Author: artoronto

March 28 – April 21, 2012
Opening:  Saturday, March 31, 2–5 p.m.
THE RED HEAD GALLERY
401 Richmond St. W., Suite 115
Toronto, ON, M5V 3A8
T:  416.504.5654
E: art@redheadgallery.org
www.redheadgallery.org
Hours: Wed–Sat 12–5 p.m

The Red Head Gallery presents Greg McRoberts, a new photo and video installation by Zev Farber, which explores biographical narrative and our connection to the elusive origins of creative/destructive impulses.

This body of work draws upon a fixed storyline, to which imagery alludes, while Farber’s response to the continuum of suggested events is embedded in sound and text. Themes of loss and re-emergence comingle with traces of a material history, inspired moments and the paradoxes of imagined experience.

The representation of familiar, evocative objects and archival elements encourages the viewer to form a relationship with an abstract, unfolding story, while questions around authorship and authenticity complicate notions of objectivity and the personal.

Zev Farber is an interdisciplinary artist based in Toronto. He studied music at the University of Toronto and received his MFA in Visual Art from York University. He has shown work and performed in a number of Canadian and international galleries, including Blackwood Gallery, InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, Flux Factory in New York and the Incheon Biennale in South Korea. Farber also currently works at OCAD University.  This is Zev Farber’s first exhibition with The Red Head Gallery.

March 10 – 25, 2012 
Opening: Saturday, March 10, 1–4 p.m.
COBALT GALLERY
870 A Kingston Rd at Beech Ave.
Toronto, ON
T: 416.568.2477
cobaltgallery@sympatico.ca  
 Hours: Wed–Fri 11–6, Sat 12-5, Sun 12–4 p.m.

“It’s the Small Things..”  Group Show. Over 25 artist exhibiting over 70 pieces of art. Amazingly done!!!!

It’s the small things that remind us, challenge us and inspire us. The challenge to artists that are participating is to make make a statement on a palette no larger than 10″ x 10″. The submission in various mediums has yielded wonderful results.

March 7 – 18, 2012   
Opening: Thursday, March 8,  7 p.m.
GALLERY 1313, Window Box Gallery 
1313 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON, M6K 1K8
T: 416.536.6778
E: director@g1313.org
www.gallery13131.org
Hours: Wed–Sun 1:00–6:00 p.m.

Babylon, the hanging gardens, the lost world wonder, captured in Gallery 1313’s Window Box Gallery and placed on display. The Window Box Gallery frames a glimpse of the hanging garden, isolated from the rest as if pieces were taken out of context and put on display.

The knotted pods hang to the viewers content as a re-creation of parts of the garden to evoke feeling, to remember and to imagine what it would have felt like to experience this world wonder. Babylon uses textile manipulation through crochet and knotting techniques to form the primal feeling of nature in texture and form.

Ozana Gherman is a textile artist and architectural designer focusing on inter-species relations and three-dimensional textiles through weaving and sculptural techniques and cultural and historical references.

website: http://cargocollective.com/ozanagherman
contact: ozana.gherman@gmail.com

March 7 – 18, 2012   
Opening: Thursday, March 8,  7 p.m.
GALLERY 1313, Main and Process Gallery 
1313 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON, M6K 1K8
T: 416.536.6778
E: director@g1313.org
www.gallery13131.org
Hours: Wed–Sun 1:00–6:00 p.m.

Graduating Class 2012 , Toronto School of Art

The exhibit explores issues of identity and relationships building on the broad range of experience, memory, dreams and hopes of this diverse group of artists.

Whether ideas are funnelled into tattoo-inspired drawings, a fusion of embroidery threads, or cloth and personal objects, or whether they are layered onto a pod-like armature with steel wool, these artists portray what matters to them most. Experimenting in sculpture, installation, digital media and two-dimensional forms of art, this group visually communicates the perpetual question of what shapes us in society, in our personal lives and in our surrounding environment.
www.gen12.ca

March 7 – 18, 2012   
Opening: Thursday, March 8,  7 p.m.
GALLERY 1313, CELL GALLERY
1313 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON, M6K 1K8
T: 416.536.6778
E: director@g1313.org
www.gallery13131.org
Hours: Wed–Sun 1:00–6:00 p.m.

