David Jager reviews Eric Farache's Quixtopia

David Jager from NOW Magazine recently gave Eric Farache's Quixtopia exhibition at loop a stunning four N's! Make sure to read the rest of the piece here.

This Blue Dragon speaks in tongues

In watching Robert LePage's The Blue Dragon (the show has just closed at the Princess of Wales theatre) I was struck by the audience's reaction within the first few minutes of the play.

I knew nothing of the play and just went. I have not seen any of the previous Dragon Trilogy either. So, there I am, in the dark, the actors start talking to each other in a seamless Quebecois french or Joual and everyone starts laughing along not missing a beat. Sure, the way the stage has been designed, with a split double layer, it allows for surtitles to translate, but this audience was clearly bilingual. Ok, we are in Canada, no biggie. Then as the play is set in Shanghai China, the main character meets his lover and they start to converse in Mandarin. I'm reading the translations, but I am also starting to think this is amazing that people are willing nay excited to see a play that is split between three languages- I cannot see people in the States cueing up for this sort of thing, nor in France either. This may be a distinctly Canadian delicacy, whether that is relevant....I can't say.

As always with LePage, there is a distinctive look and feel and I liked how low tech much of it was. The main character, Pierre LaMontagne departs from his old friend at the train station, gets on a bike and pedals, the bike is pulled across the stage, you get a sense he is in the country side, he gets off his bike and a tiny model train comes on to the stage and crosses it, he is seeing his friend off.

This is a simple iPad sketch of the protagonist standing with his bike ( don't look too closely, I mangled the thing! But my excuse is this homemade bandage on my thumb, you would be amazed how that throws everything off!!)

The play has closed as I mentioned, but the local House of Anansi Press has released a graphic novel version of the play. The play is stark with three characters in a love triangle and no additional people to get in the way; the graphic novel, on the other hand, is set up like a narrative in the real world in a bar, an airport, etc.

I've caught an interview of LePage talking to Jian Ghomeshi of CBC's Q. LePage talks about embracing technology including digital interactive projections. We can see this in the Blue Dragon, with snow which moves with the actors, but I was captivated by a low tech solution to the steps of the set being blanketed in snow: a white sheet is pulled on a string across the set and blankets the steps.  It is the mixture of high and low tech which makes LePage's productions interesting.

You can catch that interview here

Gilray at the AGO

Going through some old magazines of mine, ( I do this all the time, however the studio is still chock a block with stuff, lets just call paper ephemera) I came across this old issue of the Tate Gallery magazine. In days of old, it would be enough for me to hold onto it as it was 1994, prior to the Tate Modern, akin to pre corporate buy out if you will, but space is limited at the studio these days so I had to go through it to see if it was really worth keeping.

This tate magazine of summer 1994, has a grouping of work under the heading of the body imagery examining the way the body was depicted at this time and what that says about the society.

Check out this beauty:

In this essay was some of the Tate's collection of Gilray prints and others of the era. Yes, the AGO is having a show right now of Goya and Gilray, but I was unsatisfied with both masters at the gallery. Goya, how the hell can you be unsatisfied by Goya?

Well, the gallery has chosen to put up a copy of the Los Caprichos that is hand tinted by a collector...really? As a kid I collected comics and hockey cards, colouring them in made them worth nothing, I fail to see how these prints are exempt from a simple rule every 8 year old knows. What the hell is this? An art gallery or Ted turner in the 80s?

Gilray's work on display is good, a strong showing of his immense talents, but he was a man who served the best aspects of his satire when it was as close to the bone as possible.

Just look at this:

Now that is what I call, not pulling a punch! In the AGO show you see some imagery where he criticizes the revolution in France, on their new found freedoms and their new found lack of basic necessities...But this image, clearly spells out it's views on how the British and much of Europe saw the French Revolution and the following reign of terror.

The way he portrays his countrymen, he is not too enamoured with them either, clearly. We also get to understand how the people at that time feared the uncertainty a revolution brings about, and how through the news of the day, genteel Paris seemed to be at end.

So don't get me wrong, it is still worth it to stop in at the AGO, you will find the coloured Goya prints jarring if you have studied them but there is draftsmanship in spades, and a real strong valid criticism of the world the artist lived in. To me, the raw imagery of Gilray really communicates this on a personal level.

I'm not some major proponent of magazines either, but here I go just loving another magazine, and storing it above the fridge in a cupboard at the studio instead of recycling the damn thing, sigh.

Yes, this magazine really was 1994, just look at the advert on the back

Sketches in New York City by Eric Farache

My friend Alan and I started with a coffee.

On the 6 train, there was a delay so I got out the sketchbook and pen.

