“I know it’s silly…”

March 26th, 2022 - May 14th, 2022
Toni Onley Gallery

Featured Artist:

Ari Neufeld

Ari Neufeld will be joining our featured exhibits during the time of the Ignite the Arts Festival in the Toni Onley Gallery. Ari is a second generation British Columbian, raised by missionary parents. 

His dad, usually deprived of sleep, had a pun or quip for every situation. Most of them were very personal and obscure to only him, and he would none-the-less, be compelled to loudly eject his observations in every social setting. As a child Ari remembers wondering if those outbursts were his dad’s deeply rye sense of humor (he seemed amused at how uncomfortable it made Ari), or if indeed those “jokes” were merely for his own entertainment. 

Ari’s best friend was visiting for dinner one evening and he innocently said he would need to find the nearest bus stop after dinner so he could get home. Neufeld’s Father retorted, “Hit me with your Bus Stop, baby!”  something Ari’s dad had always said whenever “bus stop” was mentioned. This never phased Ari or his brothers as funny. Ari’s buddy LOST his mind in laughter. He claimed it was the funniest thing he’d EVER heard.

 As soon as Ari had kids and pets of his own, he immediately had concerned friends and family asking why he was saying such weird and silly stuff all of the time. Ari says on his habit, “Truth is, I can’t help it. I am compelled to say silly things. But I did evolve from my Dad in this: I decided to try and create a visual concept of what I thought was ‘punny’ or ridiculous. And then I became a little bit obsessed with it.”

Ari’s father passed away nearly a decade ago now, but he thinks about him every time this bizarre, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor creeps into his psyche. About one of his pieces, Ari says “My most unorthodox piece: the bar stool in full-gate sprint saying ‘RUNNY STOOL!’ came to me while at my Dad’s five year memorial site celebration on Anvil Island.”

Humor is a strange source of light that can heal some of our deepest wounds. It's often funniest when it shouldn’t really be, when you’re buckled over with laughter and you’re not entirely sure why. Ari believes in that. His dad believed in that.

 Ari continues, “This series is based predominantly on the idea of animals on our British Columbian West Coast, if they could talk. And they were created just in case someone should need a little shaft of light along their path. And I dedicate it to my Dad, born Donald Corny (true story) Neufeld.”