UH-HUH / SORRY (2026)

UH-HUH / SORRY, works by Cathy Busby and Garry Neill Kennedy (Wil Aballe, Vancouver) includes a selection of prints from Busby's SORRY Series (2005-2014), her WE ARE SORRY Fragments (2013), and her ATRIUM prints (2011). Central to Kennedy's work are eight large-scale working drawings (1992-2009) mapping his floor-to-ceiling wall paintings, including I DON'T WANT TO PAY THE FULL PRICE (Centre A, Vancouver, 2009). In addition is one of his SEIZED prints from EXECUTIVE SUITE (suite of nine, 1991), along with 18 preparatory drawings.

Busby and Kennedy worked in parallel over the 20 years of their relationship. They compared notes, and occasionally exhibited their work side-by-side and yet their practices remained separate and distinct. Kennedy found his art chops through the late-1950s and 60s; while Busby’s art formation took place through the 1980s and 90s. They shared conceptual art roots and an overall concern with the political, both inside and outside art institutions. This is the first time Busby has put forward her work and, posthumously, Kennedy’s. 

WORKING DRAWINGS 

Kennedy’s working drawings were used to create his monumental wall-text paintings (1992-2009), enabling him to precisely integrate them with the architecture of the site.

Among the eight working drawings on view are I DON’T WANT TO PAY THE FULL PRICE (Centre A, Vancouver, 2009); UH-HUH (S.L. Simpson Gallery, Toronto, 1992); FAILURE OF INTELLIGENCE (McMaster University Art Gallery, Hamilton, 2005), and SHIT HAPPENS (CANADA, New York City, 2006). Each are poignant phrases, the first excerpted from the Lonely Planet phrase book, and presented in both English and Mandarin; the latter two clipped from news reporting on the American invasion of Iraq (2003). The colour palettes of these floor-to-ceiling wall paintings were often sourced from the names of house-paints. The font emerges from variations on Kennedy’s signature Superstar Shadow.  

While installing, Kennedy would keep these scale drawings close by, often tacking them up for easy reference while he and his crew measured, taped and painted. Now, as artifacts, they provide a window into the reasoning and artistic logic underlying these iconic works.  

SEIZURES / SEIZED 

The SEIZED prints began with a collection of Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s magazines dropped off for Kennedy at his Nova Scotia College of Art and Design office where he was President. In them, he found and cut out the single-panel gag cartoons that took place in bosses’ offices, and titled them SEIZURES. Then he cut out the schematic paintings from each of the cartoon’s office walls and titled them SEIZED. 

He went on to make a suite of nine SEIZED serigraph prints, entitled, EXECUTIVE SUITE (38" x 38", 1991). This work is part of Kennedy's larger body of work about the workplace and administrative dynamics. One of these prints, a large-scale schematic of the artwork lifted from the boss’ office, was on display alongside Kennedy’s original hand-cut drafts of both SEIZURES and SEIZED. 

UH-HUH / SORRY offers an opportunity for close reading and acquisition of Kennedy and Busby’s conceptual, rational, intuitive, and sometimes funny, politically-engaged work.