Author: artoronto

Sarah Clifford-Rashotte’s, fourth solo show at LE Gallery features drawings as well as photo and text-based works that explore the desire and disgust associated with romanticizing experience. Her new work addresses female identity, reconstructed memories and the poetic. She has evolved a distinct visual vocabulary that is at once personally descriptive, while at the same time, representative of an archetypal struggle for self-preservation and obliteration. In early 2012, she will be releasing her second publication, “Book of some Poems” a collection of text-based pieces and writing.

Clifford-Rashotte is based in Toronto, Ontario and holds an MFA from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Currently, Sarah has a new billboard text piece featured in the Art Moves Festival in Torun, Poland.

Saturday, September 24, 5;30 – 7:30
CANADIAN ART FALL ISSUE

On the evening of Saturday 24th 2011, the Canadian Art Foundation’s 16th Annual Gallery Hop wasn’t the only thing worth celebrating in Toronto. That same evening, Canadian Art Magazine celebrated the launch of its fall issue and 25 years in production.

Mark Glassman of Pages Bookstore (now closed) in centre. Photo:Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

John Bentley Mays, art writer in the right Photo:Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

 Photo:Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

The evening was hosted at Monte Clark Gallery, of the historic Distillery District, who also celebrates its 10th year in Toronto. The gallery currently shows the group exhibition Capture, which includes works by artists like Scott McFarland, Alison Yip, and Jeff Wall.

Photo:Katherine Porter

Photo:Katherine Porter

Photo:Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

Text: Katherine Porter

October 5 – 27, 2011
Opening: Wednesday, October 5, 7-10 pm
Steam Whistle Gallery
255 Bremner Ave
(just south of the CN Tower)
Toronto, ON
416-362-2337 ext.246
info@steamwhistle.ca
www.steamwhistle.ca
Hours: Mon – Thurs 12 – 6, Fri – Sat 11 -6, Sun 11 – 5pm

After All is a colloquium of micro-disasters and subtle apocalypses, little mistakes and lonely wanderers, absences and distortions, created by eight young visual artists. Both melancholy and acerbic, the works speak to the aftermath of arbitrary and fictitious disasters. Darkness has already descended, and the sensation is one of being unsettled for goo…d, and yet, escape routes and alarm-bells appear to be built-in to each misfortune.

Anouk Desloges’ work depicts airplane crashes and ship collisions with delicately embroidered threads on cold, transparent plastic. The unfinished lines are simultaneously intimate and dispassionate, leaving us unsure how to feel about these calamities. Clare Samuel’s photographs create an ambivalent relationship between the figure and landscape, and a sense that ‘civilization’ is something long forgotten. Allison Rowe’s recycled quilt pieces constrast bright fabric colours with urgent words: ‘The Time to Try and Convince Them is Over,’ speaks one; and ‘Save Yourself,’ warns another. Alisha Piercy presents large-scale drawings of excessive fountain scenes in unnatural colours, a kind of post-apocalyptic alchemy that is both enticing and intimidating. Leanne Eisen’s ‘Scan’ project pushes technology beyond its limits, tricking, bating and teasing the machine to produce beautiful shapes. The outcomes bear scant relation to the objects they should represent, and instead become sublime errors. April Maciborka’s distorted sea imagery brings to mind tidal waves of biblical proportions, pertinent to recent events in our climate. Candice Purwin’s dense ink drawings illustrate childhood terrors, dark worlds ever present in individual memories. Marcy Chevali’s tiny crocheted figures hang together, yet are isolated from each other, little grey creatures who have lost their way in the storm.

About Steam Whistle Gallery:Steam Whistle Brewing hosts monthly art exhibitions in their Retail & Hospitality area to showcase local creative talent. Although many exhibitors are established artists, some are showing for the first time. Steam Whistle does not charge rent for their gallery space, nor is a commission earned on any works that are sold. At the close of each show, one piece from the show (of the artist’s choice) is donated to their permanent collection bringing further profile to artists through the thousands of visitors to the brewery annually.

Panel artists Jed Lind, Sarah Anne Johnson, An Te Liu and Rick Rhodes, editor of Canadian Art (from left to right). Photo:Katherine Porter

Tiff Bell Lightbox

Marvel, excitement, and pride filled the voice of Rick Rhodes, editor of Canadian Art magazine, as he presented the theme of last Saturday’s Gallery Hop Panel Discussion: Location³ (Location, Location, Location). As he introduced the Canadian Art Foundation’s 16th annual ‘Hop’, Rhodes suggested that Location be understood both as an indication of progress and as an equation. As the Saturday panel graduates from the unpainted dry wall and exposed electrical of Queen West’s pre-restored Gladstone Hotel to the Tiff-Bell Lightbox, we recognize its progress.

