{"id":12743,"date":"2012-07-06T14:10:34","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T18:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=12743"},"modified":"2012-07-23T10:00:22","modified_gmt":"2012-07-23T14:00:22","slug":"ok-steve-by-colin-thomson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artoronto.ca\/?p=12743","title":{"rendered":"OK STEVE! by Colin Thomson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/span>OK STEVE!, 2010, mixed media on paper, 22 x 30 inches<\/span><\/p>\n

July 11 \u2013 22, 2012<\/strong>
\nOpening: Thursday, July 12, 7-9 p.m.
\nGALLERY 1313\u00a0Process Gallery<\/strong>
\n1313 Queen St. W.
\nToronto, ON, M6K 1L8
\nT: 416.536.6778
\nE: director@g1313.org
\nwww.g1313.org
\nHours: Wed \u2013 Sun 1 \u2013 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

OK STEVE!: Images from High and Low Culture, Drawings by Colin Thomson: 2005-2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iconic imagery from high and low culture, fused with mundane elements from advertising, print and the electronic media, are at the core of drawings that comment on the often important but sometimes-banal issues related to economics, politics, science, religion and celebrity. Many of the drawings, such as OK Steve!,<\/em> are both based on memories of favorite childhood television programs and subtle and not so subtle references to today\u2019s newsmakers. Others explore deeper political and social issues. The reclining figure in Five<\/em> suns with blue background is from a photograph of a beggar published in a Chinese government pamphlet about Tibet, as is Dialogue: co-dependant victims. The figures in Western producer<\/em> were appropriated from the cover of an issue of a popular American news magazine about civil war in Africa, combined with a photograph of a kitchen counter. The drawing juxtaposes text, based on the title of an important Canadian agricultural journal, with the visual elements of the image, commenting on the policies and perceptions of wealthy nations towards developing countries, countries that often seem only to be of interest as a source of entertainment and moral condescension.<\/p>\n

Initial sketches and drawings made in small sketchbooks are photocopied, and then transferred to paper, a process that can sometimes subtly alter the drawings, other times distorting them radically, or simply leaving just a trace of the original work. Some are in pencil, watercolour or oil paint, while others use less traditional materials such as food labels, children\u2019s stickers or even food or cooking oil. The work often starts out as a process of investigation, exploring questions of composition, colour and content.<\/p>\n

Many of the drawings have evolved over months and sometimes years, left for long periods of time, completed after much reflection and sometimes head scratching, an evolution that often makes the work strikingly different than what was originally intended. Because the work is on paper, a material less \u2018precious\u2019 than other mediums, it is easier to have a more aggressive and sometimes visceral working approach, creating images more raw and immediate than what is produced on canvas or with more expensive materials.<\/p>\n

The immediacy of the process of production means that pieces that started out with a specific conceptual direction can quickly become more about composition, colour, and technique or simply about emotion. Others that begin with less intellectual \u2018rigor\u2019 evolve toward the more profound, influenced by print and electronic media, from casual encounters with people, places or objects, or even from memory and personal experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 11 \u2013 22, 2012<\/strong>
\nOpening: Thursday, July 12, 7-9 p.m.<\/p>\n

GALLERY 1313 Process Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iconic imagery from high and low culture, fused with mundane elements from advertising, print and the electronic media, are at the core of drawings<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-listings_archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12743"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13154,"href":"https:\/\/artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12743\/revisions\/13154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}