Elizabeth Babyn and Sandra Smirle at loop Gallery

Elizabeth Babyn and Sandra Smirle

loop Gallery is pleased to announce exhibitions by loop members Elizabeth Babyn entitled Sacred Connections and Sandra Smirle entitled Turvy.

Intrigued by Fibonacci’s number sequences, sacred geometry and our inter- connectedness with everything, Sacred Connections launches Elizabeth Babyn’s mixed media ‘Unity quilt’ with ‘truths’ contributed from the general public. The quilt is shown with depictions from sacred geometry and the natural environment, as well as a mixed media installation designed to receive truth offerings from gallery visitors to facilitate the ongoing growth of the ‘Unity Quilt.’

Elizabeth Babyn obtained her BFA in Drawing and Painting at the Ontario College of Art and Design. She and her husband relocated from Caledon, Ontario to Saskatoon in the early spring of 2011. Babyn has participated in group and solo shows in Ferrara Italy, Toronto and the surrounding area, with galleries that include Propeller, Spin, loop, SGI, and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. She has been a loop member since 2003.

Turvy continues Smirle’s exploration of geographies of otherness, translated from aerial maps into hand and laser cut drawings. These works explore a narrative at the intersection of light, shadow, time, and place with special attention to how navigation and data-capture technologies twist and ‘tirve’ our world view, and how we as viewers are equally subject to observation by others.

Sandra Smirle is a mixed media artist whose work explores how new technologies distort our view of the world, and how we in turn are viewed by these mechanisms designed to track our movements.Smirle’s work is included in private and corporate collections in Canada, Australia and Europe. Her work was selected for inclusion in The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, published by Princeton Architectural Press. She is currently a MFA Candidate at Concordia University.


June 23 - July 15, 2012
Reception: Saturday, June 23, 2012, 2-5 PM
Q&A Session: Sunday, July 15th, 2012, 2-3PM


Images: (top) Unity Quilt (detail) and Truth Offering (installation, detail) mixed media, 2012; (bottom) Turvy, machine routered plywood, 2012      

Review of Ester Pugliese's Work by R.M. Vaughan

Empirical Spaces #2 by Ester Pugliese 2011

Art critic R.M. Vaughan of the Globe & Mail included an invitation to his readers to visit Loop Gallery for the last weekend of Ester Pugliese's series of paintings called Empirical Spaces. He says "Like some unformed dream coming into slow but inevitable shape, Pugliese’s works invite, and reward, a long, free-associational gaze." The complete review can be read here.

The gallery will be open today from noon to 5 pm and tomorrow from 1 to 4 pm. Another not to be missed show is Sandra Smirle's exploration of randomly selected locations called "Like/Unlike and other circular decisions".

Installation Shots: Sandra Smirle

Documented by Brian Burnett.

Like/Unlike and other circular decisions continues Smirle’s exploration of randomly selected locations, translated from aerial maps into large-scale cut drawings.

As we settle into a digitally networked world of unrestrained surveillance, allegiances are cast and recast with spontaneity and abandon. Just as we effortlessly ‘like’ and ‘unlike’ in social media, so too can the information come too fast for us to make decisions about the real or figurative direction of our lives.

Here the viewer is confronted by two maps: one like, and the other unlike, wherever it is — or was. Or perhaps they are one and the same place: a Rorschach ink blot, a kaleidoscope view of origin, destination and sentiment projected in shadow play. Maybe that’s where it’s going anyway, again, however the vote is cast.

Translated as ones and zeros, decision-making becomes easy — accessible and artless. Movements are instantaneous, if not without consequences.

The show continues until April 10, 2011 at Loop Gallery.

Ester Pugliese and Sandra Smirle at loop Gallery March 19 - April 10, 2011

loop Gallery is pleased to announce exhibitions by loop members Ester Pugliese entitled Empirical Spaces, and Sandra Smirle entitled Like/Unlike and other circular decisions.

Empirical Spaces by Ester Pugliese 2011

Ester Pugliese’s Empirical Spaces is a series of mixed media paintings/drawings, which outline architectural / theatrical spaces and observations of the built and natural world, using sound and hearing as points of reference. The works identify spaces in which sounds resonate readily. The underlying abstract forms in these works are like internal organic structures. The outlines that float above the abstract ground are representations of Italian theatres, opera houses and church layouts. The layers present a challenge to the eye to perform in a way similar to the way our ears can discern a chosen sound amidst a din. Constructing a mental picture of each outline engages one's short term visual memory.

Ester Pugliese is a Toronto artist who has exhibited her work in Canada and England. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University in 2001, studied Painting at Leeds University in England and completed a post-graduate certificate in Arts Administration/Cultural Management in 2004. She is currently the Administrative Director at Loop Gallery and Development Coordinator at Arts for Children and Youth.