Panel artists Jed Lind, Sarah Anne Johnson, An Te Liu (from left to right)Photo:Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

By pointing to the mysterious worlds of math and science in a subtle pun, Location³ also refers directly to ideas of place and place-less-ness as an equation that is integral to Art (especially in Canada). On the panel, artists Jed Lind, An Te Liu, and Sarah Anne Johnson spoke to the diversity of ways in which location has informed their work.

Sarah Anne Johnson’s presentation. Photo:Katherine Porter

An Te Liu negotiated culturally coded notions of place, non-place and place-ness-less, Johnson spoke of her need to inject bleak documentary-style photography with personality, story, and emotion,

Sarah Anne Johnson:Ripple, 2011 Photo:Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

and Jed Lind spoke to his fascination with location as a perpetual product of dislocation.

Jed Lind’s presentation Photo:Katherine Porter

The result was a (free!) intellectual and visual feast for Canadian art enthusiasts, that promises and exciting event for years to come.

Photo:Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

Text by Katherine Porter

October 12 – November 19, 2011
Opening: Friday, October 21, 7 – 10 pm
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

Studies of the commonplace and the typically mundane, Brian Harvey’ssubject matter includes household objects, interior spaces and urban landscapes.  In his current work, Harvey focuses on “remnants” of Toronto’s neighbourhoods.  Having lived a stone’s throw from the gallery, Harvey is very familiar with The Junction in Toronto’s west end, which is featured in several of the paintings.  Harvey is emotionally drawn to buildings which endure and are connected to the past; holdovers which are often ignored or forgotten about altogether.  Through painting, Harvey has the opportunity to examine and study these buildings before they are gone.
He has been exhibiting extensively for over a decade and has devoted himself to painting full-time since 2007. Brian Harvey lives and works in Toronto.

October 12 – November 19, 2011
Opening: Friday, October 21, 7 – 10 pm
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

Julia Vandepolder’s recent paintings are an investigation of abandoned and collapsing urban and rural architecture. She explores the intricacies and details of these spaces, focusing on the remaining structures which are often extensively patterned through weathering and decay. 

 
The rich surfaces of her paintings capitalize on the tension between representation and abstraction, inside and outside, what is hidden and what is visible.  Abstract accumulations of line, colour and texture tentatively coalesce into the jagged contour of a beam, a corroded pipe or a pile of bricks.

This exhibition features selected large scale works on panel as well as small studies and works on Mylar. Julia Vandepolder maintains a full-time studio in Caledon.

October 15 – November 6, 2011
Opening: Saturday, October 15, 2-5 pm
Q&A: Saturday, October 15, 2011, 1 pm moderated by Patrick Macaulay
Loop Gallery
1273 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON, M6J 1X8
T: 416.516.2581
E-mail:loopgallery.patricia@gmail.com
http://loopgallery.blogspot.com
www.loopgallery.ca
Hours: Wed-Sat 12-5pm, Sun 1-4pm

Suzanne Nacha is a visual artist working in painting, sculpture and installation. Through the systematic abstraction and anthropomorphism of industrial and natural landscapes, she seeks to make iconic images that act at times, as psychological mirrors to human experience. Born in Hamilton Ontario, she holds undergraduate degrees in both Geology and Fine Art from McMaster University and the University of Guelph respectively, as well as an MFA from York University in Toronto. She has taught in the Fine Art departments of OCAD, Sheridan/UTM and York University, and for the past fifteen years has worked in the mining industry mapping geographies of fortune and need.

October 15 – November 6, 2011
Opening: Saturday, October 15, 2-5 pm
Q&A: Saturday, October 15, 2011, 1 pm moderated by Patrick Macaulay
Loop Gallery
1273 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON, M6J 1X8
T: 416.516.2581
E-mail:loopgallery.patricia@gmail.com
http://loopgallery.blogspot.com
www.loopgallery.ca
Hours: Wed-Sat 12-5pm, Sun 1-4pm

David Holt’s paintings in his third show at Loop depict landscapes as well as motifs derived from displays of birds, antiquities, and other collections found in museums of natural history. Many of the works playfully reinterpret the grid-like arrangements of objects in museum display cases while others elaborate on concepts of ideal landscapes, from both Eastern and Western classical traditions. Taken together, the works explore our ideas about nature, culture, and memory.
A painter who has had many solo and group shows in the US, David Holt has been the recipient of a painting grant from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and an artist residency at the Ragdale Foundation. Holt lives and works in Toronto where he teaches art at Upper Canada College.
In a classically inspired narrative that looks at the idea of passage as both a means of access and a turning point or crossroads, Suzanne Nacha’s series of paintings entitled Signs for Travelers offers up a simplified visual logic that acts as a mirror to the human condition. Dark humour prevails as anthropomorphic forms evolving from underground tunnels, caves and rail systems play at the boundary between visual sign and physical trigger.

