Darren Booth: Wayfinder

Rodman Art Institute of Niagara

Darren Booth, A New Season (right side of diptych), 2025, canvas collage on canvas, 24″ x 24″

Wayfinder
Darren Booth

September 20 – December 20, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 20, 2025 5 – 8pm
Rodman Art Institute of Niagara, St. Catharines

This fall, Darren Booth takes over Niagara Region with the companion exhibitions Wayfinder, at Rodman Art Institute of Niagara and Passages at the Riverbrink Art Museum. Wayfinder is a continued investigation of the ideas and themes that Booth has been exploring over the past few years. In this new work, Darren Booth breaks somewhat from his focus on family and memory continuing his exploration with abstraction and self-reflection. The work in Wayfinder, contrasts to the intimate, domestic scale of much of the sculptural work in Passages that often tie Booth’s art-making to his family history in the Netherlands.

In Wayfinder, Booth frees himself from these historic familial ties, however, there are still nods to his earlier work and the delft blue colour palette in both a large sculpture and collaged wall mural. However, much of the work in Wayfinder plays with scale, colour and movement, depicting the visual embodiment of Booth’s current struggle to re-orient himself both personally and creatively allowing him to create a new narrative and dialogue between his past and his future while allowing him to create a renewed relationship to the viewer.

Darren Booth, The Shield, 2025, canvas collage on canvas, 36″ x 60″

Darren Booth is a visual artist and illustrator based in St. Catharines. Booth’s work primarily delves into illustration, portraiture, lettering and abstraction. His creative process is intuitive and iterative, with each piece evolving as he experiments with mixed media and digital tools blending traditional and digital techniques. For Booth, innovation is not just a method but a necessity, facilitating artistic growth while paving the way for fresh ideas and perspectives to emerge. With a penchant for blending traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge digital tools, Booth’s use of mixed media reflects his insatiable desire to evolve.

Booth’s artistic process involves a meticulous fusion of paint, collage and distinctive colour palettes. A unique tension exists within his work, exploring the interplay between discomfort and relief through abstract shapes, bold colours, vibrant hues, textures and evolving configurations. In some instances these elements coalesce into gentle, flowing forms, while in others, they manifest through sharp, defiant edges, resisting conformity. This continuous push and pull between calm and distress evokes the ever-changing landscape of unexplored emotions we navigate daily.

Expressing himself through a unique painterly-collage style, he has developed a rich visual vocabulary that allows him to navigate his relationship with anxiety. Booth utilizes systems of shape and scale, employing vibrant colours combined with textures to evoke emotions while conveying profound meanings, often fluctuating between abstraction and minimalism. He consciously preserves the imperfections in his art, a choice that imbues his work with an authentic touch of humanity often lacking in an increasingly digital world. Central to Booth’s artistic process is the deep connection he fosters with his audience, producing universal art that resonates on a personal level. His goal is to engage the viewer, inviting them into a world that is both familiar and surprising.

Booth’s most recent work is shaped by an upbringing in the trades, incorporating a tactile and labor-intensive approach that reflects the physicality and discipline of craft. By engaging deeply with materials, his methods bridge traditional trade skills with contemporary artistic expression. These techniques signify his own personal growth, seeing him move away from fragile materials and anxiety-driven precision, to engage in more spontaneous, robust and physical creative processes. This exploratory method underscores a commitment to pushing boundaries within his practice.

Rodman Art Institute of Niagara (RAiN) is a public art gallery dedicated to the public’s appreciation and understanding of the visual arts.

For information and media inquiries, contact:
Angela Brayham, Director / Curator, abrayham@rodmanart.ca

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