Paul Brandejs was born in the Czech Republic and immigrated to Canada with his parents, who settled in Saskatoon. As a teenager he attended summer painting courses at the Banff School of Fine Arts. He received three scholarships that enabled him to study under Ilda Lubane, an artist who had a profound impact on his work.

His passion for painting led him to study Fine Art at the Ontario College of Art. He holds a four-year Diploma in Fine Arts and a Diploma in Communications & Design/Editorial Design. His final year of Fine Arts study was spent in Florence, Italy, studying under Canadian figurative artist Tom La Pierre.

Paul has developed a unique art style, working on sculpted canvas with a variety of techniques. He creates his own stretcher frames which define the individual pieces as much as the actual application of media onto the canvas. Although he works with two-dimensional images he brings them in to the three-dimensional world. www.paulbrandejs.com

Dragon Wagon

Kim Adams won the 2012 Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) for his remarkable contribution to the visual arts in Canada over four decades.

The AGO and the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation will celebrate the award with a reception and exhibition of Adams’ work to be held in December 2012, marking the artist’s second solo showing at the Gallery.

Combining prefabricated industrial hardware and consumer goods, Adams’ idiosyncratic and often humorous works reflect the artist’s own fascination with models, machines and playtime. Inspired by street culture and the philosophy of the readymade, Adams’ work focuses on turning many parts into wry and meaningful wholes.

Currently based in Toronto, the 61-year-old artist was born in Edmonton and has studied at the University of Victoria and the Kootenay School of the Arts in Nelson, B.C. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions in Toronto and Europe (Zurich, Switzerland; Krems, Austria; and Utrecht, the Netherlands) as well as in group exhibitions in France, Spain, Mexico, Finland, the Netherlands and the U.S.

“Kim Adams is a vibrant and innovative contributor to the Canadian art world, and his energy and vision have rightfully earned him a space on the international stage,” says Matthew Teitelbaum, AGO Director and CEO. “The Art Gallery of Ontario is pleased to collaborate with the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation to present this prize to a truly deserving Canadian artist.”

Adams’ work was last featured at the AGO in 2007 with a solo exhibition entitled Bugs and Dragons. The installation was a popular element of the Swing Space series during Transformation AGO and included Dragon Wagon, a colourful and inventive travelling contraption that contained art supplies and activities for families and youth. The AGO collection currently contains two of Adams’ works: Decoy Homes (The Moon), an installation of sheet metal sheds, fluorescent lights and garden furniture, and Sleeper, a sculpture of steel and fabric.

Jeanette Hlinka, President of the Iskowitz Foundation, praised Adams as “a sculptor of great invention and originality. He has investigated the use of playful yet formally brilliant reconfigurations over many years, yet remains fresh. Adams is known around the world for this work.”

In 1986 Gershon Iskowitz created the prize and the foundation which bear his name to recognize and support Canadian artists. Twenty-one years later, the Foundation joined forces with the AGO to carry on the tradition through the Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the AGO, awarded annually to an artist who has made a significant contribution to the visual arts in Canada. The Prize recipient is selected by a jury comprised of Iskowitz Foundation trustees and an invited external curator or artist. For the 2012 Prize, the jurors included Ihor Holubizky, Geoffrey James, Margaret Priest, Jay Smith and Matthew Teitelbaum.

Celebrated Canadian multidisciplinary artist Michael Snow was awarded the 2011 Gershon Iskowitz Prize. An exhibition featuring Snow’s abstract sculptures from the late 1950s to the early 1980s, drawn primarily from the AGO’s collection, will open at the Gallery this summer.

Contemporary programming at the AGO is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.

The AGO acknowledges the generous support of its Signature Partners: American Express, Signature Partner of the Conservation Program; and Aeroplan, Signature Partner of the Photography Collection Program.

