Nilas is a continuation of Kernohan's Splitting Distance project. This series of photographic collages transmit icy surfaces, tumultuous waters, rocky shores, and portals. This flint originated from the shores of France or the United Kingdom and is now found in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, whose namesake was coined by French settlers, who named the location “Baie de Glace” (Bay of Ice). The chalky surface of the flint gives way to semi-translucent surfaces with reflective flecks and shards, similar to the textures and patterns found in ice and light bouncing off of water.
Sarah Kernohan, Nilas, pigment print on Hahnemühle museum etching paper, 101.6 x 129.5 cm (40 x 51 in), 2025.
Member since: 2021
Number of exhibitions at the gallery: 2
Tell us a story about Red Head: My first group exhibition was at the Red Head Gallery in 2003, after being invited to submit work for a group exhibition happening in the gallery during the first Nuit Blanche. I mailed a small drawing in a tube halfway around the world from New Zealand, where I was living at the time. I have helped friends and former Red Head members install their exhibitions, and joined the gallery in 2021, and it has felt like my landing pad in Toronto. A few decades on, I’m thrilled to exhibit alongside my Red Head colleagues, now as a member of the collective, and to continue growing with this community.
Sarah Kernohan’s works on paper explore the connection between subtle landscape elements and large-scale geological processes. She holds an MFA from the University of Waterloo and a BFA in Drawing and Painting from OCAD University. Recent exhibitions include Bridging Borders (Coordenadas Residencia, Buenos Aires), Splitting Distance (Red Head Gallery, Toronto), and Snow-blind (Gallery Stratford, Stratford). She has participated in residencies in Canada and abroad, and her work has received grants and awards from the Arts Awards Waterloo Region, Ontario Arts Council, and Region of Waterloo Arts Fund. She is based in Kitchener, Ontario.
