Mass media is pervasive – we are all familiar with television commercials, website advertising, billboards, and junk email, but what about your old family photo album? In Family & Friends: Memories Lost & Found, Sures used his own life & family history to examine the rise of mass media & technology in our everyday lives. Being a direct result of the integration of technology into our households, family photographs share a interesting relationship with mass media. Sures articulated this relationship through the use of different materials including fabric, canvas & paint, drawing inspiration from the effects of deterioration on both our memories and the photographs themselves. His paintings, like faded or damaged photos, featured portraits with missing faces, colour spots, and other imperfections.
Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Tyler Sures received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Ottawa in 2008 and completed his Masters of Fine arts at the Utrecht School of Arts and Design in 2009. Sures' work has been exhibited in various group shows internationally, including Dutch Artistic Research Event 4, and Dutch Design Double Biennial in Utrecht and Amsterdam, Air Out Your Dirty Laundry at Het Blauwe Huis in Amsterdam, Animal Estates at the Casco Gallery in Utrecht, and various galleries in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver, Canada.