ArtToronto

Author: artoronto

  • Canadian Art Foundation – Gallery Hop Auction Preview

    Canadian Art Foundation
    Gallery Hop Auction Preview
    September 13 – 19, 2011
    The Avenue
    155 St. Clair Avenue West
    Preview Reception: Monday, September 12, 7pm

    The Canadian Art Foundation‘s Auction Preview at the opulent The Avenue suite 1500 at 155 St. Clair was the perfect setting to see the generously donated works by the best of Canadian artists.

    Leigh Bridges, Tree Hut 2006. Courtesy Paul Petro Contemporary Art

    Arthur Renwick, Carla 2006 , Courtesy the artist and Leo Kamen Gallery

    John Oswald, Nearly Everyone from Stillnessence, 2006.Courtesy Edward Day Gallery

    The 2011 Gallery Hop has been ”inspired by the business mantra – location, location, location”.

    Selected guests were treated to tasty bits and white wine plus a marvellous view of Toronto‘s skyline .

    Opening remarks by the Avenue’s developer (Camrost – Felcorp),  David Feldman stated, “The Avenue project took its inspiration from art throughout every stage, with emphasis on optimizing gallery space from the sales centre to each of the finished suites. As you can see here in this magnificent suite, a place to display a work of art is revealed from multiple vantage points.“

    Auction Preview speeches

    Guest with Meryl Mcmaster, Meryl 1, 2010. Courtesy Leo Kamen Gallery

     Sarah Cale: Untitled, 2010, Acrylic on mahogany board, 48” x 48”. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Bradley Art + Projects

    The evening was lively  with talk amongst attending artists Matt Donovan and Hallie Siegel, Canadian Art Magazine Editor, Richard Rhodes, gallery owners, art collectors and dealers plus representatives from the Canadian Art Foundation.

    Painted Brick Triad by Jeremy Hof. Courtesy of the artist and Blanket Contemporary Inc

    The Gala takes place September 21 at The Carlu  444 Yonge St. with a 5:30 Preview and Cocktails followed by the Dinner and Live Auction and then the Silent Auction. The Gallery Hop with Tours & Talks takes place on September 24.

    Text and Photo by Phil Anderson

  • FAUSTA FACCIPONTE: Sleepy Eyes

    Pip (a.k.a. Philip), 2010 Copyright: © Fausta Facciponte / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

      September 22 – October 29, 2011
    Opening: Saturday, September 24, 2-5pm
    STEPHEN BULGER GALLERY
    1026 Queen Street West
    Toronto, Ontario M6J 1H6
    T: 416.504.0575
    E: info@bulgergallery.com
    www.bulgergallery.com

    The gallery is pleased to announce our first solo exhibition of work by Fausta Facciponte. “Sleep Eyes” is a series of doll portraits that explore the human condition as a ‘material thing. Through the examination of objects – how they decay, how they are preserved, forgotten and passed along form one owner to the next – the work raises questions about the nature of our physical existence and our likeness to material goods.
    In this series, old vinyl dolls that have been discarded by girls and boys are salvaged. The face of the doll is presented in the deadpan style of photography; the image is large scale, highly detailed, with a clean clinical approach. Believed to be the earliest known toy, dolls are objects that are usually associated with children and play, but these objects also represent the human form. Children often bestow a power into these objects – to be their keeper of secrets, confidant and protector. In many cases, these objects are an extension of the owner: a portrait of the inner self. By reclaiming used and inexpensive dolls from thrift stores, garage sales and online auctions, these discarded objects evoke a feeling of terminated love and abandonment. Through this investigation, these works challenge and address our notions of representation and our existence through material objects.

    ‘Sleepy eyes’ is a term used to describe a doll with moveable eyes. The earliest ‘sleepy eyes’ from the 19th century used weights or wires and later on simpler mechanisms were developed. The open and shut eyes were developed to create more life-like dolls but the term also suggests the human need for sleep.

    This project was made possible by a grant received from the Ontario Arts Council.

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  • “Beyond the Words”, paintings by Anahita Loghmanifar

    September 27 – October 16, 2011
    Opening: Thursday, September 29, 7 – 9 pm,
    HANG MAN GALLERY
    756 Queen Street East (at Broadview Avenue)
    Toronto, ON M4M 1H4
    T: 416-465-0302
    hangmangallery@gmail.com
    www.ArtistsNetwork.ca.
    Hours: Tues to Sun 12 – 5 pm

    The Hang Man Gallery is proud to announce, “Beyond the Words”, paintings by Anahita Loghmanifar that examines the boundaries of language and writing as an abstract notion.

    Anahita explores expression through spontaneous gestural lines and shapes formed by adding and removing paint from the canvas. Her incorporating of mainly Persian text with the aesthetics of shapes and colours challenges the viewer to re-think forms of global communication.

