Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Opening Saturday April 27: ESTER PUGLIESE & JJ LEE


JJ Lee and Mei Lee Ogden Sign Languages 
and Ester Pugliese Disfluency and Delay

April 27th – May 19th, 2013
Opening Reception: Saturday April 27, 2 to 5 p.m.

JJ Lee and Mei Lee Ogden  Sign Languages

My Little Pony, Mixed media on watercolour paper,  60" x 70", 2013
“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up” – Pablo Picasso

loop Gallery is pleased to announce a new exhibition by member artist JJ Lee in collaboration with her daughter, Mei, entitled Sign Languages. 

Five-year-old Mei was identified as Hard of Hearing at the relatively late age of three and a half; consequently, her spoken language development was delayed. Before turning four, she received her first hearing aids, and heard birds for the first time. 

Using gouache, glitter paint, wax crayons, watercolour, and pencil crayons, Lee and her daughter explore the space between high and low art, visual languages, mark making and representation, process and result, narrative and abstraction. Their marks overlap and interact, blurring these distinctions. This body of work explores the primacy of drawing and Lee’s interest in art education and creative development in our current system.

Lee, (BFA, NSCAD 1992, MFA, York 1999) was born and raised in Halifax and has lived and exhibited from coast to coast. A recipient of several awards, she currently is an Assistant Professor at OCAD University. Mei Lee Ogden was born in Toronto and is currently in Senior Kindergarten. She is also in the second year of a specialized Deaf and Hard of Hearing program. Her favourite colours are pink and purple, and she loves olives and blue cheese. JJ and Mei live with James Ogden, a kindergarten teacher in Toronto. The three of them are currently learning American Sign Language.

A portion of proceeds from the sale of artwork will be donated to the Canadian Hearing Society.
Please join JJ Lee for a Q & A, moderated by Carla Garnet on Sunday May 5, at 2 p.m.



Ester Pugliese   Disfluency and Delay

Impromptu Performance: Branson School Chamber Singers and Singing Iceberg,
Acrylic, chalk, conte, carbon, and chalkboard paint on panel, 22" x 30", 2013
loop Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition by Loop Gallery member Ester Pugliese entitled Disfluency and Delay. 

The exhibition considers the human inclination for controlling outward appearances, illustrating this tendency with contrasting examples from nature. Each work presents audio graphs of impromptu performances culled from YouTube videos, layered with audio spectrograms of natural events (glacial collisions, ice fractures, earthquakes). Subsequent layers depict sculptural forms implying air movement, coupled with charted output and capacity data from Ontario's wind farms. 

Disfluency is the inability to produce smooth, fluent speech, such as inadvertently repeating words or uttering “um” and “uh” during an impromptu or practiced speech. Delay refers to the repetition of a sound at intervals: delayed sound can diminish with reducing volume, or create a feedback loop becoming endlessly louder. Breaking the cycle to calm the frenetic, mounting energy requires stopping the sound or pausing - taking a breath. 

Ester Pugliese is a Toronto artist who has exhibited her work in Canada and England. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Specialized Honours) from York University in 2001, studied Painting at Leeds University in England and received the Humber College Board of Governors Achievement Award with her post-graduate certificate in Arts Administration/Cultural Management in 2004. Her work can be found in private and public collections in North America and Europe, including the Donovan Collection at the University of Toronto. She has been a member of Loop Gallery since 2009.






Thursday, April 18, 2013

Sunday is the last day to see Sung Ja Kim Chisholm: Hope and Libby Hague: Synchromesh

Closing on Sunday April 21 is Sung Ja Kim Chisholm: Hope and Libby Hague: Synchromesh.
The gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday, 12 noon to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.


Sung Ja Kim Chisholm Hope, mixed media 2013



Libby Hague, Acting on Impulse, mixed media, 2013


new series


a visit with LIBBY HAGUE

  
What would you say influences your work?
My influences vary from craft, nature, art history, travel, literature, opera, you tube, friends. Different but similar from everyone else in this respect. It amazes me how each individual is an intense point of accumulated  experience, layered onto a unique DNA of inclinations and abilities.  Irreplaceably replaceable. Everything factors in, even the things I wish I could keep out. In this body of work  in particular, I'm recalling the sensations of growing up in Quebec, the Automatistes, the catholic symbols, the landscape, living so far away from downtown in the suburbs.

   
Where do you find inspiration?