ABOUT THE GERSHON ISKOWITZ PRIZE AT THE AGO
The AGO and the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation joined forces in 2007 to raise awareness of the visual arts in Canada, renaming the annual award initiated over 20 years ago by Canadian painter Gershon Iskowitz (1921-1988). Iskowitz recognized the importance of grants to the development of artists and acknowledged that a grant from the Canada Council in 1987 enabled him to formalize his distinctive style. The AGO is home to the artist’s archives, which include early works on paper, sketchbooks and memorabilia, and holds 29 paintings by Iskowitz spanning 1948 to 1987 in its collection.  Previous recipients include Vera Frenkel, Betty Goodwin, General Idea, Stan Douglas, Murray Favro, Françoise Sullivan, Shary Boyle, Brian Jungen, and Michael Snow.

La Cugina Preferita, (The favourite cousin) II, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm, 2010

March 8 – April 21, 2012
Opening: Saturday, March 10, 4 – 8 p.m.
ROBERT KANANAJ GALLERY
1267 Bloor St. West
Toronto, ON, M6H 1N7
T: 416.289.8855
E: info@robertkananajgallery.com
www.robertkananajgallery.com
Hours: Tues–Sat 11–6 p.m.

Reffo’s artistic research attempts at to render movie-like, disquieting atmospheres carefully prepared through sketches, imitation of original stage-set photographs and vintage film frames. The event portrayed is a still-image, conveying a sense of anguish for dream-like situations where the roles of the persecutor and the victim are not clearly defined.

The visionary aspect of his realistic images is further emphasized by an original and disturbing use of lighting. Technical excellence and manual dexterity lead to crystal clear forms obtained by minimal layering of paint in a fashion that is evocative of the great tradition of Italian painting.

Luca Reffo was born in Padua in 1973. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. Reffo’s art bridges experiences in film, scenography, graphics and fashion photography. Now he lives and works in Milan, Italy.

March 7 – 31, 2012
Opening : Friday,  March 9, 6–9 p.m.
TELEPHONE BOOTH GALLERY
3148 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario M6P 2A1
(The Junction, Dundas at St. John’s Rd.)
T: 647.270.7903
E: sharlene@telephoneboothgallery.ca
www.telephoneboothgallery.ca
Hours: Tues by appt., Wed and Sat 11–6, Thurs and Fri 11–7

“Local Call is a group exhibition featuring established artists that live or work in The Junction/Junction Triangle neighbourhoods of Toronto.  The idea for this neighbourly exhibition stemmed from a conversation I had with two local artists that happened to pop into the gallery one Saturday afternoon.

Behind the curtains of storefronts, in back alleys, in spare rooms, industrial warehouses and above retail shops in The Junction, numerous artists are working on their craft.  Over the last year and a half, I have met many of these artists and I continue to learn about many others that have their studios nearby or live in the neighbourhood.  I thought that this would be a great opportunity to bring together the local arts community and exhibit some of the amazing talent in the area.  There is a wealth of creativity here and sharing in it is a great way to beat the winter blues.

Local Call also provides the opportunity to highlight this “small-town” community within the city.  The Junction is a bourgeoning west-end Toronto neighbourhood full of independent, eclectic shops and restaurants, and the community has had a strong artistic focus for many years.  The area is home to arts festivals, design events, art schools, galleries, art supply stores, teachers, designers, upcyclers and salvagers, creative retailers and craftspeople.  In my personal experience in opening a business here, the neighbourhood has been welcoming and the business owners supportive. It is wonderful place to call home”. Sharlene Rankin, Director

Artists:

Shelley Adler has been exhibiting her work for nearly 20 years, including solo and group exhibitions in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, New York, and London, U.K. Adler received her MFA from Boston University in 1987. She attended Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland in 1982 and graduated with a BFA from York University, Toronto, in 1983.  She is represented by Nicholas Metivier Gallery.

Marla Hlady is best known for the kinetic sculptures and sound pieces that brought her a nomination for the 2002 Sobey Award. Hlady also makes innovative brushed ink line drawings which render the emotional, physical and metaphorical properties of sound visible.  Her work was featured in a solo exhibition at the Power Plant, Toronto, in 2001. Her work has also been shown in several group shows in Canada as well as in London, New York and Imola, Italy.  She is represented by Jessica Bradley Art + Projects.

Katherine Knight is a York University Professor and is nationally recognized for her distinctive landscape-based photographic works. In 2000 Knight received the Duke and Duchess of York Prize in recognition of excellence in her work. In 2006 Knight co-founded with David Craig Site Media Inc., a film production company creating films focusing on Canadian artists. She is represented by Michael Gibson Gallery.

