human experience. Rooted in lived experience, Bierk’s work engages themes of addiction, recovery, homelessness, and the drug crisis with sincerity and restraint. He has received support from the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts, and was awarded the Laura Ciruls Painting Award in 2020. His work has been widely exhibited, including at the Art Gallery of Ontario and Harper’s, and is held in major public and private collections across North America.