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CAR Gallery is pleased to announce Ancestral Memory and Speculative Futures the solo exhibition of Trevor Gould, born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1951, lives and works in Montréal, Canada.
On the occasion of his first exhibition with CAR Gallery, the artist presents a new body of work that reflects a synthesis of his research over recent years. Trevor Gould is recognized for his artistic practice in drawing, sculpture, and conceptual art. After studying art in Johannesburg, he moved to Montreal, where he furthered his education and developed a significant career both as an artist and as a sculpture professor at Concordia University. His work addresses complex issues concerning the relationship between nature and culture, and the ways in which historical narratives - particularly those rooted in colonial and postcolonial contexts - have shaped our understanding and representation of “otherness” and cultural differences from non-European worlds. Through sculpture, installation, video, and drawing, Gould investigates how cultural institutions - museums, zoos, and botanical gardens - have mediated and influenced our perception of the “wild” reinforcing certain power structures that position other cultures as subordinate and inferior to European culture. The nature of his work tends to engage viewers through a critical approach to the representation of humankind and its origins, racial identity, and the cultural history of nations. Often employing human figures, animals, and hybrid forms, he challenges established cultural assumptions and encourages deeper reflection on global “differences.” Ancestral Memory and Speculative Futures is a rich and interdisciplinary concept that brings together history, biology, culture, and imagination. The artist poses a central question: how does the past live within us, and how can it influence the future we imagine? The works on display belong to this series, initiated in 2025, which explores the intersections between family lineage, historical perception, and spatio-temporal imagination. Each figure is presented frontally, with a gaze that is both intimate and insistent, inviting the viewer into a direct encounter. Fluid watercolor gestures capture the dynamism of primal memory as a living current that shapes the subject’s presence through drips and accumulations of pigment. These works act as conceptual and perceptual bridges between past, present, and future, exploring traces inherited from recent history. Points of reference include colonialism and contemporary politics, which generate in today’s populations a sense oscillating between nostalgia and uncertainty of belonging. Through the interplay of immediacy and abstraction, the series invites the audience to consider the continuity of memory, the evolution of identity, and the emergence of hybrid, multi- temporal imaginaries that resonate both on a personal and collective level.