April 24, 2012
One-night event: Tuesday, April 24, 6 p.m – midnight
Venue: The Melody Bar & Art Bar
THE GLADSTONE HOTEL
1214 Queen West
Toronto, ON, M6J 1J6
T: 416.531.4635
The artists in this exhibition embrace the principles of self-reliance, improvisation, stealth and DIY. Putting all of this to work in the service of presenting their work to the public, they have taken charge of the entire venture from the moment of creation to the final presentation at the Gladstone Hotel. Their works of art and musical performances will come together in a one-night event to celebrate the arrival of a “spontaneous system, ruled by the spirit of organized improvisation.
Prints, Sculpture, Video, Installations and Music
Special Guest Performance By: District 5 (http://www.myspace.com/district5music)
Artists:
Laura Biggs, “I am attracted to uncomfortable perspectives, balanced compositions acquired through overlapping and layering, extreme contrasts, distorted concepts such as Exquisite Corpse drawings, mixed media, fragmentation and blind contour drawings. I also document the aging process and the transformation of a single idea over time within organic materials. My work explores the realm of decay, allowing the cycle of decomposition and the transformation from solidity to impermanence to transpire.”
Ruth Ho, “To me, art is about lived experiences, a part of life. For some reason, my artwork is often inspired by subjects and events that annoy me. These are usually memories that relate to my childhood, or experiences and daily observations from more recent times. Through my work I scrutinize my fears and anger, as well as critiquing social issues that concern me.”
Stefanie Petoklep, “By manipulating portraits of family members to emulate smoke, it is in turn this illusion of smoke that becomes a visual metaphor for the blurring and fading of memory and the ability to recall details of the past. The varying degree of visibility of the facial features is a reflection of varying degrees of remembrance and recollection. Ultimately, each image of smoke serves as an individual portrait, each one unique so as to correlate to my own personal memory of them. “
Angelika Turlik, “The current series are screen prints from scanned and photographed leaves, branches, grass and rocks. I work with photography, computer editing programs and printmaking to capture and stretch my contemporary senses. These prints are a continuation of other photography-based prints. Capturing moments and making beautiful contemporary screen prints is what I love to do.”
Nicolas Pearson, “I often notice imagery that already exists in the world (such as flaws, stains and marks left by others) and I allow these pre-exiting traces to influence where I add my own marks, and also the types of images I draw. In my recent work I endeavor to create compositions that are uncontrolled and randomized by using surrealist methods, in this case by inviting other artists to print on a large-scale collaborative canvas. It has become a conglomeration; a print project where I work and rework my imagery based on what the other artists have printed before me.”
Daniel Deus, “The two subjects I have focused on are broken skateboards and street art that has been painted over. The broken skateboards are something that I have collected since I was a kid. By printing directly from the broken skateboards onto Mylar, I am bringing attention to the details of each individual board, traces of the scratches, breaks and imperfections accumulated through travelling and scraping against the hard surfaces of urban landscapes.”
Olga Kouptchinski, “I reinterpret the decorative style of Celtic knots using the fluidity and form of the human body. The body and it’s limbs become the pieces of cloth within an interlace design. In my latest work I use twisted heaps of torsos and limbs to reinterpret the illuminations of my choice.”
Valerie Oba,“I have always been interested in the cycle that nature undergoes in relation to my art. I like to study my subject matter through drawings to get a better understanding of their form and using that as the foundation of my pieces. My current work juxtaposes organic life with manmade structures in order to represent nature taking over construction.”
Meaghan O’Brien, “Using found imagery I attempt to duplicate, manipulate and recreate the visual sources that although new to me, hold some importance to the older generations of my family. Lighting, vagueness and fragility are key elements that aid in holding the work together.”