Formations: Work by Lisa Johnson

Event postcard
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 5:00am to Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 5:00am

Please attend the opening reception of Formations, an exhibition by OCAD alumna Lisa Johnson.

More information about Lisa Johnson's work is available online at www.lisajohnson.ca.

Venue & Address: 
Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts 984 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

Ecotecture: Bigger, Bigger, and more Desperate

Ecotecture
Friday, November 7, 2008 - 12:00am to 3:00am

DeLeon White Gallery in Toronto presents new works by Marcia Huyer, Karen Kraven, and alumnus Gareth Bate, curated by Colin Kent and Joanna Sheridan.

Bate will be creating a large scale wall and window drawing in honey of the roman coloseum, relating to the fragility of civilization.

Venue & Address: 
DeLeon White Gallery 1139 College Street, Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

Disparate Unity

Margaret Lim, Plum Blossoms in Autumn
Saturday, November 15, 2008 - 5:00am to Sunday, January 4, 2009 - 5:00am

York Quay Centre in Toronto presents an exhibition of work by Harbourfront Centre's Jewellery Studio artists-in-residence: Marina Babic, Patrycja Zwierzynska and OCAD alumni Suzanne Carlsen, Annie Tung and Margaret Lim. The artist-in-residency programme celebrates and advocates diverse approaches to making. Conceptual concerns may differ but cohesion is achieved by virtue of these variances and the use of the body as site. Traditional and non-traditional materials are used, scale is challenged and ideas about a jeweller’s role in society are explored.

Venue & Address: 
York Quay Centre 235 Queens Quay West, Toronto, Ontario
Email: 
info@harbourfrontcentre.com
Cost: 
Free

Missing

Megan Sinnett
Sunday, November 2, 2008 - 4:00am to Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 5:00am

The Rotunda Gallery at City Hall in Kitchener presents new work by OCAD alumna Megan Sinnett.

You’ve seen the photos – blurred images of smiling children caught in a moment by the camera’s flash. Their immediate happiness belies the fact that they have gone missing. Their faces become the subject for “Missing,” the November exhibit at the Rotunda Gallery at city hall, by artist Megan Sinnett.

The exhibit ponders what it means to be “missing.” How can any living being simply vanish, and why haven't these children been located or identified? If these children are still alive and well -- for instance, those who have been abducted by a restraining parent -- do they even know that they are considered “missing”?

These portraits are immediate and unspecific, much like the aged and blurred photographs that they are based on. They are immediate in terms of process and creation, but also timeless in the way these reference images intend to keep some essence of these children alive.

Through the application of expressive bruststrokes, these faces lack crispness and detail, and sometimes drip into the under-painted background, slipping away. This void, both painterly and symbolic, reflects the array of unanswered questions that revolve around each of these cases. Sinnett wishes not to bring these portraits to life, but rather to portray these children as they are in these latent photos, where identity is strangely absent.

Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday 7am – 9pm, Saturday & Sunday 9am – 9pm

An Exhibition Assistance Grant has graciously been provided by the Ontario Arts Council.

Megan Sinnett
As a recent BFA graduate from OCAD University, this marks the first solo exhibition by Megan Sinnett. Her work has been exhibited in artist-run, commercial, and public galleries across Ontario, including the OCAD Gallery, Spin Gallery, Gallery 1313, and Xpace.

Venue & Address: 
Rotunda Gallery, Cit Hall 200 King Street West, Kitchener, Ontario
Email: 
info@megansinnett.com
Cost: 
Free

Summer Smoke & Paint

Image for Ina Puchala
Saturday, October 18, 2008 - 4:00am to Saturday, November 15, 2008 - 5:00am

Join OCAD alumna Ina Puchala for sparkling wine and chocolate truffles at the opening reception of "Summer Smoke & Paint."

“Being able to take the paint right to the hard edge and then over is exciting,” says Puchala about her leap to a larger format, and from mylar to wood panel.

Independent curator and art writer EARL MILLER references this “definitive notion of edge” in Puchala’s work by recalling how Pollack and DeKooning “attempt to visualize in abstraction the sensation of standing on the edge of an abyss.”

Gripping these peripheries, Puchala paints the power surge that connects the abstract to the visceral. “By doing so,” writes Miller, “Puchala proposes that the act of painting bears equal significance to the finished project,” noting also that in Puchala’s exposure of the underpainting, she reveals her connection to the work’s unique history and process.

