Author: artoronto

Margaux Smith was about to graduate from OCAD University in May, 2015, when LE Gallery director, Wil Kucey, offered her to host her very first solo show. A year later, What The Moon Saw took off at LE Gallery with a packed and successful opening.

Margaux Smith, Sisters of Lais, 2015-16, collage and oil on panel, 16″ x 20″. Image courtesy of LE Gallery

Seventeen pieces are included in What The Moon Saw and each challenges my perception. I couldn’t quite grasp the technique and the medium used to achieve such a luscious and complex surface. After sitting down with the artist for a quick interview, I realized that the key to understand her narratives lays in her creative process. Each piece is the result of a constant dialogue between herself, the mediums and the viewer; between controlled gesture and induced chaos; between historical references and vanguard aesthetic; between the familiar and the unknown.

Margaux Smith, Veruschka and Thomas, 2016, collage and oil on panel, 42″ x 36″. Image courtesy of LE Gallery

Smith’s technique is not systematic, it varies from piece to piece. The artist begins by assembling different paper segments on a wood panel or on a canvas. She uses collage, as a colour base and as a compositional structure, in order to guide the narrative scene. Then, on the top of the paper, she lays various enigmatic human figures and figurative elements in oil paint. Sometimes, she applies coats of linseed oil to smooth certain areas and create a rich, quasi encaustic-like texture.

Margaux Smith, In a Year of 13 Moons, 2016, collage and oil on panel. Image courtesy of LE Gallery

Smith then digs through the layers of material by sanding the surface manually or with mechanical tools. When she uses sandpaper, the abrasion lines are circular, delicate and controlled; almost palm-print like. However, when she uses industrial tools, like a dremel or a palm sander, she induces a quick, deep and violent, mostly uncontrolled movement into the painting. For Smith, losing control over her gesture is a fresh way to tackle her own aesthetic and to explore limitless possibilities.

Margaux Smith, The Blue Hour, 2016, collage and oil on panel, 20″ x 16″. Image courtesy of LE Gallery

The art of Margaux Smith is easily comparable with that of a set designer who carefully assembles the decor for her characters to reveal their intimate narratives and evolve it in front of our eyes. As the viewers look upon the multi-layers of material, they can sense and almost recognize the references to Art History, classic cinematic scenes, popular photography and the aesthetic of modern masters. The influence of synthetic cubism is the one that struck me the most because in her works a multiplicity of instants and angles are captured into one plane. Smith also feels close to the Nabie Edouard Vuillard, mostly for the intimacy and the unity within his domestic interior scenes. Furthermore, Max Ernst remains a big inspiration with his “frottage” and “grattage” techniques.

Margaux Smith, Street Scene, 2016, oil on panel. Image courtesy of LE Gallery

In the show, What The Moon Saw, by integrating the freedom of abstract gestures with a complex figurative vocabulary, Smith achieved a language of her own. She is not interested in producing art that is immediately graspable, but demands a few minutes of your time in order to reveal a familiar but intangible artistic experience.

Camila Jourdain

*Exhibition information: June 3 – 25, 2016, LE Gallery, 1183 Dundas St. W. Toronto. Gallery hours: Wed – Sat, 12 – 5 pm.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Doors open: 6:30 p.m.; The Show: 7 p.m.
Gallery 1313
1313 Queen Street West, Toronto

Art Meets Fashion at the Gallery 1313′s Annual Fantasy Fashion Show.

This year Gallery 1313 is celebrating its 14th annual Fantasy Fashion Show. Escape into a wonderland of fantasy fashion as we showcase avant-garde styles created by Canadian artists and fashion designers who will showcase one of a kind pieces of wearable art; fashion blended with elements of art.

Join us for a runway show to raise funds to promote creativity, learning and growth in the careers of emerging artists and to inspire the appreciation of arts and culture in the public.

For more information and tickets visit: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/fantasy-fashion-show-14-tickets-25769036883

The raised money would assist the gallery to gain some operational funds and arts programming.

Thursday, June 2, 2016 / 7 pm
Presented by The Power Plant and Max Mara
The Power Plant
231 Queens Quay West

This years theme for the annual fundraiser was the Pleasure Principle and it was presented lavishly so. Pleasure comes in different forms according to different tastes and desires. The art installations seemed well fit to the theme as did the decor.