Like/Unlike by Sandra Smirle

Like/Unlike and other circular decisions continues Sandra Smirle’s exploration of randomly selected locations, translated from aerial maps into large-scale drawings.  As we settle into a digitally networked world of unrestrained surveillance, allegiances are cast and recast with spontaneity and abandon.  Just as we effortlessly ‘like’ and ‘unlike’ in social media, so too can the information come too fast for us to make decisions about the real of figurative directions of our lives.   Here the viewer is confronted by two maps: one like, and the other unlike, wherever it is – or was.  Or perhaps they are the same place: a Rorschach ink blot, a kaleidoscope view of origin, destination and sentiment projected in shadow play.  Maybe that’s where it’s going anyway, again, however the vote is cast.  Translated as ones and zeros, decisions-making becomes easy – accessible and artless.  Movements are instantaneous, if not without consequences.

Sandra Smirle is a mixed media artist whose work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions and juried group shows, and is in private collections in Canada, Australia and Europe.  Recently, her work was selected for inclusion in The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, published by Princeton Architectural Press.  Sandra graduated from Concordia University with a B.F.A. in Experimental Design.

Please join the artists in celebrating their opening receptions on Saturday, March 19 from 2-5 pm.

A Review of Loop Member Sandra Smirle's Show at WARC by R.M. Vaughan

R.M. Vaughan of the Globe and Mail wrote a review of Loop member Sandra Smirle's show at WARC. The article was published on Saturday, November 27, 2010 and can be read in its entirety here.

Sandra Smirle at the WARC Gallery

An extract of the article is included below: 

Sandra Smirle at Women’s Art Resource Centre Gallery
Until Nov. 27, 401 Richmond St. W., Suite 122, Toronto; www.warc.net

Today (Saturday, November 27, 2010) is your last chance to catch Sandra Smirle’s haunting shadow puppetry at Women’s Art Resource Centre.

Using table-sized, laser-cut circles of Plexiglas, thick creamy paper cut by hand and a huge 10-foot by 14-foot sheet of Tyvek (an industrial polyethylene that resembles canvas), Smirle crafts topographical cut-out maps of random street corners. She then projects lights through the maps, creating a dancing interplay between the lit surfaces and their crisp shadows.

Mapping, Smirle’s wispy shadows argue, is an inexact science – one as susceptible to the vagaries of perception as any other decoding process. To wit, Smirle culls her maps from imagery gathered by satellites, a system that sells itself as indisputable. But by metaphorically and literally putting the technology under the spotlight, she turns these allegedly infallible geographies into fluttering, ethereal speculations, questions their reliability.

No space is wholly knowable, no matter how many angels we can now count on the heads of pins.

Staying in the loop

The TIAF is over and it is back to regular programming on the loop blog.

Here is what loop members are up to.

Spot On by Sandra Smirle

SPOT ON, a mixed media installation by loop member Sandra Smirle, opened at WARC Gallery on Saturday, October 30. In her show, she explores ways of perceiving place by using "randomly selected locations, translated form aerial maps into large-scale cut drawings" on paper, plexiglass and tyvek. These drawings are hung out from the wall creating a "shifting interplay of light and shadow" that informs what the viewer sees and how the work is interpreted. WARC Gallery is located in 401 Richmond and the show continues until November 27, 2010.

During a recent question and answer session with loop members Candida Girling and Yael Brotman which was moderated by William Huffman, Larry Eisenstein had his sketchbook out. He posted his drawings on Artpost. Click here for the link.

Yael and William by Larry Eisenstein 2010

Jennifer Matotek was interviewed about loop gallery for an upcoming issue of Urbane Magazine. Stay tuned for the link.

More of loop at ArtToronto 2010

Tonight is the opening gala at ArtToronto 2010. Do stop by at Booth #1022 to say hello. Here is another sampling of some of the work available for purchase by loop Gallery artists at the art fair this weekend.

Warbler I by JJ Lee, 2010
Encaustic on canvas, 16 inch diameter
$900

Been & Gone, 100 random temporal observations by Sandra Smirle, 2009
Hand cut archival paper, 9x12 inches
$250

Ancient Pottery Collection 4 by David Holt 2005
Acrylic on linen, 14x14 inches
$850

Sandra Smirle at the Board of Directors

Been & Gone by Sandra Smirle 2009

Opening tomorrow, December 10, 2009, is the show 100 Random Temporal Observations at the Board of Directors, 1080 Queen Street West (at Dovercourt). Loop member Sandra Smirle used 250 xacto blades in creating the above work and invites you to join her on Friday, December 11th from 7-9 pm.
The show continues through to December 20th (Thursday - Sunday 12-6 pm).

You can also see more of Sandra's work on her website here.