My inspiration is in part my process , that is, it grows out  of handling my  materials, trying to find my next steps forward, looking for the satisfaction of surprising myself and making something new. That's why the paper I work with and the tools I pick up are so important to  me.
Last summer I did a residency with fellow Loop member Yael Brotman at Aras Eanna, on a remote Irish island. That inspired me to develop an animation which I've been working on since about Irish history and personal history, leaving home and my father's death. It sounds rather grim but it's also about reconciling with the past and moving forward, finding joy and making peace.

  
 Tell me about your current colour palette?
The colour in this work overlaps memories of stain glass, neon glowing on "the Main", the palette of Borduas and Riopelle, the aurora borealis, and the beautiful colours of a line of acrylic gouache by Turner.  They are so dangerously beautiful and subtle that there is a risk of using them too often straight from the tube and forgetting how to mix colours.   Thankfully it's not a greyscale world  since colour gives so much joy, it's like a visual drug. If you look at  a gorgeous emerald green from Old Holland for instance, you want it to fill your whole field of vision (if you can afford it), or a combination of colours - maybe orange and mauve and think, Wow, I don't want anything else from life.  Besides, something has to balance North Korea.

 What is your process for creating work in your studio?

My process involves having a lot of things at various stages of completion on my walls so that even if it's not moving forward, it's percolating. That's  why I  like your asking for pictures of my studio and why today I'm sending you some images of the same studio taken previously as I was getting ready for other shows. The ones I enthusiastically  sent you last week were of the studio mess that preceded my current show at Loop. I've been so busy I haven't cleaned up for a couple of months. I  stood back with some satisfaction and thought, Wow, Is this a big mess.  I was sharing my inner 6 year old.


Now that your current show has opened, what is your point of departure for the next body of work?
Next is finishing this animation before the patience of the incredibly helpful people at TAIS wears out. I'll also try to work out how to proceed with the work at the Loop show. I'd like to show it somewhere in Montreal because I want to see if they feel and connect to it's source, in part, because I think the feelings and attachments of the Quebec anglo community aren't factored in to the political equation there as much as they should be. Anglos are perhaps too hurt and too reticent about their attachment to Quebec. Since the PQ is so busy creating division I would like to acknowledge the separation but embrace the connection.


Thanks for the visit Libby!
To see more of Libby's work go here: libbyhague.com











Monday, April 15, 2013

Photographs from Sung Ja Kim Chisholm and Libby Hague Artist Tea Party

Loop artists Sung Ja Kim Chisholm Libby Hague and guests at their Artist Tea Party April 14:






Gareth Bate at Lonsdale Gallery

Loop artist Gareth Bate is in "Responsive Space 11", a four-person landscape painting exhibition.
The exhibition runs from April 18 to May 12; the opening reception is Saturday April 20 from 2 to 5 p.m. at Lonsdale Gallery.

http://www.lonsdalegallery.com
Gareth Bate, Lament: North Lake Field, Kings County, Prince Edward Island, 48 x 72 inches

Thursday, April 11, 2013

This Sunday April 14: Artist Tea Party with Sung Ja Kim Chisholm & Libby Hague

Please join artists Sung Ja Kim Chisholm and Libby Hague this Sunday April 14 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the gallery.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Photos from Sung Ja Kim Chisholm: Hope and Libby Hague: Synchromesh Opening

Here are photos from the March 30th opening of Sung Ja Kim Chisholm: Hope and Libby Hague: Synchromesh.
Be sure to join the artists for an Artist's Tea Party Sunday April 14 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the gallery.
The exhibitions continue until April 21.










CALL FOR APPLICANTS! Loop Gallery's Summer Internship

Six weeks. Five Shows. One Intern.  
 Program Dates: May 29th - July 3rd

Loop gallery is seeking a university/college student or recent graduate of fine arts, art history, or a related field to join our team for a 6-week summer internship. The successful candidate will spend 1 day per week at the gallery and produce one 300-word blog post per week. This volunteer opportunity is geared at students looking to pursue a career in cultural management or arts writing and offers first-hand experience in an established artist-run centre in Toronto’s vibrant Dundas West community. The incumbent will work with the gallery director and have the chance to hone his/her writing skills as loop’s summer web correspondent, blogging and tweeting about a new show each week.

Our ideal candidate is:
• An excellent writer (for print and web) with a strong command of the English language
• Highly organized and deadline-oriented
• Tuned in to Toronto’s contemporary art scene
• Social media savvy

How to apply: Interested applicants should email a resume, cover letter, and writing sample (not to exceed 400 words) to internships.loop@gmail.com, attention gallery director.

DEADLINE TO APPLY: APRIL 19 

Late submissions will not be considered. Only successful applicants will be contacted.