Geoff McFetridge Finds Stillness In Grasslands
The Los Angeles-based artist returns to Cooper Cole with prairie landscapes that invite viewers to pause and look more closely.
Courtesy of the artist and Cooper Cole
Geoff McFetridge’s latest exhibition, Grasslands, is now on view at Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto through 5 September 2026. The new body of paintings draws directly from the Canadian prairies where the artist was raised, presenting rolling fields, quiet figures and expansive horizons that feel both familiar and slightly dreamlike.
Courtesy of the artist and Cooper Cole
McFetridge channels a sense of charged stillness reminiscent of the late Alex Colville, allowing everyday rural scenes to hover between observation and imagination. In one work a figure lies afloat in soft grass, seemingly lost in rest or sky-gazing. In another, pickup trucks and boxy SUVs form a strange traffic circle in the middle of an open field, leaving the viewer to wonder whether the vehicles have been abandoned or are simply circling without destination. Figures, animals, architecture and landscape elements occupy these spaces with understated surrealism, tapping into nostalgia for life’s quieter, smaller moments.
Courtesy of the artist and Cooper Cole
The gallery notes that the work continues McFetridge’s ongoing investigation into perception, memory and the spaces between what is seen and what is felt. The paintings offer a brief refuge from the relentless pace of the present, encouraging viewers to slow down and linger. Located at 1134 Dupont Street in Toronto, Grasslands provides a calm and contemplative interlude that rewards patient looking.
Langley Thomas
Editor
Langley Thomas serves as a cultural contributor for JUMIRO Magazine, bringing a focused eye to fashion, design, art, film and the creative scenes shaping contemporary culture. The writing homes in on the details, atmospheres and emerging voices that give each project its particular charge.
