Artoronto.ca is an online art magazine that covers the rich visual art scene of Toronto and provides an open venue for critical dialogue on the exhibition of contemporary art. Articles with photographs are published regularly about exhibitions, shows, auctions, awards ceremonies, art fairs and other art events.

Author: artoronto

  • “Le Chien Noir: Salon des Arts”

    Saturday, October 27, 4 – 7 p.m.
    CITY ART COLLAGE GALLERY
    230 Queen Street East
    @ Sherbourne, next to Acadia Art & Rare Books
    Toronto, ON M5A 1S3
    T: 416.977.1077
    http://cityartproject.ca/

    “Le Chien Noir: Salon des Arts”

     Artwork

    music

    discourse

    coffee

    lemonade

    delectable delights

     

    City Art Collage Gallery, a project of the Foundation for the Study of Objective Art, is holding its third edition of “Le Chien Noir … Salon des Arts” at 230 Queen Street East. Art work, music, discourse, espresso, lemonade and delectable delights. This event is presented the same evening as an art exhibit reception next door at the beautiful new gallery space in Acadia Rare and Art Books.

  • Open Studio’s Annual Scholarship Exhibitions

    October 26 – December 1, 2012
    Artist Talks: Friday, October 26, 6 – 7 p.m.
    Opening Reception: Friday, October 26, 7 – 9 p.m.
    OPEN STUDIO GALLERY
    401 Richmond Street West, Suite 104
    Toronto ON, M5V 3A8
    T/F: 416-504-8238
    E-mail: sara@openstudio.on.ca
    W: http://www.openstudio.on.ca
    Hours: Tues – Sat, 12 – 5 p.m.

    Open Studio is pleased to present the 2011-12 Scholarship/Fellowship Exhibitions from October 26 – December 1, 2012, featuring artists Liz Menard (Nick Novak Fellowship), Jennie Suddick (Donald O’Born Family Scholarship), and Alexander Froese (Don Phillips Scholarship).

    All three artists will give illustrated talks about their work and the progress of their projects over the year on Friday, October 26 at 6 pm at Open Studio, followed by an opening reception. As Orono, ON-based artist and curator Maralynn Cherry points out in the accompanying essay, the common thread between these three exhibitions is the unique way in which the artists re-read sites in an ever more complex cultural landscape.

    Open Studio Gallery 
    Liz Menard: Nature of the River
    Nick Novak Fellowship Exhibition

    Former Eastern Avenue Bridge, hand drawn etching, aquatint, 22” x 30”, 2012

    Nature and the environment inspire Liz Menard’s Nature of the River. Sustaining environmental biodiversity is important and a recurring theme in her work. She is interested in native and invasive species and the natural, abandoned and built environments where they live. Fascinated by the Don River, Menard researched archival maps and images, which she combined with personal explorations (on foot and by canoe) to create hand drawn etched copper plates exploring what was and what is the Nature of a river. This work is rich in detail and open ended to engage viewers and encourage dialogue about our role in helping nature and the environment continue to withstand the pressures, stresses and tests of our times.

    Print Sales Gallery
    Jennie Suddick: I was here
    Donald O’Born Family Scholarship Exhibition

    Odessa, watercolour paper, Mylar, velum, masonite, LEDs, 12” x 2” x 6”, 2011. Photograph by Thomas Blanchard.

    Jennie Suddick’s work reflects on tourism’s role in facilitating access to Canada’s vast and iconic geography. Influenced by key moments throughout the history of tourism in Canada, as well as her own personal memories of childhood family vacations, Suddick creates two-dimensional and three-dimensional paper works that reference the symbols and sites of this distinct aspect of Canadiana. In I was here, Suddick reflects on the celebrated “pit-stops” found along our countries Trans-Canada highway. These multi-faceted buildings serve a unique dual-purpose – being hubs for the communities in which they are found, as well as sought out (or accidental) landmarks for travelers. Through her handmade papercraft structures Suddick elevates the status of roadside sites by presenting them as carefully constructed, detailed architectural forms.

    George Gilmour Members’ Gallery
    Alexander Froese: A Motel for Words & Ideas
    Don Phillips Scholarship Exhibition

    Impulse Arrested, screenprint on paper & mixed media, 4 3/4″ x 1″ x 5/8″, 2012

    In A Motel for Words & Ideas, Froese engages in the aesthetics of mid-twentieth century commercial design through the practice of printmaking, inhabiting the form of common products and advertisements to serve as a meeting point between the text and the visual. By inhabiting recognizable commercial forms Froese is able to express new words for old desires. It is immediate yet nostalgic, sentimental yet fleeting. The dated structures become relevant and contemporary vehicles through the engagement of encompassing and enduring issues. Taking from the artist’s own understanding of the meaning of pain and joy the work is filtered through the language of text and image, providing a space in which viewers can commiserate, laugh and find hope. There exists an inherent beauty and consolation in the collective human desires for stability, authenticity and reason in the navigation of an individual existential understanding. Immediately familiar yet sensitive in their subjectivity, expressions of hope and desire can find a unique access point through the implementation of commercial imagery. By embodying a highly personal sentiment in a familiar object the message becomes at once accessible and anonymous.

