Ian McLean at loop

Scene Selection, oil on canvas (56x72) by Ian McLean 2011

Ian McLean’s Recreational Use opened at loop on July 23, 2011. This exhibition of paintings includes images of residential environments that depict living rooms, backyards, swimming pools, hot tubs, and muscle cars.  McLean is inspired by discrepancies between setting and mood and the use of ornamentation as distraction. Efforts to keep elements of dissolution or entropy at bay are evident in these settings.  The success of such efforts is challenged. There is an emphasis on surface quality as well as a play with colour that is at once hallucinogenic, anxious, impulsive, and seductive.

Land Claim, oil on canvas (66x54) by Ian McLean 2011

Ian McLean was born in Sarnia, Ontario and studied at the University of Guelph. He lives in Bright’s Grove on the shores of Lake Huron with his wife and daughter and is represented in Toronto by Gallery Moos and loop Gallery.

Transcendence, oil on canvas (56x70) by Ian McLean 2011

Ian McLean's show at loop continues until August 14, 2011. To see more of Ian's work, visit his website here. 

Loopers in the news

Here are some loopers who have made the news recently:

Sandra Gregson

Sandra Gregson was mentioned in R.M. Vaughan's weekend review of Toronto's art scene in the Globe & Mail. He wrote this about Sandra's recent show at Loop: "Last chance to catch Gregson’s shredded-book wonders – exquisite mobiles, carpets, sculptures and collages made from carefully threaded strips of hapless, grinder-fed books. Best (ab)use of Joyce’s Ulysses ever." Read the complete article here.

Modification, oil on canvas (16x20) by Ian McLean

Ian McLean was featured in the last issue of Hamilton Arts and Letters in an article called Ian McLean: Yards & Muscle Cars by Andrea Rabinovitch. She describes McLean's work as follows:
"Stylistically impressionistic in richly hued colours, the use of the sharply delineated pristine swimming pools in many of the paintings suggest, nature controlled, confined within a very strict order that is considered a status symbol we all subscribe to. Like the Hockney pools of the late sixties, they are used as a compositional tool to describe a place, both real and metaphorically inherent in us hapless humans, but also to consider the nature of water contained." Read the complete article here.

Libby Hague at the AGO

Libby Hague's installation at the AGO was reported in ArtDailyNews and included the following quote from curator Michelle Jacques, the AGO's acting curator of Canadian art. “Libby Hague’s playful, yet foreboding narratives give physical form to fictional worlds that simultaneously mirror and manipulate reality. Sympathetic Connections provides a timely exploration of our problematic relationship with the natural environment, invoking universal themes of responsibility and dependency, vulnerability and rescue, and risk and luck.”

And I published an extract of my conversation with Director and CEO of the AGO, Matthew Teitelbaum, on Fashion Projects. We chatted about art and fashion. The link is here.

Heather Carey and Ian McLean at loop Gallery

loop Gallery is pleased to announce exhibitions by loop members Heather Carey entitled Plastic Geometry, and Ian McLean entitled Recreational Use.

Heather Carey, Wharf St, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches, 2010

Heather Carey’s Plastic Geometry features new paintings which present a way of seeing the world which is both calculated and malleable. Pictorial space assembles itself in an understandable way, and then collapses in on itself or deflates. The experience of these pieces relates to how we interpret images in the world on a day to day basis, how the brain functions both instinctively and through making choices about new information that has been given. Carey engages viewers in a challenging visual experience where the work remains the same but perceptions change for the viewer- confusing, revealing, changing, and resting.

Heather Carey was born in Guelph, Ontario.  She is currently a Master in Fine Arts candidate at the University of Victoria. Carey completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Guelph in 2009. This is her second show at loop Gallery.

Ian McLean, Parts Per Volume, oil on canvas, 54 x 72 inches, 2011

Ian McLean’s Recreational Use includes images of residential environments that depict living rooms, backyards, swimming pools, hot tubs, and muscle cars.  McLean is inspired by discrepancies between setting and mood and the use of ornamentation as distraction. Efforts to keep elements of dissolution or entropy at bay are evident in these settings.  The success of such efforts is challenged. There is an emphasis on surface quality as well as a play with colour that is at once hallucinogenic, anxious, impulsive, and seductive.

Ian McLean was born in Sarnia, Ontario and studied at the University of Guelph. He lives in Bright’s Grove on the shores of Lake Huron with his wife and daughter and is represented in Toronto by Gallery Moos and loop Gallery.

Please join the artists in celebrating the opening reception on Saturday, July 23rd from 2-5 pm. The show runs until August 14, 2011.

Lyla Rye: Swing Stage at Olga Korper Gallery

Lyla Rye is introduced by Lori Starr of the Koffler Centre

Lyla Rye, my friend and mentor, spoke last night at the opening of her installation Swing Stage at the Olga Korper Gallery. An off-site presentation by the Koffler Gallery, Lyla drew on her background in architecture to create this work. Challenging herself to come up with 100 ideas in a two day brain-storming session, she took inspiration from the structural elements of the space and the history of the building itself.