Inflatable culture

Contemporary dance seemed to at the forefront of the entertainment and many guest packed the theater to watch international performance artist Ryan McNamara and his troupe of dancers. They danced along the walls and intermingled with guests. The performance was sponsored by The Drake Properties. Though I didn’t catch a glimpse of McNamara in the theater performance I did see him hit the dance floor with Chicago DJ Mark Farina spinning tunes in the main gallery space. Dancer Javon Jones seemed to come out of nowhere and gave a powerful dance performance.

Performance by Ryan McNamara

Artist Jordan Soderberg Mills had  video projections going for his installation. Visitors hung around the bar while the videos played on the walls and monitors. Artists Coryn Kempster and Julia Jamozik used inflatable toys  to remember childhood’s pleasurable moments. 

Video projection by Jordan Soderberg Mills

Coryn Kempster’s and Julia Jamozik’s inflatable toys

Among the visitors I saw Jeff Stober of Drake Properties, Sara Diamond President of OCADU, Gallery owners Jamie Angell and Clint Roenisch, artist and Toronto Arts Council Officer, Peter Kingstone, artist Luis Jacob, emerging artist Yan Wen, curator Lisa Dean Smith of OCADU’s Onsite Gallery and of course Power Plant Director, Gaëtane Verna was there to greet visitors. There were plenty of media as well capturing the evening.

Max Mara displays

Karen Tam’s OPIUM Den

Parts and Labour did an excellent job with their barbeque of chicken and pork. Guests inhaled the food while they lined up like they were in a cafeteria and had to be told by Parts’ staff to just dig in. For those who like cottage life there were some deck chairs around a roaring fire complete with huge containers of s’mores. Curious onlookers walking the Queens Quay boardwalk wondered what was going on on the other side of the fence that separated them from the party.

I am sure the 1500 plus guests continued to party on after I left and hopefully leave with some pleasurable moments to remember. And of course money raised from a successful event will help with the expenses of programming at the Power Plant.

Text and photo: Phil Anderson

On a sunny, hot day in late May, finding the new location of Alison Milne Gallery was a challenge. Located in a quiet neighbourhood, between two grey buildings, there is a sanctuary of art and design, the gallery being an addition to Alison Milne Design. Walking through the white metal gate you step into a patio, that could easily be anywhere in California – all white from floor to walls to reclining chairs, a very stylish preface to the exhibition itself – where the strong white light dominates the gallery’s space and also radiates from the large photographs of Dean West.

Installation view of Dean West, The Painted Photograph. Image courtesy of Alison Milne Gallery

A sparkling pool greets us invitingly in “Palm Springs #2.” David Hockney’s pool paintings come to mind immediately. Looking at Hockney’s series of pools and West’s photograph there is indeed a strong relationship, not only in the theme but in the elements used and in the way the scene is depicted. The rivulets of water and the way they reflect the strong sunshine is similar. The young man emerging from the pool, showing his back to us, has the same posture as the young male nude on Hockney’s “Swimming Pool” (1982, Los Angeles exhibition). The seated, elegant man looking over the scene is also familiar – the photograph has a ‘Hockney’ atmosphere. While the eye of the viewer gorges itself on the amazing scenario there is still another surprise – the glass wall. At first it seems to be only a background but a closer look at it reveals that it is a very busy visual treat itself. It is something like a focal point where everything gathers. It reflects all the elements: the water, the furniture on the other side of the pool and also lets us see the palm trees behind the wall. Wait a minute. Is the furniture on the other side of the pool or behind the wall? Are the palm trees behind the wall or on the other side of the pool? What we know for sure is that the larger palm trees and the top of a building are behind the wall. The glass wall works like a mirror that is also see-through, creating a maze-like illusion. West challenges the viewer to think twice about what they think they’re seeing. This photograph is so perfect both in its details and the atmosphere of a hot day at the pool, that it couldn’t be better – my apologies to Mr. Hockney – and looks very much like an oil painting, hence the title of the show, The Painted Photograph.

Dean West, Palm Springs #2, 2015, Type C Photographic Print. Image courtesy of Alison Milne Gallery

“Palm Springs #1” is also about rich Californians but now inside their home. West captures the pristine architecture of a modern home. It is a painstakingly designed environment, all color coded. White dominates again: all the floors, walls (inside and outside), the sofa is greyish white while the Flos Arco floor lamp is silver. This blinding white creates emptiness, symbolizing the couple’s relationship. They happen to be in the same room physically but couldn’t be more far away from each other emotionally. They turn their backs on each other, seemingly alone in their self-imposed bubble of self-deception. A deer stands in the garden and the man is touching the glass wall in the hope of connecting with it. Does the deer symbolize nature or is it taxidermy? The pretty, fashionably dressed young woman – wearing the same red color as the armchairs in the room – blends into the color coded decoration. The glass of red wine in front of her hints that this should be a social time. Their clothing suggest that they are going out or coming in from an outing, theatre, dinner or party. We don’t know what time of the day it is. We see only a bit of greenery in the form of a tree at the top left corner – all natural elements are cut out. The couple lives in this artificial environment, locked in their misery.