  • Beverley Hawksley and Sandy McLennan / Witness

    October 24 – November 4, 2012
    Opening Reception: Thursday, October 25, 7 – 10 p.m.
    PROPELLER CENTRE FOR THE VISUAL ARTS
    984 Queen Street West
    Toronto, Ontario M6J 1H1
    T: 416-504-7142
    E: gallery@propellerctr.com
    Hours: Wed – Sat: 12 – 6, Sun: 12 – 5 p.m.

    Most of us have placed, observed or pondered evidence of life on a refrigerator. This common appliance hosts the chronicles of the day to day and reflects our changes. We approach its door with hope and longing for nourishment of all kinds – a source of physical and emotional comfort where our empty spaces are promised some attention, if only for a moment. This non-judgmental witness is an everyday altar that may not be recognized as such.

    We adorn its exterior with what we value at the time and its interior, we fill with the same. Inside contents, if ignored, draw attention to themselves and we make decisions on keeping or discardng them. Outside contents are not so clearly placed in retain/release categories. These gatherings demonstrate the holdings of our hearts in a way that makes it more difficult for us to part with them. If we can’t see them on the fridge, maybe our memories aren’t going to be reliable? If we toss them out, maybe they didn’t really happen? How do we exist if we don’t have the evidence of our lives before us?

    This project gave us an opportunity to contemplate this altar, the situations that prompt change in our lives and the way we mark them. We invite you to do the same.

    Beverley Hawksley is a multi media artist who places her intention on stories…the ones we are immediately in touch with and the ones that come through excavation. Primarily a figurative painter, she has also generated three dimensional works and performance pieces. With a focus on creative process, Beverley works with children and adults in groups, schools and private sessions. www.beverleyhawksley.com

    Sandy McLennan is a Sheridan College Media Arts graduate. His focus on what we perceive as routine is expressed through photography, writing, soundscapes and film/video. He is an educator and was the recipient of an Ontario Arts Council grant which brought pinhole photography to Muskoka students.

  • Michelle Letarte / Anatolia

     

    October 24 – November 4, 2012
    Opening Reception: Thursday, October 25, 7 – 10 p.m.
    PROPELLER CENTRE FOR THE VISUAL ARTS
    984 Queen Street West
    Toronto, Ontario M6J 1H1
    T: 416-504-7142
    E: gallery@propellerctr.com
    Hours: Wed – Sat: 12 – 6, Sun: 12 – 5 p.m.

    Anatolia refers to Turkey as an historical land that saw the rise and fall of great civilizations. It is a country of contrasts between old and new in superb scenery and landscape. Cultural and geographical diversity make it an incredible destination. The current exhibition was inspired by a recent trip to this fascinating country.

    “My paintings reflect images that witnessed history but are eroded by time and earthquakes and are now integrated into natural fresh landscapes. The chief city of Lycia, Xanthos, ravaged by the Persians and surrendered to Alexander the Great in 334BC! Derelict Kayaköy, a thriving Greek town that was abandoned in 1923, when an exchange of populations took place between Greece and Turkey, with its 500 roofless houses still showing their vividly painted walls! Kekova Island, with its Lycian tombs and houses partially submerged into the Mediterranean! Hierapolis and its sulfurous water pools! And the spectacular white travestine terraces of Pamukkale formed by hotsprings flowing down the slopes, leaving deposits of limestone and white carbonate calcium and revealing amazing ochre and burgundy tones! And the lime green waters of Umut thermal stations glowing in the sun!

    My abstract paintings depict ancient walls ravaged by time, travestine terraces eroded by water and ancient sulfurous green water pools. I used pumice and sand to create the texture of these large surfaces.  The palette of natural tones reflects the colors of Anatolia.”  Michelle Letarte

  • Sobey Art Award 10th Anniversary

     

    October 24 – December 30, 2012
    Opening Reception: Saturday, October 27, 8 – 10 p.m.
    MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN ART
    Main Space
    952 Queen Street West
    Toronto, ON, M6J 1G8
    T: 416.395.0067
    E: info@mocca.ca
    www.mocca.ca
    Hours: Tues–Sun 11:00–6:00 p.m

    Sobey Art Award 10th Anniversary

    This year’s shortlisted artists are:

    Gareth Moore – West Coast and Yukon;
    Jason de Haan – Prairies and the North;
    Derek Sullivan – Ontario;
    Raphaëlle de Groot – Québec;
    Eleanor King – Atlantic.