Lyla talks about her work with an admiring fan at her fee

The platform on which Lyla is standing in the picture can support up to ten people and gently swings when walked upon. There is also a five minute video loop (not seen in the photo) which is projected onto a circular panel that mirrors the round window in the structure. The video  includes archival photos, Google maps and clips filmed from the rooftop of the building adding a dynamic component to this  playful installation.

Lyla Rye: Swing Stage runs at the Olga Korper Gallery until August 20, 2011. 

Sandra Gregson at loop Gallery

Sandra Gregson

Sandra Gregson’s the year my dog died includes sculptures and a video projection. Overwhelmed by the never ending accumulation of pay statements, house bills, photographs, credit card and ATM receipts, Sandra, after shredding documents to eliminate personal data, began sewing them into sculptural forms. These works consider how accumulation defines us. Other works, one made from a shredded novel, another from a shredded dictionary, refer to the accumulative nature of language and culture. Impermanence is deliberated in the process of shredding and making: undoing and redoing.

Sandra Gregson works with drawing, sculpture and video, often combining these media. Her work is about noticing everyday things, and events, in a playful, subtle, critical way, and with an intent of linking art and life. She studied at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (BFA) and at York University (MFA). Her videos and artwork have been shown throughout Canada and internationally, including the Alternative Film/Video Festival, Belgrade; champ libre, Montreal; Ontario Crafts Council Gallery, Toronto; Nuit Blanche at the Gladstone Hotel, Toronto.

Sandra's show continues at loop Gallery until Sunday, July 17, 2011.

The Floating World by Gareth Bate

Gareth Bate

Gareth Bate's painting series called The Floating World is currently on display at loop Gallery and runs until Sunday, July 17, 2011.

Gareth's artist statement for this series is presented below. The photos show his paintings in progress at his studio at 401 Richmond Street West.


The Floating World paintings are a kind of Vanitas. Scenes of great beauty suddenly engulfed by devastation. Imagine standing in wonder at the view before you, just as a Tsunami washes it all away. 


My recent work explores our ultimate scale and purpose in the universe. The landscapes and cosmos scenes are a metaphor for the beauty we experience. In the work, the universe represents a sense of endless possibilities, and yet an existential terror of our final insignificance. 

In Studio Shot by Gareth Bate

The tsunami represents total sublime horror. It is complete and utter devastation, indiscriminate and inescapable. The aerial video footage of the Japanese Tsunami was the most horrifying thing I've ever seen. It spread through entire cities and farmlands, demolishing and consuming everything in its path. All you have, including your life, can be swept away in an instant. Natural disasters are for me, one of the things that make a belief in God impossible.

Work in Progress by Gareth Bate

The title Floating World is obviously a reference to Japan, but it also represents the Earth itself. We are fragile and barely staying afloat. For the first time in years a human presence has returned to my work. Although these paintings could be seen as bleak, it is impossible for an artwork to be nihilistic. Making art is inherently about creating meaning out of life.

Bonecreak Ulysses and Lorde Awesome

Thursday, July 7th, The Only Cafe on Danforth (and Donlands) welcomes the next installment of In-Between Sounds! Joining Lorde Awesome this month will be Bonecreak Ulysses who'll emerge from his dark subterranean lair to lay some sound on the gathering masses. Here's his tale...

Bonecreak Ulysses woke up dead, feeling cold and a little perturbed. Musik resonated through his b-b-bones. Magik held his mind tethered to his b-b-body with shiny red string. Bonecreak Ulysses rose from his bed and sought the source of the musik, he moved crabwise through the loam, through the rich pomegranate darkness. A soft amber glow seemed to light the way. He thread his way up through a spiraling tunnel toward the surface, toward the world...

Bonecreak Ulysses is primarily the work of Charles Hackbarth, a Toronto based artist, writer and sound sculptor. Drawing inspiration from Zoviet France, Nurse With Wound, Black Dice and Kieren Hebden, Bonecreak Ulysses' music starts with improvised sessions on various instruments that are later sampled, layered, looped and transformed into evocative soundscapes.

This time out, Lorde Awesome will be joined by their great friends Rick Hicks AND Cymbl (aka Rich Baker) on drums. The final set will be a meeting minds as the Lorde and Bonecreak jam to a mighty crescendo.

www.bonecreakulysses.weebly.com

The Sweet Life? Sculptures by Patti Normand

At first glance, Ottawa-base artist, Patti Normand, appears to make dioramas of life's sweeter moments; a walk in the park, a dip in the pool, lovers on the dock, all served up like a delicious layer cake preserved beneath a bell jar. Ah, but take a closer look. That fellow isn't swimming in the pool but floating face down while his buddy is lost in his own reveries. The lovers on the dock may believe the heat they feel is from their passion, but behind them a fire rages.

Patti will be showing her work this weekend at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibit. Check her work out at booth 35 or check out her website http://www.pattinormand.com/.