About Puchala’s work, GARY MICHAEL DAULT writes: “Every smear, sweep, swirl, pool, puddle, coagulation, hook or eye of it, every impress of one hue upon another, every juxtaposition of one hue to the next hue, speaks to the whole work, and, ultimately, to the viewer.”

SUMMER SMOKE & PAINT is Puchala’s sixth solo exhibition in 12 years. She has exhibited at Mittica Gallery, Mercer Union, John B. Aird, Gallery 1313, and the Art Galleries of Mississauga, Peel and Woodstock [London, Ontario.]

The exhibition continues through Saturday, November 15, 2008.

Special thanks to the Ontario Arts Council

Venue & Address: 
Rebecca Gallery 317 Grace Street, Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

SpeakEasy's 1st Annual Printmaking Show

Friday, October 3, 2008 - 12:00am to 4:00am

Take a peek inside the collective imaginations of 8 talented artists, including OCAD alumni Sheila Jonah and Astrid Ho, whose work features original styles, techniques and media. Signed, numbered, hand made originals are rich in imagery, and project each artists’ unique voice.

Participating Artists:
Neil Collyer
Patrick Carson
Natalie Drajewicz
Sheila Jonah
Denise Karabinus
Jerry Silverberg

Astrid Ho
Pawel Zablocki

Pay What You Can ($4 Donation Suggested)

About SpeakEasy
SpeakEasy is a monthly gathering of Toronto's creative community. It's an opportunity to network, share ideas, and keep in touch with the pulse of Toronto's creative professionals. Since 1996 it has grown from a get-together of a few friends to an event that now draws regular crowds of up to 300.

SpeakEasy takes place 8 times a year, on the first Thursday of the month, at The Gladstone Hotel.

The atmosphere at SpeakEasy is casual...conducive to innovation and inspiration.

Venue & Address: 
Gladstone Hotel 1214 Queen WestMain Floor Ballroom, Toronto, Ontario
Email: 
david@blttogo.com
Cost: 
Pay what you can ($4 donation suggested)

Rebecca Belmore: March 5, 1819

Rebecca Belmore
Friday, October 10, 2008 - 4:00am to Sunday, January 4, 2009 - 5:00am

This new media commission by OCAD alumna Rebecca Belmore considers the moments when Demasduit, a young Beothuk woman, was captured by colonists at Red Indian Lake, and her husband Nonosabasut was killed trying to save her. Extending her investigations of contemporary and historical aboriginal identity, Belmore personalizes historical record, highlighting the inseparability of past experiences from the present. The acclaimed Canadian artist explores the interplay of myth, history, and fiction in the new video work that centers upon this key narrative in the history of the Beothuk and accounts of the extinction of the indigenous population in the province. The installation features selected collection holdings of The Rooms and the original miniature portrait of Demasduit on ivory by Lady Henrietta Hamilton (ca. 1780-1857), on loan to The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery by Library and Archives Canada.

Organized by The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery with the support of the Media Arts Commissioning Program of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Venue & Address: 
The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery 9 Bonaventure Avenue, St. John's, Newfoundland
Email: 
information@therooms.ca

Levels 2/ Perspectives

Saturday, October 11, 2008 - 5:00pm to 8:00pm

OCAD alumni Liz Russ and Linda Kristin Blix invite you to the opening reception of their new exhibit, Levels 2/ Perspectives, at Gallery 888.

The exhibition continues - on weekends only - through October 26.

Venue & Address: 
Gallery 888 888 Queen Street East (West of Logan), Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

Full Circle

Detail of work
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 - 4:00am to Sunday, October 19, 2008 - 4:00am

The Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts in Toronto presents a collaborative celebration of the circle using natural materials and encaustic, by OCAD alumni Daniel Beirne and Andrea Bird, who combine their mediums to push into new territory, both as individuals and together.

Artists will be present on October 19.

Venue & Address: 
Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts 984 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

STEVE DRISCOLL: Conversations

video still, credit Steve Driscoll
Sunday, September 28, 2008 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm

STEVE DRISCOLL: Conversations surveys the work of OCAD alum Steve Driscoll, showcasing the changes and developments of his paintings from 2000 – 2008. Presented in full colour, the works are accompanied by text drawn from video interviews with artists, arts writers, gallerists, designers and friends of the artist. The collection of imagery, coupled with interview text edited by Laurel MacMillan, gives readers insight into Driscoll's creative visions and mild eccentricities.

A free PDF version of the book and highlights from the video interviews can be found at www.SteveDriscoll.com.

The artist will be in attendance at the reception.
The exhibition continues until October 6, 2008.

Venue & Address: 
David Mirvish Books 596 Markham St., Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

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