    Organized by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art

    The Sobey Art Award is $70,000 with $50,000 going to the winner and $5,000 awarded to each of the other finalists.

    The Sobey Art Award, established in 2002 is awarded to a Canadian artist age 40 and under who has exhibited in a public or commercial gallery within 18 months of being nominated. It is intended to further the national conversation about contemporary art and is widely recognized as one of the most prestigious awards for contemporary art in Canada.

    The 2012 exhibition features sculpture, installation, and film among other work by the five artists in nomination for the Award and is curated by Sarah Fillmore, Curator of the Sobey Art Award and Chief Curator at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. A fully-illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

  • New Works by Members of Gallery 1313

    Janice Ykema,  Bruce Trail, oil on canvas

     

    October 17 – 28, 2012
    Opening Reception: Saturday, October 20, 1 – 5 p.m.
    GALLERY 1313 Process Gallery
    1313 Queen St. W.
    Toronto, ON, M6K 1L8
    T: 416.536.6778
    E: director@g1313.org
    www.g1313.org
    Hours: Wed – Sun 1 – 6 p.m.

    New Works by Members of Gallery 1313.

    Artists include:

    Ethel Christensen

    Jada  Diverse

    Joan Malcolmsen

    Ana Moutinho

    Melissa Penney

    Pat  Rice

    Gwen Tooth

    Janice Ykema

    There are about forty members in total that are members of Gallery 1313 . They vary in their art practice and are from across the GTA .

    The gallery originally started as an art collective – the Parkdale Village Arts Collective  –  in 1994 . The gallery opened in 1998.

  • Light Play by Diana Dickson

     

    October 17 – 28, 2012
    Opening Reception: Saturday, October 20, 1 – 5 p.m.
    GALLERY 1313 Cell Gallery
    1313 Queen St. W.
    Toronto, ON, M6K 1L8
    T: 416.536.6778
    E: director@g1313.org
    www.g1313.org
    Hours: Wed – Sun 1 – 6 p.m.

    LIGHT PLAY  photo based works by Diana Dickson

    “I had just moved into a new house after 23 years of living in another place. In the first few mornings at the house, I would walk down into the living room and see the morning sun casting amazing shadows over the window blinds. I was especially proud of the new blinds as they were the first thing I had installed, and they had a remote controlled raising and lowering feature; but what really surprised and delighted me was the play of light across them every morning, during that special time that one experiences, getting to know one’s new home.

    These photographs are remembrances of that specific time, and preserve what I saw those first mornings, in May 2012. They are taken with a Canon  Rebel XTi digital camera using a macro lens and printed on ink jet paper.” Diana Dickson

  • Diane White / H2O

    October 17 – 28, 2012
    Opening Reception: Saturday, October 20, 1 – 5 p.m.
    GALLERY 1313 Main Gallery
    1313 Queen St. W.
    Toronto, ON, M6K 1L8
    T: 416.536.6778
    E: director@g1313.org
    www.g1313.org
    Hours: Wed – Sun 1 – 6 p.m.

    Gallery 1313 welcomes back former Toronto artist Diane White and her large, colour-saturated canvasses. She states, “it’s all about the water”, hence the show’s title : H2O.

    White’s exhibit  encompasses a variety of landscape vistas with equally powerful messages. The canvasses ooze moisture in its many forms; luxuriant, pulsating forests, towering black cloud formations, multi layered mountain scapes, and boulder strewn seashores. The colour and natural forms jump off the canvas. The paintings are further empowered by stenciled text, reminding us of the fragility of the natural world in the face of the onslaught of civilization.

    Size plays an important role  to White and she prefers to paint large scale. Her exquisite, flowing painting titled, “Arbutus- Rising” measures 12’ X 4’7”. Its imagery dances across the space and you can sense the majesty of the entangled arbutus groves that punctuate the west coast. The viewer is immediately transported back along some ridgeline, looking out into the ocean, encircled by an arbutus grove. White will be at the gallery both weekends to answer any questions. This exhibition hopes to further dialogue about the fragility of our earth and the artist has successfully engaged this through her paintings.

    For more information check the website: vanishinglandscapes.com

  • Cam Matamoros: Untitled Landscapes

    October 26 – December 1, 2012
    Opening Reception: Friday, October 26, 6 – 9 p.m.
    Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography Vitrines
    401 Richmond Street West, Suite 120
    Toronto, ON M5V 3A8
    T: 416.979.3941
    E: sojin@gallery44.org
    www.gallery44.org

    Cam Matamoros will present 3 images from a much larger collection of Untitled Landscapes. Miniature drawings enlarged and rendered in their final form as larger photographs, the series depicts minimal, fantasy images of fields which are drawn from the human body. It references the history of landscape imagery as much as Modernist colour field painting and feminist body art. This project is broadly about negotiating borders and surfaces; it plays between drawing and photography, between the body in the landscape and the landscape of the body.