Yup, even in the sweaty subway people were all bundled up.

I drew this sketch while overhearing some teens talking, it was heinous and fairly graphic. I think if you grew up in NYC you would be a sleazier more foul version of yourself- just a thought.

By evening fall, it was even colder, I slipped into this bar not far Chinatown, called Home sweet Home. Loud, but warm! I relaxed and drew some of the characters.

This was before it got too packed.

I drew this double drawing of the bartender while having a boozey afternoon, at the back of this place called Bread.

I really did leave the canal/chinatown area!

The Neue gallerie had some beautiful Egon Schiele drawings on display, more than you see if you go to the Albertina drawing gallery in Vienna ( but that was based on my trip in the early 90s, might have been one of those things when you go and everything is closed), so that was a treat but I mostly just looked at it all.

If you go to NYC soon, you have to go to the Neue Gallerie, its focus is Austrian/German work -- amazing stuff. Also, have a coffee in the Cafe Sabarsky, it is a highly regarded dinner spot. I was there on Saturday and the lineups to eat were astounding.

A little sketch I made about a year and half ago while drinking a $6 Viennese coffee, it was good but six dollars? I know, I know, it New York baby.

Eric Farache reports on his recent trip to New York City

Yes, it was freezing. Yes, there were line ups galore in front of every major art gallery or museum but, New York is still a great time.

You can see the herds of people in line that you are trying to avoid at all costs.

I took in the Maurizo Cattalan show before it closed at the Guggenheim, it was an amazing thing to take in but at the end of it all, I am no longer sure what I think of the artist- it was a lot of one liners, winks and leg pulling. Not much gravitas when you have a miniature Hitler floating by a cord, sizzle sizzle!, but steak....????

I caught the JFK piece about a year and a half ago at the New Museum in NYC, you went around a corner, its dark, and boom, a dead man in a coffin- and it is JFK! This was not just all denouement seeing it again, it also made you see how things looked silly and just too pop-shebang-fizz (to borrow from Gainsbourg)

The New Museum now? Forget about it! about a three hour wait in the -9 told me to move on.

I stopped at the Sperone Westwater, just down the street in the Bowery. A show of sculptural work, old and new, not much of a focus but it was interesting stuff and the building is a massive structure which has work in the elevator on display. Most apartments could fit in this elevator mind you.

A sort of Gorilla John the Baptist with rubber gloves and disposable cups, all made out of marble, an ironic tour de force.

Also, dropped in on Caroline Falby, she is an ex-pat who is working on her Masters at Hunter College in city. Her studio is close to Times Square, it is this massive building which just feels like an old art building.

You can check out some her work here. She is working on some new stuff at the moment- she seems very interested in the War of 1812 and what it means to Canada and the United States. In the meantime, you can see her multi referential work which employs a breezy technique to inject joy and a seemingly carefree element to the work.

Reflections on a Recent Issue of Modern Painters by Eric Farache

When was the last time you went into a magazine shop? If you haven't done so lately, you should make the time. We always hear that print is dead and it probably is, but after spending some time in Presse International on College St, I really thought it was just awesome how many magazines are left and that there was some great stuff - especially Modern Painters. 

Like many people, I get a lot of art info off the web, but holding a copy of Modern Painters is something else. The cover has a very specific texture and smell and the colour rendition in the magazine is terrific. My interest is not nostalgic, although I used to order the magazine when I ran a camera store, knowing it would not sell and I would get to take them home, this magazine, this thing, places art and its contents in a world of its own.  I loved it all over again.

The November 2011 issue is full of a fairly diverse content and includes an interview with Maurizio Cattelan talking about his retrospective at the Guggenheim (it is a mounting of his sculptures hanging from the centre of the gallery) and an article on the painter Michael Borremans (some people will really enjoy his style of painting). The artist Byron Kim, director Julia Leigh , writer and Director of Sleeping Beauty are also featured.

Can you find more content online? Absolutely, but there is something great and altogether optimistic about buying a magazine -- seeing what is featured, wondering about how some truly bad art has the money to advertise, all that good stuff.

So this holiday season, whatever your interest, treat yourself.

You can read about that Guggenheim show here

Profile of Larry Eisenstein by the Globe and Mail's R.M. Vaughan

Larry Eisenstein

R.M. Vaughan, columnist for the Globe and Mail newspaper, wrote a half page profile/review of loop member Larry Eisenstein's current show Doodactic. In the review, R.M. Vaughan uses descriptors like "spectacularly intimate", "reality-defying ability", "awe-inducing". (I don't think I've ever read a more glowing review from R.M. Vaughan.) To read the complete review, click here.