Dean West, Palm Springs #1, 2015, Type C Photographic Print. Image courtesy of Alison Milne Gallery

Both “Beverly Hills Gallery, February 25th, 2016” and “Orient Point Ferry” depict crowds of people, so we hope for some interaction between them. A large group of people gathers in front of a white wall in “Beverly Hills Gallery, February 25th, 2016”. The wall is so blindingly white and high, with a tall palm tree, that the people in front of it are belittled, seemingly unimportant. It is a busy composition – West incorporates a lot of narrative: a girl tying her shoelace, a woman tidying up a man’s jacket, an elegant lady near the tree, someone checking his e-mail or taking a selfie, a couple walking by, etc. Only one person might be going into the gallery. None of them – even people who seem to be interacting – look at each other. They are all separate entities lost in front of that large white wall.

Dean West, Beverly Hills Gallery, February 25th, 2016, Type C Photographic Print. Image courtesy of Alison Milne Gallery

The five people pictured in the hazy light in “Orient Point Ferry” seem statuesque. Though their positions are static, there is actually a lot of movement in the image as they all look in different directions. What they see outside the image must be very interesting. They are fully occupied by it. The little girl stops eating her ice cream; the man stops reading his newspaper; the old lady seems to be so mesmerized that her lips open slightly. Once again they are disengaged, they just happen to be at the same place at the same time.

Dean West, Orient Point Ferry, 2016, Type C Photographic Print. Image courtesy of Alison Milne Gallery

Why are these characters so isolated and the images so perfect, even to the smallest detail? The New York based, Australian born artist, “one of the world best emerging photographers” (Capture Magazine) received worldwide recognition with his series “Fabricate” in 2009. His intricately staged photographs are ‘fabrications’ indeed as they are planned down to the smallest detail. The artist has a vision, then assembles an eclectic cast of characters in rich, nuanced settings, and plans the lighting – a procedure that sometimes takes a few months. Through the shooting, he wants to draw out as much emotion as possible from the actors and actresses. Each character is photographed separately and then digitally put into the composition. The artist then manipulates and refines the images until he satisfied with them. As West mentioned, computers and digital images make everything possible, and provide limitless opportunities for creativity.

West embraces reality. As he said, he takes “everyday occurrences beyond the realm of banality and showcase the psychology and emotion that’s involved in real-life situations. Nothing can ever be more than the real itself — yet art has the ability to inspire a consciousness of what is real and what is not.” (Christine Hogg, beautiful.bizarre, November 13, 2014). His images may not reflect the actual world, but an imagined one that could be just as real. These hyper-realist photographs seem so real that they become unreal. In this show West outlines a new American aesthetic through a modern mythology of disengagement.

Emese Krunák-Hajagos

*Exhibition information: April 27 – June 25, 2016, Alison Milne Gallery, 134 Osler Street, Suite 3, Toronto. Gallery hours: Wed – Sat, 12 – 6 pm.

Thursday, June 2, 2016 / 7 pm
The Power Plant
231 Queens Quay West

The Power Plant collaborates with fashion house Max Mara once again to present Toronto’s most notorious art party, Power Ball XVIII: Pleasure Principle.

Surrender to pleasure’s demands and indulge yourself in an evening of art exploration and desire-seeking, while surrounded by immersive art installations, performances, cocktails and more–all in support of the ambitious exhibitions and programming at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery.

VIP Performance & Party

Featuring a situation-specific work by genre-evading performance artist:

Ryan McNamara

Power Ball Party / Featuring projects by artists including:

Coryn Kempster and Julia Jamrozik (BACKOFFICE)
Laura Kikauka
Lorna Mills
Jordan Söderberg Mills
Karen Tam

With music by:

DJ Mark Farina
BEVSTMODE
CRSB
Teo Nio

Join the conversation via @ThePowerPlantTO / to stay updated on all things #PowerBallTO

For more information or to buy tickets please go to: http://thepowerplant.org/ProgramsEvents/Events/Power-Ball/Power-Ball-XVIII.aspx

Mankind has assumed dominance over nature, exploiting and manipulating the elements in the name of progress. In doing so, we have essentially alienated and isolated ourselves from the natural world – the external landscape as well as our internal selves – in our concrete jungles. This has led to rising societal grievances. Re-establishing connection with nature and the consciousness that accompanies it, could help society on many levels.