October 5 – 16, 2011  
BENEFIT EVENT & ART AUCTION: Saturday, October 15,  6 – 10:30 pm
GALLERY 1313 Process Gallery
1313 QUEEN STREET WEST,
TORONTO, ON M6K 1K8
T: 416 – 536-6778
E mail: director@g1313.org
www.gallery13131.org
Hours: Wed – Sun 1- 6

We invite you to be part of the first ever ART FOR TIBET (A4T) show in Canada. Honouring the Tibetan people’s unwavering commitment to non violence, a group of committed activists and artists are organizing a group art sale to raise money for Students for a Free Tibet Canada (SFT): a non-profit global grassroots network that campaigns for Tibetan freedom and human rights and trains young Tibetan and non-Tibetan students worldwide in strategic non violent action.
Art plays a vital role in Tibetan culture, and has long been a profound tool for social and political change. This event will showcase work from a diverse pool of artists and allow patrons to purchase reasonably priced original pieces, while raising money for an important cause.
BENEFIT EVENT & ART AUCTION: Saturday, October 15th, 6pm – 10:30 pm
The closing night party will feature a live auction, musical performances, and a live painting demonstration.
 
ABOUT ART FOR TIBET EXHIBIT & EVENT: More than 20 acclaimed and emerging artists will exhibit artworks together for the first ever Art for Tibet Canada, annual art show, cultural exhibition and fundraiser at Gallery 1313 in Toronto. Art for Tibet will feature leading contemporary Tibetan and international artists, including Tenzing Rigdol, Chungpo, Ang Tsherin Sherpa, Brian Harris, UIla Djelweh, and many more. Since protests swept across Tibet in March 2008, the Chinese government has arrested and imprisoned numerous Tibetan writers and artists for criticizing its policies in Tibet. Despite this escalated repression, we are witnessing a cultural renaissance in Tibet, with an endless stream of poems, essays, songs and paintings flowing out from beyond the Himalayas. Over 50 Tibetan artists and writers have been arrested, tortured and imprisoned in the past two years. This year’s Art for Tibet draws attention to their persecution by honouring Tibetan artists in Tibet and in exile for their contribution to Tibetan contemporary culture.
Auction, event information, and a full list of participating artists will soon be available at www.artfortibet.com. All proceeds from the event will benefit SFT Canada, a non-profit organization with international headquarters in New York.
ABOUT SFT:  SFT Canada works in solidarity with the Tibetan people in their struggle for freedom and independence. We are a chapter-based network of young people and activists  around the world. Through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action, we campaign for Tibetans’ fundamental right to political freedom. Our role is to empower and train youth as leaders in the worldwide movement for social justice.

October 5 – 16, 2011  
Opening: Saturday, October 8,  2 – 5 pm
GALLERY 1313
1313 QUEEN STREET WEST,
TORONTO, ON M6K 1K8
T: 416 – 536-6778
E mail: director@g1313.org
www.gallery13131.org
Hours: Wed – Sun 1- 6

“Currently my medium of choice is encaustic painting. I create paintings that reflect my way of seeing nature. The sculptural and transparent qualities of encaustic capture perfectly my impression of landscape. Depicted in my paintings are dramatic landscapes defined and described by light and the effect light has on transforming what we see around us. The abstract images describe the vibrant colours and texture often overlooked as we interact with our environment. What emerges from my compositions are the elements of nature that regardless of the time of day, night or season reveal the remarkable splendour of nature at work.” – wrote the artist.

October 5 – 16, 2011  
Opening: Saturday, October 8,  2 – 5 pm
GALLERY 1313
1313 QUEEN STREET WEST,
TORONTO, ON M6K 1K8
T: 416 – 536-6778
E mail: director@g1313.org
www.gallery13131.org
Hours: Wed – Sun 1- 6

Shafagh Azhandeh ‘s  art works are mix of textures and materials in a simple two dimensional platform.

The idea behind her paintings is to picture the sense of new modern life aside with natural and sensational part of human kind, which is often ignored. 

She has tried to show these two separate worlds using simple shapes and raw colours with the desire to connect with the viewer. Combining both simplicity and beauty at the same time is challenging for Azhandeh, however she believes that she has never sacrificed one for the other. What was interesting in this experience is that, she has found it easier to have modern life’s elements (which she calls “concrete items”) in the beginning of her adventure than with spiritual ones. In this journey, she was able to slowly move from these simple “concrete items” toward natural based symbols (which she “meadow details”).

She  uses flat layers as simple elements and tries to experience their impact on the viewer by choosing the right colours, textures, contrast, and sizes. These textures sometimes develop the need to 3d elements which in turn require new separations.

As a new immigrant from Iran,  she experienced the challenge of adapting to new culture without ignoring her cultural roots. In the same manner she has tried to be faithful to my soul (as a source of humanity) as well as accepting the reality of our modern life. For Azhandeh,  life that can  help us to express ourselves can also distance us from each other and even away from our own soul.

Shafagh Azhandeh  was born in Shiraz, Iran where she taught art for fourteen years before moving to Canada . She continues to exhibit in Canada.