Loop Gallery is open this weekend from 12-5 pm. On Sunday, there is a Question and Answer session with artists Larry Eisenstein and Eric Farache that will begin at 2 pm.

Q&A with Eric Farache and Larry Eisenstein at loop

Question & Answer Session:  Larry Eisenstein and Eric Farache
Facilitated by David Jager and Mark Laliberte
Sunday, May 22, 2011
2-4 PM at loop
 
LARRY EISENSTEIN is a visual artist obsessed with making marks. He is compulsively driven to exploit line in his work. Eisenstein lives and works in Toronto where he is a sometimes teacher, art director, illustrator and writer.

ERIC FARACHE was born in 1971. He received a MFA from the University of Leeds, is an Alumni of OCAD, and lives and works in Toronto. Trained in classical painting techniques, he has been working in photography for the past 10 years. Eric works in elaborate sketchbooks as part of his artist practice, he has recently returned to painting larger works.  Visit his website at www.ericfarache.com, or his blog at http://vagabondchic.blogspot.com/.

MARK LALIBERTE is a visual artist, writer, designer and curator with an MFA from the University of Guelph.  He has exhibited and performed extensively in galleries across Canada and the USA, and currently resides in Toronto, where he is the managing editor and designer of Carousel. In early 2010, BRICKBRICKBRICK, a full-length book of visual poems, was released with BookThug. Later in the year, GREY SUPREME 1, a print-based "project platform" initiated by the artist as a way to collect his short-form experiments with image, text and hybrid literary forms, debuted with Koyama Press. http://www.marklaliberte.com  |  http://www.greysupreme.com

DAVID JAGER has been a regular Art writer for NOW magazine for the last seven years. He has also contributed articles and reviews to Canadian Art, including extensive cover profiles on Vancouver painter Ben Reeves and Video artist Kelly Richardson. He has also translated and edited works for the International Journal of Phenomenogical Psychology, and recently edited and translated a new work of cultural history by Professor Van Den Berg on the Two Laws of Thermodynamics. He is currently working on a book of philosophical essays by his father, Professor Bernd Jager, who is professor emiritus of Psychology at the University of Quebec in Montreal.

Photos from loop: Eric Farache and Larry Eisenstein

loop reopens Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at 12 noon for the second week of the exhibitions of work by Eric Farache and Larry Eisenstein.

Photo credit: Patricia Njovu,  2011

Art Show is open!

I struggled to get the show ready in time, but here is a little image of the back of Loop Gallery while i was putting pictures up on 3 different walls at once to see what looked best together.

These watercolours are painted on a natural white 300lb Fabriano paper which has a beautiful texture and colour to it, the pieces radiate next to the cool walls of this white cube gallery.

Larry and I will be at the gallery on Sundays if you would like to chat with us, I think we will be drawing while we are there...bring a sketchbook and join us.

Eric Farache

Larry Eisenstein and Eric Farache at loop

loop Gallery is pleased to announce upcoming exhibitions by loop members Larry Eisenstein entitled Doodactic, and Eric Farache entitled Life Lessons opening on Saturday, April 30, 2011.

Larry Eisenstein quotes Philip Guston, The Chicago Panel, 1958 "...I think that every real painter wants to be, and his greatest desire is to be a realist, in the sense that you want to make concrete, with your material, with your matter, with your form, how you feel. ...if you eliminated the word abstract, made it illegal, like a penalty, you know, to use the word abstract, nonobjective, nonfigurative, then you'd have to really...talk about how different they are. Or else not talk about them but feel the difference."

Eisenstein is a visual artist obsessed with making marks. He is compulsively driven to exploit line in his work. Eisenstein lives and works in Toronto where he is a sometimes teacher, art director, illustrator and writer.

Eric Farache's Life Lessons, is a meditation on childhood watercolour and ink paintings play with fantasy, doodle, GI Joes and 1970s pornography.  Eric Farache’s work utilizes a distinct visual language drawing heavily from personal experience creating a new grand contemporary mythology. Narrative rich, this work juxtaposes childhood coming of age and a frank sexuality. Themes told by blending disparate images, characters and objects lending a Surrealist logic to these highly detailed quirky watercolours.

Eric Farache was born in 1971.  He received a MFA from the University of Leeds, is an Alumni of OCAD, and lives and works in Toronto. Trained in classical painting techniques, he has been working in photography for the past 10 years. Eric works in elaborate sketchbooks as part of his artist practice, he has recently returned to painting larger works.  Visit his website at www.ericfarache.com, or his blog at http://vagabondchic.blogspot.com/.

Please join the artists and author in celebrating the opening reception on Saturday, April 30th from 2-5 pm.

