Friday, March 28, 2014

New Exhibitions by loop Artists Yael Brotman: Scaffolding and Martha Eleen: My Space



Yael Brotman
Scaffolding

March 29th  – April 20th, 2014                
Reception:  Sunday, March 30th, 2- 5PM
Studio Tour:  Sunday March 16th
                                            
loop Gallery is pleased to announce a new exhibition by Yael Brotman, entitled Scaffolding. 

The print sculptures in Brotman’s current body of work, Scaffolding, look at publicly accessible structures such as bridges, boardwalks, and piers. The artist uses these mediating loci to examine the parameters of our social contract with nature. She says, ‘The water under the bridge or at the end of the boardwalk may be menacing at times. These structures act as conduits over challenging terrain while also protecting fragile shorelines from damaging footfalls.’ In works such as Trestle or Blackfriars, Brotman attempts to capture the tension between chaos and control that is present in life. The support beams and the angles of the posts capture the rhythm and movement of architecture in the making.    

In Scaffolding, Brotman applied the hand drawn-based etching on Japanese paper, to varying thicknesses of foamcore before building each structure, turning these pieces into raw material akin to lumber. Whereas earlier works had a limited palette that referenced the materiality of wood and metal, Scaffolding introduces small jeweled colour elements: the ends of some of the pieces are painted to mimic lumberyard practices where colour is used as a code for size.

Brotman is a print-based artist also engaged in drawing and sculpture. Most recently her print sculptures were included in exhibitions at Lehman College Gallery, New York, Art League Houston, Edinburgh Printmakers, International Print Centre New York, and in a solo at Harcourt House, Edmonton. Brotman sits on the board of CARFAC ON and teaches at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Her work is represented in public and corporate collections, including the Skirball Museum, Los Angeles, Douro Museum, Alijo, Portugal, the BMO Group, Ernst and Young, University of Alberta, Royal Victoria Hospital, Barrie ON. She has been awarded residencies in Jingdezhen, China, Dawson City, Yukon, Australian National University, Canberra, Inisheer, Aran Islands, Ireland, University of Regina and Banff. She thanks the Toronto Arts Council.

Yael Brotman and Martha Eleen will host a Studio Tour afternoon on Sunday March 16 from 1- 4:30PM. Please contact loop Gallery for information (416-516-2581). Registration is limited. 

Image: Trestle, etching on Kurotani and Taiwanese papers, foamcore, acrylic, adhesive 22”H x 30” W x 18”D, 2013

Martha Eleen
My Space

March 29th  – April 20th, 2014                
Reception:  Sunday, March 30th, 2- 5PM
Studio Tour:  Sunday March 16th
                    
loop Gallery is pleased to announce a new exhibition by member artist, Martha Eleen, entitled My Space.

In Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, geographer Yi-Fu Tuan contends that a space requires a movement from a place to another place. Similarly, a place requires a space to be a place. Hence, the two notions are co-dependent.

My Space is a series of paintings about the space between the artist’s skin and the outside world.

Martha Eleen is an honours graduate of Emily Carr College of Art, Vancouver, Canada. Her painting practice explores the relationship between culture and landscape, and has received critical attention in the form of curatorial essays, reviews and publication. Her work has been exhibited in public galleries in Canada, U.S.A, Mexico and Japan.  Eleen lives in Toronto where she teaches painting and drawing at Toronto School of Art. Her work is represented by loop Gallery, Toronto. The artist gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.


Martha Eleen and Yael Brotman will host a joint Studio Tour on Sunday March 16 from 1:00- 4:30PM.  To register, contact loop at (416-516-2581) or loopgallery@gmail.com.

TSA students are invited to register for an advance tour of Martha Eleen’s studio on March 16th at 12PM. Registration is limited for all tours.

www.marthaeleen.com


Image: Felt, oil on wood, 20" x 20", 2014

loop Thanks: AUDAXlaw Sumac.com 

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

a visit with Martha Eleen

 
In Space and Place : The Perspective of Experience, geographer Yi-Fu Tuan contends that a space requires a movement from a place to another place. Similarly, a place requires a space to be a place. Hence, the two notions are co-dependent.

My Space is a series of paintings about the space between my skin and the outside world.



Can you walk us through your house tour? 

