Folded News belongs to a continuing series of paintings that focus solely on hands engaged in different gestures and tasks. By isolating this fragment of the body, I’m interested in how subtle movements can suggest mood, character, and story. The act of holding or folding a newspaper—seemingly ordinary—becomes a cinematic moment when framed in paint. My work often explores the intersection between painting and cinema: how cropping, composition, and gesture can invite a viewer to imagine a wider scene beyond what is shown. In this way, the hands become both subject and storyteller, creating an incomplete narrative.
Jim Bourke, Folded News, encaustic on canvas mounted on panel, 101.6 × 127 cm (40 × 50 in), 2021
Member since: 2017
Number of exhibitions at the gallery: 4
Tell us a story about Red Head: I would say one of our most engaging and challenging times was surviving COVID as a collective. The members accepted not only the loss of exhibition time but also the cost of monthly fees required to maintain the gallery. We endured almost two years of Zoom meetings, negotiations with 401 Richmond, and the complex task of rescheduling 17 members on the other side of the pandemic. We even managed to take advantage of the shutdown by applying for grants to renovate the office and storeroom. We survived!
Jim Bourke is a Toronto-based figurative painter who specializes in encaustic painting. His bold and nuanced works are created through a process of indecisions and revisions, revealing the visible traces of their construction. Bourke has studied fine art at York University and the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) and has won awards in numerous juried exhibitions. He was a member of the artists’ collective, Red Head Gallery. His paintings can be found in various private and corporate collections.