David Liss is the Artistic Director and Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA, www.mocca.ca) as well as a practicing artist.

Dyan Marie, AOCAD, MFA, is the founder of Cold City Gallery, ARTATWORK, DIG IN and Bloor Magazine. She also co-founded C Magazine, Urban Surface, BIG and a number of community and art festivals. She is the director of her project space, Dupont / Dyan Marie Projects; a board member of Toronto’s Art for Public Places Committee and Centennial College Academic Advisory Committee; and the Bloordale BIA creative director. Her urban leadership awards include Canadian Urban Institute’s City Soul, Government of Canada’s Community Builders Award, the Ontario Provincial Government Good Citizen Award and the City of Toronto Clean and Beautiful Award. She is represented by Wynick/Tuck Gallery.

David McClyment has been exhibiting professionally for 30 years, in the GTA, throughout Ontario and internationally. His paintings, which typically feature the use of hand-cut stencils, have been the focus of numerous, generous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council. McClyment is the Fine Arts Studio Program Co-ordinator at Centennial College. He is represented by David Kaye Gallery.

Richard Mongiat has been exhibiting his paintings in public galleries, commercial spaces and collective exhibitions across Canada for over 25 years. He recently curated The “C” Word: A Look at the Role of Craft in Contemporary Art at the Doris McCarthy Gallery (on until April 4th).  He is currently working on a History of Toronto Artist Initiated Projects and Collectives from the late 1980’s to the Present for the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art website (www.ccca.ca). For Nuit Blanche 2010, Mongiat designed the installation “Rail of Light” on the Wallace Ave. pedestrian bridge in west-end Toronto. In 2009, Mongiat completed part 2 of his “Underpass Project”—an 800 foot mural which encompasses both sides of the train underpass on Bloor St. west of Lansdowne Ave.  In 2000, he opened Loop Gallery with artist Catherine Beaudette in the Queen West Gallery District.  Mongiat also works in the theatre, specializing in painting backdrops and scenery for Opera Atelier, The National Ballet of Canada and the Canadian Opera Company and has taught scenic painting at Ryerson University.

Laura Moore is an international artist. She has an MFA from York University, a BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and a Diploma of Art from Fanshawe College. Laura has been exhibiting her work since 1998. She is a transient member of Studio Pescarella in Pietrasanta, Italy, where she spends periodic time carving stone. Moore teaches visual art at York University, Toronto School of Art and Thames Art Academy. She is represented by Peak Gallery.

Tim Whiten is a Professor Emeritus at York University and former Chair of the Department of Visual Arts. He is also an internationally renowned artist whose works are in many private, corporate and public collections, including Canada’s National Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ontario. His works have been exhibited in major exhibitions of drawing and sculpture throughout North America and Asia. He is represented by Olga Korper Gallery.

March 9 – April 7, 2012
Opening: Friday, March 9, 6–8 p.m.
MOORE GALLERY
Art at 80
80 Spadina Ave., Suite 404
Toronto, ON M5V 2J3
T: 416.504.3914
E: info@mooregallery.com
www.mooregallery.com
Hours: Tue–Sat 12–5 p.m.

John Anderson: Some Transfigurations is a series of abstract impressionist landscapes done in Ontario’s Boyd Conservatory.

Born in 1940 in Calcutta, India, Anderson is a self-taught artist. He moved to Canada in 1953 where he took up painting. From 1965–1970 he lived in France, where he continued his personal exploration of the arts. His first solo exhibition was at the Toronto General Library where Allen Sudden was the curator.

He now lives and works near Toronto.

Douglas Bentham: Spanish Voices’ works are bold, linear forms of galvanized steel and iron which have a distinctly primitive feel that is derived from the artist’s time in Spain.

The artist said about Spanish Voices, “As I began working on this series, I recognized the possibilities of creating bold, linear forms with a certain primitive feel, which could become containers for coloured planar inserts of a painterly nature. One quality of the sculptures that repeatedly emerged was a fullness, at once both generous and casual, that reminded me of my experiences visiting Spain, of its vivid landscape, people and culture, and of the remarkable artists whose voices we still hear.”