Paintings were grouped leaning on the floor, in situ according to the rooms where they had been painted. The tour began and ended in my studio, a separate building, with Waltz, and then went through my son's main floor apartment;  I, Huck, and upstairs to my bedroom; Felt,  and office; unfinished, untitled work. It was very different from a gallery show where work is edited and arranged according to a call and response between them. When the work leaves the studio it begins to take on a life of it's own. I am never sure what I've done while I'm working on it. This tour showed the process and problems of creation while the work is still unresolved.






 


What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

There are two problems with painting. The first is to figure out what a painting is. The second is to figure out how to make a painting.       
                                                                       - Frank Stella





Does your work rely on technology and if so how?

Painters cannot afford to ignore technology as it is now part of art history and is included in our knowledge when we begin a painting. Painting has the same goals as new media art: to connect across space, to make visible the experience of space.    
 


Who’s work is pushing you creatively these days? 

 Dorothy Caldwell 


 
And finally what is on frequent studio audio rotation?  

 Sinners Crossroads (gospel)  
  

Thanks for the studio sneak peek Martha! 
My Space opens March 29th and runs until April 30th at Loop Gallery

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Q & A with Exhibiting Artists Tanya Cunningham and Kim Standord

This SATURDAY March 22nd at 2PM

Join us at loop Gallery for a Q & A session with exhibiting artists, Tanya Cunnington and Kim Stanford, moderated by loop Gallery Director, Stephanie D'Amico.

Cunnington image
Tanya Cunnington, "Calgary, September 2013", Acrylic on paper, 22"x22", 2014

March 1 - March 23, 2014

Tanya Cunnington Cal.endar
For many years, Cunnington has been inspired by personal nostalgia. This particular body of work is derived from the significant events of the last year and a half of her life, and the many changes within that time frame, including pregnancy, the birth of her son, the deaths of loved ones, and moving back to her home town.
Born in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Cunnington now resides in Orillia. In 2001, she received her Associates Degree from the Ontario College of Art and Design, with a Major in Drawing and Painting, and was the recipient of the Eric Freifeld Award for Excellence in Figurative Art. She is a co-curator of “The Still Parade”, an annual Exhibition held at the Arthur Shilling Gallery in Rama, Ontario. Her work has been included in Magenta Foundation’s publication of Carte Blanche Volume II-Painting, and reviewed in Canadian Art Magazine.
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Stanford image (web)
Kim Stanford, "So uh Mike Kelly and Jeff Koons walk into a bar…", 25"x11"x10", socks, acrylic, brass, marble, 2014

March 1 - March 23, 2014

Kim Stanford Dirtier
Dirtier continues Stanford’s absurd investigation into the seemingly insignificant yet pivotal act of picking up other's discarded socks. Stanford has mutated and transformed an entire year’s drudgery (2136 socks) into large imaginative works in order to examine how a monumental repetition of tiny mundane moments informs relations with self and others. Swaths of oft gendered multiples attract and repel, and open a conversation regarding the universal search for meaning within the taken for granted.
Stanford studied visual art at The Toronto School of Art (TSA) and OCADU, as well as critical social theory in her graduate degree from the University of Toronto. This installation is generously supported by a Toronto Arts Council emerging artist grant.
TAC
The artist gratefully acknowledges the support of the Toronto Arts Council.
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loop Thanks
loop Members
John Abrams . Mark Adair . Elizabeth Babyn . Gareth Bate . Yael Brotman . Kelly Cade . Lynn Campbell . Catherine Carmichael . Gary Clement . Tara Cooper . Tanya Cunnington . Elizabeth D’Agostino . Sheryl Dudley . Larry Eisenstein . Martha Eleen . Eric Farache . Adrian Fish . Maria Gabankova . Candida Girling . Sandra Gregson . Charles Hackbarth . Libby Hague . Linda Heffernan . David Holt . John Ide . Sung Ja Kim . Jenn Law . JJ Lee . Jane LowBeer . Ian McLean . Suzanne Nacha . Mary Catherine Newcomb . Ester Pugliese . Barbara Rehus . Rochelle Rubinstein . Richard Sewell . Lanny Shereck . Sandra Smirle . Kim Stanford . Adrienne Trent
loop Gallery
1273 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M6J 1X8 (3 doors west of Dovercourt).
Gallery Hours: Wed - Sat 12 to 5 pm and Sun 1 to 4pm.
Artist is in attendance on Sundays and for the reception.
For more information please contact the gallery director at (416) 516-2581 or loopgallery@primus.ca.