Stuart Reid: in transit

Image of a blue glass etching of a man's face
Saturday, April 4, 2015 - 4:00am to Thursday, April 30, 2015 - 4:00am

Reception: Saturday, April 11, 1 to 5 p.m. Artist will be in attendance

The TTC subway at Union Station, Toronto’s main public transportation hub, is acquiring an extraordinary, world-class art installation, which is presently being installed and will be unveiled in time for the Pan Am Games. Created by awardwinning Canadian artist Stuart Reid, zones of immersion is a 7-foot high by 500-foot long richly worked glass wall that portrays the people who “ride the rocket” every day.

The large drawings in this exhibition are based upon small sketches drawn while riding the subway. These works (india ink on mylar) informed and developed the glass project.

Sky Goodden, the founding editor of Momus, writes of these drawings:

Reid’s evocation of our city’s “third class carriage” is rooted in a history that these images’ very line and media evoke—Honoré Daumier, Gustave Courbet, José Clemente Orozsco—and which their nod to both Social Realism and Impressionism implies. However, Reid’s subjects embody a common experience made contemporary. Scrawled with clipped texts of overheard conversation and passing allusion, Reid’s works capture the present moment through language. He circles our intimacy, investigates our autonomy, and portrays the human connections that are both performed and pressed between stations. How do we use the space we travel in order to get the time we need? With his subjects either moving out of frame, responding through posture or retreat, crushed against one another or framed alone, Reid produces a record of the river of movement that happens beneath our feet – one of isolation in crowds, community and class.

Of these drawings the artist writes:

These works specifically reflect on the human condition within urban transit – a world both intensely collective and remarkably isolated... a world where the anonymity of the no man’s zone offers us an unvarnished glimpse into the face, and hence perhaps a sliver of the psyche of one’s fellow passengers. I am interested in drawing that reveals the interrelationship of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ with both empathy and freedom.

Stuart Reid was born in London Ontario. He studied with Paterson Ewen, Greg Curnoe, Richard DeMarco, Patrick Reyntiens and Joseph Beuys. He holds a B.A. (fine arts ) from the University of Guelph and a Masters of Architecture from UCLA. He is a professor at OCAD University. His many major public artworks include works for Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Intercontinental Toronto Centre, Salzburg Congress. His artwork at St. James’ Cathedral was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth in July 1997. He is the great nephew of the early Canadian painter G.A.Reid.

Gallery Gevik welcomes visitors Tuesday to Saturday 10:30 am to 6 pm.

Venue & Address: 
Gallery Gevik – 12 Hazelton Ave. Toronto
Website: 
http://www.stuartreid.ca
Email: 
<p>info@gevik.com</p>
Phone: 
<p>416-968-0901</p>