Joan Kaufman’s work examines the relationship between man and nature, particularly the sentimentality and intimacy that could, and to an extent does, exist between us.

Joan Kaufman, Surface Tension with Root Series 2.2, 2015, inkjet print on photo rag, 44″ x 35″. Image courtesy of Lonsdale Gallery

Surface Tension is a collection of photographic works laden with intricate and subtle details that go beyond the traditional medium. Much like her previous series, “Cloud Cover” and “In Between,” that explored the same theme, she combines human and natural imagery into sublime dreamscapes suggesting the realistic and the illusory. She cleverly manipulates analog photography using textile screens, lighting techniques, and numerous other methods to simulate naturalistic elements like long billowing grass, linear crystalline pillars, and the nebulous paths of the nervous system. The abstractive depictions and contrasting rays of light leave much for the viewer to decipher in this replicated natural world.

Joan Kaufman, Surface Tension, Root Series 1.4, 2015, inkjet print on photo rag, 58″ x 48″. Image courtesy of Lonsdale Gallery

Simultaneously, several of the works contain an explicitly human element beyond the actual use of photographic effects and the clever representation of nature. Several of them contain faint traces of handprints that fade beneath the translucent colors. They appear in fetal or sleeping positions, swaddled in blankets composed of light illuminating some of the indistinct features. The resulting effect is tranquil and protective, as if the person is submerged beneath a surface layer of water without any sense of harm or tension. It creates the serenity of a dreamscape imbued with wonderment, as well as an apparent, almost maternal sense of warmth and security. But in some pieces the contrasting of the solemnity of the bodies and the enigmatic foreground alludes to conflict between humanity and nature. Even though nature is the omnipotent force that supports every facet of our existence – a dynamic that has time and time again been explored through our cultural, philosophical, and scientific knowledge – it is often overlooked when it interferes with today’s society, but finding a compromise between both realities is ultimately necessary to ensure the survival of both.

Joan Kaufman, Surface Tension, Root Series 1.2, 2015, c-print, 39.75″ x 42″. Photo courtesy of the artist

Joan Kaufman, Surface Tension, Root Series 1.3, 2015, c-print, 39.75″ x 42″. Photo courtesy of the artist

Simon Termine

*Exhibition information: May 11 – June 12, 2016, Lonsdale Gallery, 410 Spadina Road, Toronto. Gallery hours: Wed – Sun, 11 – 5 pm.

Bed Island is like any other piece of land surrounded by water. A solitary sanctuary, people go there to recharge and repose, to meet pleasure, to escape and confront psychological truths. Nadia Belerique’s solo show examines the cognitive role beds have in our lives by placing a life-size representation of one into the Daniel Faria Gallery. Being in the space is unnerving and disorienting because of the ambiguous sense of perspective, the stark contrast between positive and negative space, and the irregular layering of hazy images.

Installation view of Nadia Belerique, Bed Island at Daniel Faria Gallery. Image courtesy of Daniel Faria Gallery

Sculpture and photography comprise this body of work. Perhaps most eye-catching in the show are the two freestanding steel sculptures that resemble silhouettes of railed headboards. They appear sturdy, effectively grounding the space. The scale of the shadows they cast on the floor imply that the sun has nearly set. Soon, the spot between head and foot board will become occupied. Upon the wall hang a series of four water-jet cut steel frames consistent with the size of a bed. Their jagged form suggests rustled bed sheets. How did they come to be that way? Meanwhile, seemingly aimless clothing articles, photographic compositions, and figurative cutouts intrude upon the beds’ surfaces, pointing to the different kind of transactions individuals make with their bed in a day. 

Installation view of Nadia Belerique, Bed Island at Daniel Faria Gallery. Image courtesy of Daniel Faria Gallery

The vertical presentation of the frames ultimately challenges the physical relationship one has with his/her bed. Horizontality, as it emerges, is logistically essential to the bed, being a place of refuge. We fall into bed and bed catches us, making us feel supported. The exhibition poses the question: “Is falling into an image comparable to falling into bed?” Psychologically, perhaps. When our mind fall into a picture, it has the potential to experience any or all of those feelings we may experience while in bed. An image can comfort, energize, please, and inspire contemplation in an individual.

