Thank you to everyone who came out last night for the opening of Making Methods – it was a lot of fun!

I’m pleased to announce that I will have a new, site specific installation called “Strands” at the Stantec Window Gallery at 24 Spadina Ave in Toronto, from December 21, 2013 to March 20, 2014.

In an effort to ‘give back’ to the city; economically, environmentally and culturally; apart of the office retrofit, the original retail entrance to the McGregor Sock Factory was reconceived as a contemporary art gallery to be open and experienced by all: pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, streetcar riders, skateboarders and vampires, free of charge. Installations rotate on a quarterly basis, on the solstice and equinox. Curated and sponsored by the office, artists are provided with subsidized funding needed to create their installation.

Image courtesy of Stantec Architecture Ltd.

I missed this little bit of press a few weeks ago… but better late than never… Making Methods was a ‘must see’ show on Canadian Art online! C’mon out this Friday for the opening! http://www.canadianart.ca/openings/2013/08/22/mari-eastman/

Making Methods: Becky Ip, Samantha Mogelonsky, Mark Stebbins

24 August – 3 November at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery
Opening Reception: RMG Fridays, 6 September, 7pm

The works in Making Methods focus on concepts of repetition, detail, and labour as a means of production. They arise in an era when rapid digital and non-physical experiences are commonplace. In this exhibition, art by three emerging Toronto-based artists demonstrate a deliberate engagement with the physical, through material. This modernization of craft-based processes, could indicate an increased focus on hand-rendered art.

I’m very excited to have been accepted to the “We are full of holes” – Thematic Residency Program with Luis Jacob at Artscape Gibraltar Point on the Toronto Islands from September – October, 2013, Curated by Lucas Soi.

The Thematic Residency Program offers artists the opportunity to work independently with the mentorship of a visiting professional artist, curator or critic working in international contemporary art.  For two weeks every month artists retreat to Artscape Gibraltar Point on Toronto Islands, which provides short-term accommodation and studio space for artists to research and develop their contemporary art practice. Thematic residencies explore various models including studio work, formal lectures, group discussion, peer collaboration and outdoor retreats.  This direction allows individual residents to find common ground amongst each other’s disparate practices and establish new connections through communal dialogue.

WE ARE FULL OF HOLES
LUIS JACOB

The world is made of holes. Our bodies are covered in them. Our eyes are holes, that enable us to see. Our mouths are holes, that form a passage between inside and outside. Our genitals are holes, that give us pleasure. I believe that works of art have an important relation to holes. Artworks point us to disturbing parts of our consciousness, those dark recesses within us that are rich like mines. Artworks create holes where there are none, disturbing our sense of reality and opening a can of worms. Artworks enable us to see; they allow passage between outside and inside; and they give us pleasure. We Are Full Of Holes will focus on several “case studies” of holes: various artworks, films and short texts will allow us collectively to explore the notion of holes. Beginning with a screening of Tsai Ming-liang’s 1998 film The Hole — a wonderfully absurd love story set in a run-down apartment in Taiwan — we will explore our artistic work from the perspective of the space of meaning that we open with it.

Luis JACOB (BFA, 1996, University of Toronto) lives and works in Toronto, Ontario. Recent solo exhibitions include Show Your Wound (Galerie Max Mayer, Dusseldorf and Birch Libralato, Toronto) and Pictures At An Exhibition (Darling Foundry, Montreal); and group exhibitions Visible, Móvil, Vidente (Centro Párraga, Spain) and Oh, Canada(MASS MoCA, Massachusetts).

Thanks so very much to Donia Almassi for the amazing shout out on Ottawa Radio Station Cho 89.1 FM yesterday! (at 25:30) Thanks again for having my work in the Inside/Outside show at the Blink Gallery, Ottawa, until Aug 5. To listen, go to:  http://stream.chuo.fm/play.php?file=2013-Jul-31_17-00

Well, before the little white tube can travel to Oshawa, it’s going to be in Ottawa at the Blink Gallery for the Inside/Outside show’s trip to the capital!

Check out the show from July 25th – August 5th.

Please click here for an article to be published in “My Preferred Lifestyle” magazine about about the Hazelton Plinth sculpture prize.

24 August – 3 November at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa
Opening Reception: RMG Fridays, 6 September, 7pm

The works in Making Methods focus on concepts of repetition, detail, and labour as a means of production. They arise in an era when rapid digital and non-physical experiences are commonplace. In this exhibition, art by three emerging Toronto-based artists demonstrate a deliberate engagement with the physical, through material. This modernization of craft-based processes, could indicate an increased focus on hand-rendered art.

Although each of the artist’s work is steeped in process, it is not, however, the process alone that makes their work compelling. Becky Ip’s video To cry (of birds) draws on her family history. The artist’s meticulous research, followed by graphite drawings, which are then translated to paintings on mylar and recorded to experimental film, create a final work that is a dream-like and very personal portrait of the artist’s family history. Accompanying the film is a paper sculpture installation, each piece intuitively cut and folded.

Mark Stebbins’ paintings deal in the art of the error—the glitch—and reference computer games or data. His meticulous process is a manipulation of material, which includes paint and ink, allowing us to draw comparison to textiles such as knitting and embroidery. The result is works of incredible detail and colourful pattern that celebrate error by purposely producing glitches–something referred to as glitch-alikes.

Samantha Mogelonsky’s sculptures are experiments in material and labour, each made with disarmingly excessive method. In one example, the artist works with sequins, sewing pins, and a document tube, creating an object that at first glance is smooth and soothing, but upon closer inspection reveals an interior that is sharp, overlapping, and dangerous. Mogelonsky re-presents the sculptures in a series of photographs of their interiors to hallucinogenic effect.

Though this exhibition reveals the “type” of process by which each artist produces their work, the significance of their practices is revealed through the artists’ individual sensibility and intent. Curated by Linda Jansma.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Freehand Auction last night! The neon has a happy new home!

ArtChat with Sam Mogelonsky from ArtSync on Vimeo.