    Cam Matamoros is an intermedia artist born in Hamilton and living in Montreal. She recently received her BFA with Great Distinction and several other prizes and scholarships from Concordia University. Her work has been featured in arts and culture magazines No More Potlucks and Vagueterrain.net. She has exhibited video and still images in festivals and galleries across Canada and in the US.

  • Susan Farquhar / Northern Traces

    Boreal imprints 2, 2011, mixed media on canvas, 24 x 24 inches

    October 18 – November 21, 2012
    Opening Reception: Saturday October 20, 2 – 4 p.m.
    DAVID KAYE GALLERY
    1092 Queen Street West
    (entrance on Dovercourt)
    Toronto, ON M6J 1H9
    T: 416.532.9075
    E: info@davidkayegallery.com
    www.davidkayegallery.com
    Hours: Wed – Fri 11 – 6, Sat – Sun 11 – 5 p.m

    SUSAN hails from North Bay and has been greatly influenced by her former natural surroundings.

    Her work reflects the complex and multi-layered vegetation that overwhelms the northern experience. These are wonderfully textured and viscerally lush tributes to the Northern Traces that affect and inform her particular artistic practice of collage and painting.

  • The Quest for Beauty in a Garden – Elaine Waisglass

    October 4, 2012 – January 18, 2013
    FIRST CANADIAN PLACE GALLERY
    100 King Street West
    Toronto, ON M5X 1A9
    T: 416-515-7667
    E: jmcafee@budmanpr.com
    Hours: Mon – Fri 11- 3 p.m.

    The Quest for Beauty in a Garden  – Elaine Waisglass Photography

    Elaine Waisglass’s (www.elainewaisglass.com) photography exhibition, The Quest for Beauty in a Garden, running through until December 14, 2012 at First Canadian Place Gallery, is both inspiring and innovative. Executed as large and medium sized hand printed images using archival paper and inks, the exhibition is a unique collection of 16 limited-edition photographs fusing traditional ideas with the newest digital technology as well as a 20-minute, single channel video. The landscape and still-life photographs reflect a year in Waisglass’s own Toronto garden. Through her lens, the richly intense images appear almost painterly in their capturing of the arrested moment.

    Waisglass’s work reaches back into art history to the 19th century Arts & Crafts movement’s quest for beauty. “The movement’s central concept of ‘the mutable moment’ (the quest for beauty, quickened by the inevitability of death) has become my own personal quest. In winter, long after the beautiful flowers of summer have faded, my photographs recall their beauty,” says Waisglass.

    Waisglass studied fine arts and sculpture at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Waisglass’s background with her innovative camera techniques, allows her to work skillfully with the latest technology, bending natural light to create the illusion of a third dimension in a two-dimension format that reflects Waisglass’s quest for beauty in its most simple and enchanting form.

    The exhibition is a celebration of the Arts & Crafts philosophy and Waisglass’s own home and garden – both heavily influenced by the international movement begun in the 1860s. Waisglass creates potent images that hover at the threshold between the real and the impossibly real.

    Recently, Waisglass spent a year photographing different elements of the garden’s cycle – from numerous old rose species and peonies every June to hydrangeas, Japanese Anemones and oak leaves in October – producing her stunning first collection, A Year in My Arts & Crafts Garden.

    Elaine Waisglass is represented by Edward Day Gallery.

  • Panoply by Nelson French

    October 20 – November 17, 2012.
    Opening Reception: Saturday, October 20, 5 – 8 p.m.
    AKASHA ART PROJECT
    Suite 200, 511 Church St.
    Toronto,ON M4Y 2C9
    647.348.0104
    akashaart@rogers.com
    www.akashaart.com
    Hours: Mon-Wed 10-6, Thur-Fri 10-7, Sat 11-6 p.m.

    Panoply – New Urban Studies

    Nelson French’s latest body of work provides the opportunity to navigate Toronto’s urban landscapes from a new perspective. Directional, in that these images capture familiar urbanscenes of Toronto, they are also newly observational by conveying the city from a different point-of-view. “Panoply” proves that the exploration of any space extends beyond any one plane. Working in black and white, French creates a deliberate abstraction of the image, allowing the viewer to perceive form and shape while still focussing on specific subject matter.

    Since 1993 French has been a freelance photographer whose work has been collected nationally and internationally and appeared in several major Canadian magazines and newspapers. Originally from Hamilton, Ontario, French’s work centres around the industrialized nature of cities, which the artist himself is so familiar. His work also speaks to the experience shared amongst city dwellers – all are strangers that belong to a larger community living in common built environments, yet how each of us views these environments varies. French creates an alternative perspective on this landscape by deliberately slowing down the image in order for the viewer to experience what is generally seen at high speed in gradual progression.

More posts