    Pushing pass linguistic meanings, the works create their own perceptions and interpretations.

    This  show offers anyone with a desire to experience looking at beyond the words a different stimulating literary fix.

  • Jim Campbell & DAVID ROKEBY

    Jim Campbell: Exploded View (Commuters), 2011, Dimensions: 72 x 46 x 38 inches, Custom electronics, 1152 LEDs, wire, steel. Photo credits Sarah Christianson

    September 22 – December 22, 2011
    Opening reception Thursday, September 22, 5-8 pm
    Pari Nadimi Gallery
    254 Niagara Street
    Toronto, ON, M6J 2L8
    E-mail: parinadimigallery.com
    info@parinadimigallery.com
    T:416-591-6464

    Pari Nadimi Gallery is pleased to announce a major exhibition of new works by two internationally acclaimed artists Jim Campbell and David Rokeby.

    Pioneering media artists Jim Campbell and David Rokeby share an ongoing fascination with movement, perception, time and memory. Campbell works against the prevailing tendency towards higher-definition images, presenting moving images at very low resolutions that take human perception towards its limits. The fluctuations of light in the image nonetheless carry the unmistakable and evocative signature of human movement. Rokeby is fascinated by what he calls our temporal bandwidth: the mix of past and future we bring to our experience of the present. He picks apart our experience and perception of time, space and movement, creating works that stretch and collapse time or transform our experience of our own movements through space. For both artists the technology is always firmly at the service of a poetic exploration of human experience.

    Campbell’s pieces in the exhibition will include Exploded View (Commuters), Montgomery Street Pause and Fundamental Interval Commuters #2.  Exploded View (Commuters) is the precursor to a major installation “Exploded View” that will be exhibited in the atrium of SFMoMA from November 5, 2011 to September 25, 2012. These two works explode the moving image into three dimensions, illuminating the space with a flickering grid of light that is part sculpture, part cinematic screen.

    Rokeby’s pieces in the exhibition include 2 “sound paintings” in which the physical space of an invisible painting becomes an interactive soundscape that can be probed with the fingers. He will also show Plot Against Time #4 (Atlantic Baroque) which traces the flight patterns of gannets off the coast of Newfoundland and a work that explores the movements of skaters on the ice rink at Nathan Philips Square (Toronto).

  • Memorial to 9/11 —ten years later by Joseph Drapell

    America America   2000   triptych, 80” x 90” each panel

    September 10 – October 15, 2011
    Opening:Saturday, September 10, 2-6pm
    New New Museum
    123 Bellwoods Ave (lane back),
    (six streets W of Bathurst, N of Queen
    Toronto, ON, M6J 2P6
    Open every Saturday 2-4pm,  other times by appointment.
    For information or appointments call Lausberg Contemporary 
    T: 416-516-4440 
    toronto@galerie-lausberg.com

    The art in this exhibition does not belong to the category of “political art”; it comes from the artists’ reaction to a tragic event in world affairs. Similarly, when Drapell painted his remembrance of the Kristallnacht (his 22 feet wide canvas “Remember and Live” 1988, now in the National Gallery, Prague) his aim was to elevate the work into the realm of something resembling the tragedies of Shakespeare: an artistic experience that does not overwhelm us with tragic gestures, but transcends the horrors through accomplished form. In this installation the familiar diptych is shown in a new and surprising orientation.

    The main room installation also includes the triptych “America, America”. The title deliberately recalls Kazan’s film of 1963, the story of millions of immigrants longing for America’s freedom. In this triptych we may see the image of wings, of flight, and perhaps also the image of conception, the beginning of new life. We can also discern a lament for the disappearing ideal: the more complex reality of America.

  • L’Âme des Fossiles by Amélie Desjardins

    Close your eyes, 40 x 52.

    September 22 – October 10, 2011
    Opening: Thursday, September 22, 6 – 9pm,  Artist in attendance
    Thompson Landry Gallery
    The Distillery District
    55 Mill Street, Building 5, #102
    & The Cooperage Building #32
    Toronto, Ontario, M5A 3C4
    Tel: 416-364-4955
    E-mail:info@thompsonlandry.com
    www.thompsonlandry.com
    Hours: Tues – Sat 11-6, Sun 12-5

    Ancient and forgotten materials with a rich history are drastically transformed and brought to life again through the work of Amélie Desjardins.  Diving into the seas of Asia, the artist retrieves pieces of exotic woods left behind from shipwrecks and collapsed bridges and reconstructs them into a stunning multimedia work of art. 

     On September 22nd, the Thompson Landry Gallery invites you to view L’Âme des Fossiles, over 30 incredible new works by Québecois artist Amélie Desjardins, who is quickly rising to the top of the Montreal art scene.

