John Abrams and Sung Ja Kim Chisholm at Loop Gallery

loop Gallery is pleased to announce exhibitions by loop members John Abrams entitled Entertaining Modernism, and Sung Ja Kim Chisholm entitled Transforming.

John Abrams, The Mountie and Mondrian, oil on canvas, 58 x 77 inches, 2011

Entertaining Modernism comprises a selection of new paintings and sculptures that emanate from John Abrams’ ongoing interest in concepts of the modern found in film, sculpture and painting.  Experimenting with narrative disjuncture by juxtaposing abstract forms that have over time taken on recognizable modernist symbolism, with the immediacy of painting he achieves great visual effects.

Abrams holds an MFA from York University and AOCA from the Ontario College of Art. His work is represented by Boltax Gallery, Shelter Island, New York. His paintings can be found in major public collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Canada Council Art Bank and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, as well as numerous private collections in the United States.

Sung Ja Kim Chisholm, (Installation View) multiple works, 11 x 14 inches (ea.) 2008-2012

Sung Ya Kim Chisholm's exhibition of figurative drawings and mixed media abstracts presents visual conceptions of two fundamental aspects of the human condition. The first aspect is the gradual unfolding of a new life, captured through the depiction of a set of typical childhood experiences.  The second aspect is the alienation and spiritual hungers that are also part of human life, as depicted in the artist’s mixed media works, which convey longing for healthy, loving relationships.

Kim is a Toronto-based, Korean-Canadian artist whose works in both mixed media and drawing visually communicate a range of spiritual responses by individuals to the inevitability of suffering in our their lives. She is a long-time member of the loop Gallery and has had group and solo shows in galleries in both South Korea and Canada. She has also been retained for numerous portrait commissions. Kim is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design and she teaches art privately in her studio, as well as at a private school in Etobicoke.  She is married and both her husband and her son inspire her work and often serve as her models.  

Please join the artists in celebrating the opening reception on Saturday, March 31st from 2-5 pm.

LOOP Gallery Presents Sung Ja Kim and Jane LowBeer

Sung Ja Kim and Jane LowBeer invite you to attend the opening of their shows at LOOP Gallery tomorrow Saturday, January 30, 2010 from 2 - 5 pm.

Sung Ja Kim's exhibition Nest communicates the idea of being sheltered from the inevitable storms of life through a growing spiritual awareness.

Nest incorporates multi-imaged works of specially constructed cocoons, encapsulate the central dimensions of our life experiences. Another work in the exhibition uses nests as an artistic metaphor for being spiritually sheltered from the elemental forces of life that are completely beyond our control. Kim emphasizes borrowed imagery from the natural world by using materials in their natural states.

Sung Ja Kim was born near Seoul, South Korea.  She studied classical oriental visual art at Chu Gyo Art University in Seoul and worked as an animator. Following a number of successful group and solo exhibitions in Seoul, Sung Ja came to Canada. She is a graduate of the Fine Arts Program at OCAD. Nest is Sung Ja's fifth exhibition at Loop Gallery.

In Jane LowBeer's Light on Little Things we see a glimpse of day-to-day living; the toothpaste tube, sink plug, push pins and nail brushes. These household items, ubiquitous and accessible are the models for her art work.


Light on Little Things consists of three components; each group with a different relationship to the same objects. In the monotype series "Hands and Objects", each print depicts a single object held or touched by a hand. In the monotypes "Inventory" objects are all lined up but without reference to ground, cut loose with no shelf or tabletop to hold them. Finally, a series of small paintings of toothpaste tubes; the tubes bend and used, each in their own personnel setting in the manner of traditional still life. Their contortions can be seen as metaphors for human activity.

Jane LowBeer started her artistic career as a printmaker studying with Stanley Hayler at Atelier 17 in Paris. She has exhibited in New York, Montreal and Europe. Her work can be seen at L'Espace Mexique in Montreal and Open Studio and Nikola Rukai Gallery in Toronto as well as on her website here.

Both shows will run until February 21, 2010.
LOOP Gallery is located at 1273 Dundas Street West in Toronto.
Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Saturday 1-5 pm; Sunday 1-4 pm

This Week at LOOP Gallery

LOOP Gallery is currently closed for installation of the next show which features Jane Lowbeer and Sung Ja Kim. The Gallery will reopen on Saturday, January 30th at 2 pm for their reception.

If you would like to read reviews of LOOP members Larry Eisenstein's and Heather Carey's show (which closed on Sunday), click on the links here and here.