Kristan Horton
One Block

From January 15th to February 21, 2026

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Kristan Horton's recent solo exhibition, None of This Is In My Mind (Oakville Galleries, February–May 2025), showcases his ongoing "endless drawing project"—a monumental, perpetually expanding work in black ink on kraft paper that embodies ritualistic accumulation and resists completion. This meditative series marks a return to primal mark-making for the Montreal-based Canadian artist, whose earlier multidisciplinary practice often explored photography, sculpture, and cinematic reconstruction (e.g., his acclaimed Dr. Strangelove Dr. Strangelove recreations).

Central to the One Block exhibition is the incorporation of accidental, noise-like bases derived from frottage—a technique using a single found wood block rubbed onto paper to create textured, random patterns akin to visual static. Horton then intervenes selectively with brush and ink, enhancing emergent forms in a process reminiscent of pareidolia: seeing shapes in clouds or Rorschach blots. Yet, as Horton frames it, this is less whimsical cloudgazing than an inquiry into perception, rooted in computer vision, information theory (Claude Shannon's predictive decoding of signals), and biological emergence (Denis Noble's ideas on consciousness from noise; slime molds navigating mazes).

"One Block" the series prominently features variations from one wood block—yielding dozens of altered 12 x 27-inch prints on craft paper, where frottage "noise" provides the substrate for interpretive marks. The result is hypnotic: abstract fields that oscillate between chaos and figuration, inviting viewers to co-create meaning. Horton's restraint—favoring accident over impulse—yields profound, contemplative works that bridge analog chance and digital-era questions of image formation. In a spectacle-driven art world, this endless project feels radically quiet and generative.

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Kristan Horton (b.1971 Niagara Falls; lives/works: Montreal) has a multi-disciplinary practice that includes sculpture, drawing, photography and video. Using layered processes of construction, both material and virtual, he has produced several long-term projects linked conceptually by their serial and episodic structure. Grounded in rigorous studio research, Horton brings his subjects to life through innovative and experimental approaches to various mediums. He studied at University of Guelph (MFA, 2007) and the Ontario College of Art and Design (BFA, 1996). 

He has exhibited nationally and internationally including  Oakville Galleries (2025); SVĚTOVA 1, Prague (2022); Salzburger Kunstverein, Austria (2020); Musee d'art contemporain de Montreal, Quebec (2020); Alberta Art Gallery, Alberta( 2017, 2006); Work Gallery, London, UK (2015); Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2015, 2013, 2010, 2009); The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2014, 2011,); MASS MoCA, Massachusetts (2012); Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax (2012); Mercer Union, Toronto (2011, 2010, 2005); Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo (2008); White Columns, NY(2008); Munchner Kammerspiele, Münich (2008); York University Art Gallery, Toronto (2007); The Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2007); Stutter and Twitch, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (2007); Power Plant, Toronto (2006); Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (2003); ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany (2002); Inter Communications Center, Tokyo (2002) and Glassbox, Paris (1998).