    Born in 1980, Desjardins grew up in the eastern townships, where she acquired a strong passion for nature, the countryside, and particularly the sea.  This early appreciation of the natural world lead her to pursue traveling and she soon began to explore this world in search of the wonders that inspire her.

    Since the start of her artistic career, Amélie Desjardins’ work has been a reflection of her life; a constant journey of endless discovery.  Her love for adventure lead her to create a visual language based on the passage of a man through treacherous waters and mysterious forests.  She scuba dives deep in the seas of South East Asia, Oceania and Japan to recover pieces of mahogany, teak and other exotic woods left behind from shipwrecks and collapsed bridges and boats.  Enriched with fascinating colours and textures, these planks are assembled together into linear compositions and combined with a layer of photography and mixed media.  These integrated scenes depict a sense of peaceful tranquility with the underlying promise of adventure; birds in flight, a seaside paradise or secretive woods.

    Amélie presents her work on exotic wood salvaged from shipwrecked and sunken boats.  These boats are inlaid with secret histories and constructed of wood that has seen the passage of time, and the continuity of its matter. Its passage will encounter a new destination in Desjardins’ latest series, L’Âme des Fossiles, exhibited exclusively in Toronto at the Thompson Landry Gallery. With these works, Desjardins presents to you her sanctuary, her secret garden…

  • Scott Conarroe: By Rail

    Scott Conarroe, Prairie Tracks, Saskatchewan, 2008. ©Scott Conarroe, courtesy Stephen Bulger Gallery.

    September 10 – November 6, 2011
    Opening: Sunday, September 11,  2 – 4 p.m
    The Varley Art Gallery of Markham
     216 Main Street
    Unionville – Markham  ON L3R 2H1
    T: 905-477-9511
    www.varleygallery.ca
    Hours: Tues., Wed., Fri., Sun. 11am – 4pm,
    Thurs. 11am – 8pm, Sat. 10am – 5pm

    Organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Windsor

    Curated by James Patten

    In 2007 Scott Conarroe embarked on a journey across North America to photograph railway infrastructure. His pictures of this sprawling socio-geographical network are a remarkable testament to its past glory and future potential. In these large arresting photographs, railway tracks unify urban and rural environments. Largely empty of trains or people, these contemplative, elegiac photographs evoke a range of responses to what is arguably the defining technology of the modern nation state.

    Scott is the recent winner of the Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography for 2011. The prize was endowed by the Government of Canada in 1986 on the occasion of Prince Andrew’s marriage and is awarded annually to a professional Canadian artist for personal creative work. The winner is chosen from among the recipients of arts grants in the Canada Council’s annual competitions for professional photographers.

    Curator Tour of Scott Conarroe: By Rail
    Sunday 16 October at 2pm
    Visiting from the McIntosh Gallery in London, Ontario, join curator James Patten for a special, one-time discussion on this touring exhibition. Come explore the artwork of Scott Conarroe; consider the role and history of the railways and discuss issues in contemporary photography.

    The Varley Art Gallery of Markham is supported by the Varley-McKay Art Foundation of Markham, the Town of Markham, the Ontario Arts Council, the Department of Canadian Heritage, memberships, and private donations.

    Admission: Adults $5.00 | Seniors and students $4.00 | Youth (6-11) $3.00 | Children (under 6) free | Family (up to 2 adults and 4 children/youth) $12.00 | Gallery members free | Reciprocal members free (plus *HST).

  • Max Streicher: Quadriga

    August 27 – October 10, 2011
    The Varley Art Gallery of Markham
    Courtyard Exhibition 
    216 Main Street
    Unionville – Markham  ON L3R 2H1
    T: 905-477-9511
    www.varleygallery.ca
    Hours: Tues., Wed., Fri., Sun. 11am – 4pm,
    Thurs. 11am – 8pm, Sat. 10am – 5pm

    The Varley Art Gallery is proud to present Max Streicher’s installation, Quadriga (2006).

    This series of four giant-sized horses will be installed on the roof of the tower overlooking the Varley’s courtyard and entrance until Thanksgiving weekend.

    Since 1989, Streicher has worked extensively with installation works and inflatable technology. His large-scale kinetic sculptures are hand-sewn using light and durable fabric such as Tyvek, and appear realistic due to the effortless naturalism of their motion and sway. For Max, inflatables are the medium of enchantment, fantasy and optimism.

    The Varley Art Gallery of Markham is supported by the Varley-McKay Art Foundation of Markham, the Town of Markham, the Ontario Arts Council, the Department of Canadian Heritage, memberships, and private donations.

    Admission: Adults $5.00 | Seniors and students $4.00 | Youth (6-11) $3.00 | Children (under 6) free | Family (up to 2 adults and 4 children/youth) $12.00 | Gallery members free | Reciprocal members free (plus *HST).