Discrepancies
How do you dream. (2026)
Painter Erin Szturm’s Debut Solo Exhibition
By Sidney Ulakovic
“A lot of people love nature in the sense that they love going golfing or they love going to the tree farm, and it's like an artifice. It's a facade of nature," says artist Erin Szturm. Szturm’s debut solo exhibition, Discrepancies, intends to examine our preference for manicured versions of the natural world as it confronts viewers with dirt, pests, and what we leave behind—whether that’s intentionally or not.
“Discrepancies as a title kind of came up as I was doing work and creating these little vignettes, focusing on what I find is contradictory. We have this appreciation of nature, especially in Thunder Bay, but sometimes there's still that deep-rooted kind of systemic education in us that's like we can't dirty ourselves, or we have to consider certain things as not being right as living here,” they say. Szturm explains that as a research-based artist, they became particularly fascinated with pests, a visual and thematic motif viewers will find throughout this collection of work. “I was thinking a lot about just pests in general, and how we use our words, as the tagline of this show,” Szturm says, adding that the work urges viewers to reconsider the harsh definitions language can impose upon unknowing beings.
When discussing how their practice has evolved, Szturm explains that they often find themself in between things—whether that’s cities, cultures, or expectations—and their artistic style manifests in a similar space. “The kind of brink between recognizing something and not recognizing it is where I like to live,” Szturm says about this collection’s subject matter. The 27 oil paintings featured in Discrepancies are largely collage-like in their layering of visuals and manipulation of scale, juxtaposing a grounding colour palette with the eerie mood of the work depicting what Szturm describes as snapshots of human intervention—littered plastic cutlery, discarded food waste, forgotten dolls—aimed to encourage viewers to contemplate their place in the environment.
Artist Erin Szturm
“I wanted to paint works that have bits of human footprints in terms of some of the interventions we make on the environment, whether purposeful or accidental, whether positive or negative,” Szturm says. “And I suppose there's definitely a little bit [of] critiquing the way we use our words, [...] and the discrepancies between our love for nature and what we actually do to facilitate that love and that relationship.”
Discrepancies will open on August 12 and remain on display until September 10. To see more of Szturm’s work, visit their website erinszturm.com or check out their Instagram @ermaybe.