Installation view of Nadia Belerique, Bed Island at Daniel Faria Gallery. Image courtesy of Daniel Faria Gallery

In her works of photography, Belerique establishes negative and positive space by experimenting with transparency and opaqueness. Imagery of domestic objects—cutlery, a roll of film, shoes, bottles—are layered unsystematically with less discernible markings and shadows. It is possible that the compositions signify the totality of thoughts, dreams, intimacies, and lamentations endured during the time spent in bed. Those objects depicted in a representational style may very well indicate a recent or more profound experience, while those in the distant past or with little significance, appear fleeting. There is a desire to hold on to those objects which fade away, but it feels that to reach out and attempt to seize them would be like putting ones hand through a ghost. Inarguably, these works are wistful, pensive, and tainted by memory.

Installation of Nadia Belerique at Daniel Faria Gallery. Image courtesy of Daniel Faria Gallery

With Bed Island, Nadia Belerique has created an atmosphere conducive to the process of self-awareness, wherein moments of vulnerability and autonomy may be recognized.

Vanessa Zeoli

*Exhibition information: April 21 – June 4, 2016, 188 St. Helen’s Avenue, Toronto. Gallery Hours: Tue – Fri, 11 – 6; Sat, 10 – 6 pm.

Based on the works of nine artists Tau Lewis, Nadia Gohar, Michelle LeFade, Maya Fuhr, Dafy Hagai, Claire Milbrath, Rebecca Storm, Neva Wireko and Yulia Zinshtein, the ‘female gaze’ is one not defined by voyeurism, instead it demonstrates intimacy and acceptance. Body Talk is installed at Project Gallery’s Munro Street location. The space is small and narrow with a group of studios in the back presenting a challenge to curators Maya Fuhr and Devan Patel to not have the gallery space seem secondary. Hung in a line down what feels slightly like a corridor are twelve photographs all printed in twenty by sixteen inch formats and in the backspace are two sculptures and a small sculptural installation.

The main sculpture of the installation by Tau Lewis is titled “Submerged Woman” (2016). The work includes a bathtub-sized door fitted with a large piece of glass on which fragmented figurative casts, made of polyurethane resin, are attached. The female figure positioned upright looks as though she is floating, surrounded by water, the rest of her body invisible from the surface. These fleshy impressions would also be visible on a naked body pressed up against glass. The presence of the female form, a ghost-like impression, is reminiscent of the taxing impressions made by Ana Mendieta for her earth-body artworks. 

 Tau Lewis, Submerged Woman, 2016, tempered glass door frame, polyurethane resin, chalk pastel, cinderblock

A smaller sculpture, “Birth of Venus” (2016) by Nadia Gohar, includes small, white wood blocks, a shell and one squiggly wire presented on a shiny black plinth. The three components that make up the goddess figure are far removed from Botticelli’s voluptuous stereotype with tender eyes and mermaid hair. The abstraction of the figure, female by association, allows any of us the space to imagine ourselves in the place of Venus.

Nadia Gohar, Birth of Venus, 2016, wood, house paint, shell and wire

The photographs of the female form communicate power and comfort even as they depict exposed intimacy. Despite the acceptance of sexual shortcomings and the confidence of the self imposed poses communicated through these images, there are still subverted expressions of commodification, violence, body dysmorphia, and biological imperatives. Each artist expresses an honest connection with sexuality in variations on the physical, mental and emotional impact of desire to which I imagine most people identifying as female could relate. Four works in particular confront problematic sexualized stereotypes by asserting ownership over them.

In the photograph “Fruitful” (2016) by Maya Fuhr, a bare bottom and rolling hips are framed against a background of fruit print fabric. ‘Fruitful’ being a metaphor, attributed to the proclivity for reproduction, has a physical stereotype defined by the phrase ‘child bearing hips’. This phrase undermines the sexuality of large hips by giving them a purpose that happens to include sex – unlike the sexualized narrow waistlines of the female figure in popular media. Maya Fuhr reclaims this stereotype through the literally fruit-full background, so that the hips can be liberated from practicality to express beauty on their own.

