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.