Learn more during a Question & Answer Session with the artists at loop moderated by David Jager and Mark Laliberte on Sunday May 22nd from 2-4pm.

Last Chance to see loop at Art Toronto 2010

Today is the closing day of Art Toronto 2010 (Toronto International Art Fair).   Hours today are 12-6 pm.

Warbler I by JJ Lee
Encaustic on canvas, 16 inch diameter
$900

The Dream Series: Maroc by Eric Farache
Chromeographic print facemounted onto Plexiglass and aluminum, 70x14
$3500

More of loop at ArtToronto 2010

Here are some more examples of work by loop artists that will be available for purchase at ArtToronto 2010 (formerly Toronto International Art Fair). Please visit is at booth #1022. Don't miss this opportunity to purchase affordable art by some of Toronto's most talented artists. loop Gallery accepts cash, cheques and credit cards.

remona 2 by Libby Hague 2010
unique hand cut woodcut on Okawara paper, 41x21 inches
$3000

Ancient Pottery Collection by David Holt 2008
Acrylic on linen, 14x16
$850

The Dream Series: Hay Bluffs by Eric Farache
Chromeographic print facemounted onto Plexiglass and Aluminum, 72x25 inches
$4500

Question and Answer Session with Eric Farache

Loop Gallery is hosting a Question & Answer session with Eric Farache moderated by David Jager on Saturday, August 7th at 3pm.

 
Eric Farache's's exhibition of large format photography at loop Gallery, titled Manifest Dream, is an investigation into the convergence of time, image and memory through richly layered multiple exposures. Farache works with layered images all created in-camera, not digitally. Through exposures, reference points are created and strung together, creating a whole new reference point based on a very personal visual language.

Throughout Farache's practice, his work has consistently focused on the passage of time - capturing moments in history as well as place. Eric is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art & Design (1994) in Fine Art and the University of Leeds where he earned his Masters in Fine Arts (2000). He often expresses his ideas in photography, sometimes utilizing the cheap and sensationalistic Holga camera.

David Jager has been a regular Art writer for NOW magazine for the last six years. He has also contributed articles and reviews to Canadian Art, including extensive cover profiles on Vancouver painter Ben Reeves and Video artist Kelly Richardson. He has also translated and edited works for the International Journal of Phenomenogical Psychology, and recently edited and translated a new work of cultural history by Professor Van Den Berg on the Two Laws of Thermodynamics. He is currently working on a book of philosophical essays by his father, Professor Bernd Jager, who is professor emiritus of Psychology at the University of Quebec in Montreal.

Eric Farache's Manifest Dream & Isabelle Hémard's Fuzzy, Furry and Cloudy exhibitions at loop Gallery run until Sunday August 8th.

Review of Loop Show on BlogTO

Loop Gallery's current exhibition of work by Eric Farache and Isabelle Hemard work is featured in BlogTO review by staff writer Matthew Purvis. Read the review with this link.

Eric Farache and Isabelle Hemard at Loop Gallery

Loop Gallery is pleased to announce exhibitions by loop members Eric Farache entitled Manifest Dream and Isabelle Hémard entitled Fuzzy, furry and cloudy.

Eric Farache's exhibition of large format photography is an investigation into the convergence of time, image and memory through richly layered multiple exposures. Farache works with layered images all created in-camera, not digitally. Through exposures, more reference points are created and strung together, creating whole new reference point, based on a very personal visual language.

Throughout Farache's practice, his work has consistently focused on the passage of time - capturing moments in history as well as place.  Eric is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art & Design (1994) in Fine Art and the University of Leeds where he earned his Masters in Fine Arts (2000). He often expresses his ideas in photography, sometimes utilizing the cheap and sensationalistic Holga camera.

Eric Farache's work can also be seen on his website www.ericfarache.com.

Isabelle Hemard’s Fuzzy, furry and cloudy shares company with her previous public offerings.  As an unapologetic, hopeless romantic, she shares what pulses through her heart and onto paper resulting in large scale crayon drawings mixed with pastels and paint. Hemard scratches, paints, carves, prints, and sews each mood and experience through and onto her materials.

Hémard is a Toronto-based printmaker born in France, and has lived in Canada since the early nineties. She completed her MFA at Diplôme National Supérieur d'Arts Plastiques in France and has exhibited in Canada and internationally. Her work can be found in many private, public and corporate collections. Her website is www.belleisabelle.com

Please join the artists in celebrating the opening reception on Saturday, July 17th from 2-5 pm.

Learn more about Eric Farache's work during a Question & Answer Session at loop on Saturday, August 7th at 3pm.