Maya Fuhr, Fruitful, 2016, digital print 20″ x 16″

The self-image of female sexuality is the primary context for the ‘female gaze’ in this exhibition, but artist Claire Milbrath presents another interpretation in her photograph. The close up of a penis is falls within the scope of the female gaze. Women were the defining subjects of the ‘male gaze’ for most of art history. They were often painted as unaware or asleep during his gaze that was thereby defined as voyeuristic until Titan painted “Venus of Urbino” (1538) and Manet painted “Olympia” (1863) in which the nudes returned their gaze. Even then, through the implications of marriage and the context of prostitution, the ‘male gaze’ continued to imply ownership. Milbrath’s photograph presents a gaze upon the male form that also implies consent, and admits the desire for intimacy, posing the question: can a woman gaze upon the male form in an equally sexualized way without succumbing to voyeurism or ownership?

In the photograph “I Could Be Your Muse” (2016) by Yulia Zinshtein the female gaze is not of the photographer, it is of the subject who in the rebellious tradition of Venus and Olympia, challenges the voyeuristic gaze. A pose of vulnerability combined with an indifferent stare against a bubblegum pink background visually invites the viewer to linger. But any inspiration to be gained is made sexual and masculine by the icons Playboy and the Marlboro cowboy that appear next to her.  She does not look pleased, nor does she look enthusiastic, and her invitation to be used as a muse seems nearly reluctant. She does not let anyone feel comfortable to use her, only challenges them to do so. 

Yulia Zinshtein, I Could Be Your Muse, 2016,  digital print 20″ x 16″

Finally, the photograph “Trying to Be Sexy” (2016) by Rebecca Storm includes one unshaven armpit with lace next to one callused foot.  Photographs of body parts removed from the whole or torsos cropped from their heads have been criticized for sexualizing their subjects (often female subjects in the context of this criticism) as it allows for fetishizing. Choosing two commonly fetishized body parts and shown together, Storm’s photograph fits into this same category of image. However, she does not manicure and edit these body parts to a sanitized level of appeal and she includes an aspect of current feminist discourse around not shaving. In doing so, her work does not deny the sexuality of an armpit or foot; it only reveals the farce of a fetish based in image. 

Rebecca Storm, Trying to Be Sexy, 2016, digital print 20″ x 16″

The space is not large, but the conversation around the female figure in Art History and Contemporary art as it relates to sexuality and self-expression is always worth supporting. The connections made above to aspects of feminism, history and sexuality are projections made by myself and are not explicitly stated by the artists, but further personal connections feel invited by the art works. Project Gallery successfully allows the character of each artist to speak for itself without any generalizations about the experience of being female, while also maintaining a succinct curatorial vision.

Text and photo: Alice Pelot

*Exhibition information: Group Photography & Sculpture Exhibition, April 29 – May 29, 2016,  Project Gallery Studios, 184 Munro Street, unit 6 (accessible through the back entrance). Gallery hours: Sat 12 – 5 pm.

Semiotics aside, Paul Butler’s reproduced collages shown at Division Gallery for Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival exist simply for our aesthetic pleasure and are documentary evidence of his organized ‘social sculpture’. Semiotics is the study of meaning making, examining signs and symbols beyond their direct signification towards individual communicative behaviors and systems in language, gestures or clothing. Just as words have a level of suggestibility in the context of their pronouncement, so too can images in their context and composure be read as devices of communication – and collage a personal language. 

Paul Butler in the Collage Room

The source material in Butler’s reproduced C-print collages look as though they come from a 1990s National Geographic. The colours not only indicate the age of the magazine’s paper, but also the quality of cameras and image reproduction in the bygone age of paper publications from which so much detritus remains, it is available at every Salvation Army for a pittance. If not, then the serene, leafy landscapes Butler has used also remind us for the time with classroom posters boasting of wisdom or nature’s soulful inspiration. An artistic practice of collage, of rearranging images, producing new symbols reveals personal language developed from habit and aesthetic preferences. However, the works at Division Gallery exist outside of Butler’s semiotic code. Indicated by the exhibition title, Semiotics Aside, the works do not reflect his regular processes. 

Installation view of Paul Butler, Semiotics Aside, Divison Gallery, Toronto, 2016

The selected collages, though all forested landscapes, display little consistency in technique or style. Three works titled “flowers 021, 022 and 023” include flowers in vases pasted onto landscapes, vaguely reminiscent of a shoe-gazy rock band album cover.

Paul Butler, Semiotics Aside (flowers 022), 2016, C-print, 30″ x 33″

 In “landscape 001,” small blue and purple blobs punctuate a forest of fall leaves seemingly at random, while in “landscape 033” blobs are cut out strategically to imply mounds of snow on branches. In “landscape 016 and 010,” one image is torn in half and placed over top of two other landscapes. “Landscape 020” includes a small square of swelling water, a seascape, placed in the middle of a field image to match the horizon line – a style not unlike the one developed by artist John Stezaker. Collage techniques aside “landscape 009” is a thrilling display of natural colours, and so full of trees that it hardly seems two-dimensional.