Douglas Bentham has maintained an international reputation as a major practitioner of abstract, constructivist sculpture for over forty years. “He is one of the country’s most prolific sculptors,” writes art critic Terry Fenton, “one of its finest, one of Canada’s first sculptors in every sense.”

Thursday, March 1, 2012 7–10 p.m.
TORONTO EXHIBITION PLACE
Queen Elizabeth Building

On Thursday, March 1, on a mild evening, I was walking in the darkness towards the Queen Elizabeth Building near Exhibition Place. Reaching the building, I was surprised to see the huge crowd waiting for the opening at seven. Even without the visitors the building was already packed with the more than 200 exhibiting artists, many journalists, TV personalities and well-known members of the community.

The visitors were greeted by beautiful young ladies dressed from head to toe in purple-pink, wearing necklaces of electrical lights. The visitors soon nicknamed them “shiny” girls. It was a nice touch from the organizers to give a complementary glass of wine to the first 100 visitors.

Clara Venice sang from a podium while on the side an Asian flag dance was performed.

The SONY installation called the “Take 12 Studio” was very popular. This was also the first year of “Installation Alley”—the series of installations that ran down the centre of the show floor. People seemed to be very excited by these.

The Artist Project marks its fifth anniversary with yet another exciting show featuring original works by a juried selection of over 200 independent contemporary artists.

Artist, Deborah Maris LaderArtist Dana Filibert

Harry Enchin’s photographs show the historical Toronto

Artist Nissim Ben Aderet

Alex Anagnostou’s glass sculpture

The fair has grown dramatically through the years—from 90 to over 200 artists—and more than 12,000 visitors are expected to attend in 2012. For four days (March 1–4, 2012), artists from a variety of geographic and creative backgrounds will converge and connect with patrons looking to get a glimpse of tomorrow’s Art Stars.

The visitors’  feedback was extremely positive.  The fair will continue for the next three days with a series of programmes such as art chats, and tours (please check our information section under  listings).

There really is plenty to see!

Text: Emese Krunak-Hajagos. Photo: Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

March 1–25, 2012
Opening: Thursday, March 8, 6–9 p.m.
PENTIMENTO FINE ART GALLERY
1164 Queen Street East
Toronto, ON, M4M 1L4
T: 416.406.6772
E: rockinrolland@sympatico.ca
Hours: Wed–Sun 12–6 p.m.

In MANIFEST, his latest collection of works currently on display at Pentimento Fine Art Gallery, Toronto artist Stev’nn Hall continues with his series of portraits of men initially explored in his show, WOUNDED.  While the subject matter may be the same, the works have taken on a more impressionistic tone.  His exploration of light colour and texture continues to broaden the works to a new level of maturity.  The undeniable masculinity of his subjects is tempered by their battered, bruised or bleeding countenances.  The work is skilled, sexual and cutting edge.  The men are handsome, introspective and unflinching.

“The last collection of works by Toronto-based multimedia artist Stev’nn Hall that I stared down was a series of portraits of sexy tough guys who looked like they had just attended their first, and not very successful, mixed martial arts class.  Simultaneously confrontational and seductive, the works required you to either glare back or walk away.  And, they sold better than porn.” R.M Vaughan/Globe and Mail.

There is also an article about Stev’nn Hall in FAB Magazine  http://www.fabmagazine.com/fab-blog/aids-art-auction.

March 6–25, 2012
Opening: Thursday, March 8, 7–9 p.m.
HANGMAN GALLERY
756 Queen Street East (at Broadview Avenue)
Toronto, ON, M4M 1H4
T: 416.465.0302
E: hangmangallery@gmail.com
www.ArtistsNetwork.ca
Hours: Tues to Sun 12–5 p.m.

Hangman Art Gallery is proud to announce the Artists of the Gallery (AOG) show, a spectrum of light showcasing the artistic talents of the hired and volunteer staff at the Art Gallery of Ontario, whose help brings the spaces for public galleries, art education programs, commercial rental and retail services into light.

Their help supports a thriving fine arts community by providing exhibition spaces to connect art lovers and collectors with member and non-member artists alike. It is a venue where artists from all stages of their career can meet and showcase their personal perceptions of the realities of contemporary life. artistsnetwork.ca/hangman