Paul Butler, Semiotics Aside (Landscape 033), 2016, C-print, 30″ x 21″

Paul Butler, Semiotics Aside (Landscape 016), 2016, C-print, 30″ x 25″ (left) & (Landscape 010),  2016, C-print, 30″ x 22″ (right)

Paul Butler, Semiotics Aside (Landscape 009), 2016, C-print, 30″ x 24″

The way in which Butler accomplishes escape from personal semiotics is by partying. For over ten years, Butler has been organizing Collage Parties in which artist and amateur collagers alike get together to cut and paste old publications. The materials provided are diverse, including: National Geographic, a stack of teen beauty magazines titled Sassy, a Taylor Swift biography, a Donald Trump board game and various music magazines. From these events – set up in public art spaces where in Relational Aesthetics tradition, they become a social artwork – Butler gathers scraps and admires techniques. His goal then, is to rid of symbolism and assembly aesthetically pleasing compositions. The space in Division Gallery assigned as Collage Party feels more like an afterschool recreation room including sofa, TV, radio, craft area and table tennis, a space for playful congregation. The multidisciplinary practice of Butler, a Winnipeg based artist, includes internationally pushing the boundaries and definitions of art world models. The travelling studio/party forms a much needed community space beyond post graduate artists and art professionals, where tactile art production is promoted as a healthy and entertaining activity.

The Collage Party

Text and photo: Alice Pelot

*Exhibition information: May 5 – June 4, 2016, Divison Gallery, 45 Ernest Avenue, Toronto. Gallery hours: Tue – Sat, 10 am – 6 pm.

ONE EVENING ONLY! May 22, 2016 / 7 – 10 pm
443 Lakeshore Avenue., Toronto Island,

19 Artists from 10 cities! Celebrate, meet the artists and socialize on the beautiful island at Artscape Gibraltar Point Residency!

Artists:

Carole Wilde Jackson
Lana Missen
Nikkie To
Emma Rochester
Sarah Carlson
Jennifer McKinley
Carolyn Beattie
Su Yang
mia amir
Nelligan Letourneau
Jennifer Feagler
Niloo Inalouei
Olive-or-Oliver
Tracey Mae Chambers
Kayla Polan
Clementine Morrigan
Tanesha Childs
Sussan Thomson
Pallavi Govindna

Interdisciplinary – Theatre, Music, Photography, Drawing, Painting, Writing, Mixed Media, and Video

The FAC residency provides a platform to explore social justice issues from a feminist perspective. The residency gathers artists together who focus on social justice issues such as rape culture, transphobia, racism, violence, media representation, cultural appropriation, environmental degradation and impact on Indigenous lands, violence against women, and Islamophobic policies. We aim to create a space that is celebratory, positive, intellectually engaging and provocative. We are committed to this space being trans-inclusive, anti-racist, and intersectional. The residency includes individual studio time accented with group discussions, readings, video, reflection, guest speakers, group and individual critiques. The resulting work will be presented in an exhibition at the end of the residency and pending curatorial acceptance, will be included in a spotlight exhibition at the following FAC 2017.

For more information please contact 647-919-7336 or torontofac@gmail.com

PWYC Donation at the door, Cash bar and party snacks

Supported by Muskoka Brewery, Above Ground Art Supplies, Artscape and Empower T. Facilitator: Facilitator: FAC Coordinator / Founder Ilene Sova

The allure of the forest, with its intermingling of flora and fauna and perpetually enigmatic qualities, has inspired the canvases of artists across centuries, including late-nineteenth century figureheads Monet and Cézanne. The humility and diverse natural colour palette, coupled alongside associations with idyllic serenity, have imbued the forest with an otherworldly image as a refuge from humanly concerns. Steve Driscoll’s Just a Sliver of the Room, the artist’s recent solo show at Angell Gallery, transforms his exhibition space into a hypnagogic wooded landscape, transcending the objective empirical world into a more fantastical place.

Installation view of Steve Driscoll, Just a Sliver of the Room with Recovered Shore. Image courtesy of Angell Gallery

Driscoll’s ambitious vision reconfigures the gallery by installing a winding wooden pathway surrounded by an eerily reflective black mass of water. The artist’s monumental paintings line the walls around this microcosmic lake, allowing their fauvist colour palette and semi-abstract rendering of trees to faintly illuminate the encompassing opacity. The 40-foot centerpiece “Recovered Shore” (2016), rendered in a playful combination of brilliant hues, commands the viewers’ attention while also heightening their perception of the work and its relation to its surrounding environment. Furthermore, upon closer inspection, the surfaces of his works mimic the reflective and abstracting qualities of water, aesthetically bridging together two chief elements within the exhibition.

Just a Sliver of the Room creates a phenomenological space that plays with the viewers’ perceptive capacities. Slight ripples in the body of water simultaneously alter and enhance the static images on display, creating a holistically dynamic experience. As standalone paintings, Driscoll’s work resonates; however, incorporated within this one-of-a-kind installation, the artist’s efforts rise above their physical and optical properties into a lively occurrence.

Driscoll’s efforts to reconstruct a traditional gallery visit exceed standardized photographic documentation. Much like performance art and Richard Serra’s immense sculptural configurations, this installation demands to be witnessed physically in order to grasp the subtleties and transformative qualities in its entirety. The most purposeful images produced around this exhibition are located in the print publication that supplements the exhibition, as it records the lengthy and complex manifestation of Driscoll’s grand idea. Throughout Just a Sliver of the Room, the artist challenges the widespread impression that a contemporary gallery acts as a passive repository for current art, by constructing an active domain for progressive thought.

David Saric

*Exhibition information: April 29 – May 28, 2016, Angell Gallery, 1444 Dupont St., Unit 15 (Entrance off Campbell Ave.). Gallery hours: Wed – Sat: 12 – 6 p.m.

Making my way down to the Nicholas Metivier Gallery, the frenzy of life in Toronto is unavoidable, as the streetcar roars across King street and the onslaught of city traffic rushes by. Meanwhile just past the glass façade another world awaits. The space at the gallery is one that affords a welcome buffer between the chaos outside and the quiet stillness of Pratt’s photography. You begin by traversing two flights of stairs, both ascending and descending, to reach the fruit of Pratt’s labour. The first image of the show, “Tree Line,” is a bold, seemingly abstract landscape as the icy gray waters and haze of clouds of the composition are broken up by the dark jagged line of pine trees along the shore. The print is striking in the tension between the natural beauty and the inevitable danger and uninhabitable reality of such a place. Human life has been pushed out of the frame, the “Tree Line” is more accurately described as a fence-line, barricading the viewer from fully entering the scene. 

Ned Pratt, Tree Line, 2016, chromogenic print, 48″ x 64″. Image courtesy of Nicholas Metivier Gallery.

Any discussion of Ned Pratt’s work inevitably returns to Newfoundland, his unambiguous muse and home. Born in Salmonier, a small community in St. Mary’s Bay, Pratt’s artistic oeuvre is dedicated to the landscapes of his home province. Meandering through this exhibition, it becomes clear the reverence that Pratt has ascribed to Newfoundland, as each photograph emanates the careful composition and forethought of an academically trained artist. In “Barren Cabin, Tin Roof,” there is an overwhelming sense that Pratt has searched meticulously to present us with a perspective that confounds the viewer. Here, the artist has chosen to close in on a familiar subject, a decaying tin roof against an endless blue sky. Initially, the print almost resembles a Hans Hofmann painting as the bright red of the corroded tin and the thick impasto of the blue roof paint artfully mask the subject matter.

Ned Pratt, Barren Cabin, Tin Roof, 2015, chromogenic print, 33″ x 46.25″. Image courtesy of Nicholas Metivier Gallery

The unapologetic theme of Pratt’s exhibition and ultimately his conception of Newfoundland, is most obviously captured in “Fog Horn Shelter,” as his lens focuses on the top half of a diminutive cabin overlooking the abyss of the Atlantic ocean. There is no subtlety in this image. Our presence here in this landscape is temporary in comparison to the power and magnitude of our natural world. Our reverence is rightfully demanded and deserved in Pratt’s exhibition.

Ned Pratt, Fog Horn Shelter, 2015, chromogenic print, 33″ x 46.25″. Image courtesy of Nicholas Metivier Gallery

Meghan O’Callaghan

Featured image: Ned Pratt, St. Philip’s Beach, (detail) 2016, chromogenic print, 33″ x 46.25″. Image courtesy of Nicholas Metivier Gallery

*Exhibition information: April 28 – May 21, 2016, Nicholas Metivier Gallery, 451 King Street West, Toronto. Gallery hours: Tue – Sat, 10 am – 6 pm.