Jane LowBeer and Rochelle Rubinstein's Q & A Photos with Lanny Shereck as Moderator

Rochelle Rubinstein,  Lanny Shereck and Jane LowBeer

Loop Presents: Libby Hague and Sung Ja Kim Chisholm

Libby Hague

Synchromesh

March 30th – April 21th, 2013 

Reception: Saturday, March 30th, 2- 5 PM

Artists’ Tea Party with Sung Ja Kim Chisholm

Sunday, April 14th, 2- 4 PM

loop Gallery is pleased to announce a new exhibition by loop member Libby Hague entitled Synchromesh.

Moving backward and forward in time, the artist connects her most vivid visual memories of growing up in Quebec with her current studio practice. Borduas, Riopelle, Pellan, Molinari's ink drawings, ceinture fléchée, the Main, red and silver roofs, winter, the river, the forests in winter, the forests in autumn, birch trees, church steeples, the cross on the mountain, stained glass, her family together...all slide easily into her print and sculpture studio work and emerge from an incremental additive process that moves towards complex recollected sensations. Like a net cast over different elements, thread, rope and wire combine to hold these past and present components in a delicate tension, presenting an abstracted view of Quebec from afar, but close to the heart of an Anglophone who left. In the ongoing debate about the place and role of non- Francophones in Quebec, Hague considers what Quebec means to an English artist.

The exhibition will also feature "Backbone", a new expandable, suspended sculpture made of rope and 24 pulleys suspending in turn, its own internal collection of smaller sculpture.

Hague studied fine art at Concordia. Recently, she completed a residency in Ireland and exhibited at the Galati Visual Art Museum, Romania; Chung Shan National Gallery, Taiwan; Impact 7, Melbourne, Australia; IPCNY (NY and Austin) and The Civic Art Museum, Cremona, Italy. Her most recent shows in Toronto were Be Brave! We are in this together, YYZ, 2012, Gravity Drawings, Loop 2012 and Sympathetic Connections at the Art Gallery of Ontario, 2011. She is represented in many public collections including the Donovan Collection at the University of Toronto.

Please join the artist in celebrating the exhibition opening on Saturday, March 30th from 2-5 PM. Don’t miss the Artists’ Tea Party at loop with Sung Ja Kim Chisholm on Sunday, April 14th from 2-4PM.

For more information, visit: www.libbyhague.com Image: Acting on Impulse, woodcut, rope, wire, cord and acrylic on wood panel, 11 x 14 x 2 in, 2013

Sung Ja Kim Chisholm

Hope

March 30th – April 21th, 2013 

Reception: Saturday, March 30th, 2- 5 PM

Artists’ Tea Party with Libby Hague
Sunday, April 14th, 2- 4 PM

loop Gallery is pleased to announce a new exhibition by loop member artist Sung Ja Kim Chisholm entitled Hope.

Kim’s latest body of work endeavours to formally translate the concept of hope. For Kim, the journey through life is a quest to come to know ourselves through our relationships with family and friends. These relationships are shaped by happiness, disappointment, bitterness, lightness, darkness, excitement, and occasionally even by despair. In all circumstances, hope is a sustaining force that allows us to transcend these emotions and continue moving forward.

In Hope, Kim captures a concept tied to the future and suspends it in the present for a momentary aesthetic consideration. Successive layering of various textured materials evokes the differing emotional states of life. Layers of fabric are stacked and built up, much like the present continually envelops the past. Glimpses of bright colour peak through darker hues to remind us of the ongoing renewal of hope throughout life.

Kim is a Toronto-based, Korean-Canadian artist and long-time member of loop Gallery. She has had group and solo shows in galleries in both South Korea and Canada and has also been retained for numerous private commissions. Kim is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design and she teaches art in her studio, as well as at a private school in Etobicoke.

Please join the artist in celebrating the exhibition opening on Saturday, March 30th from 2-5 PM. Don’t miss the Artists’ Tea Party at loop Gallery with Libby Hague on Sunday, April 14th from 2-4PM.

Image: Hope, mixed media, 2013.

Join loop members LowBeer and Rubinstein for Q&A with moderator Lanny Shereck

Join us for a Q & A with LowBeer, Rubinstein, and moderator Lanny Shereck on SUNDAY March 24 at 2 PM Jane LowBeer: Seams | Rochelle Rubinstein: SCRAP FINAL DAYS:  Thurs, March 21, 12-5pm.  Fri, March 22, 12-5pm.  Sat, March 23, 12-5pm.  Sun, March 24, 1-4pm. In her latest body of work, LowBeer borrows scenic views of rolling farmland as seen from her hill-top studio to create abstract images which reference the patterns of fields, the gestures of grass under snow, angled barns, and forest lines. Using a sewing machine to combine off-cuts of both old and new prints and monotypes, the artist has developed collages with textured traces that evoke erased marks, pentimenti and ghostings. LowBeer is a mixed media artist living in downtown Toronto. She trained as a printmaker at Atelier 17 in Paris; monotypes have been her medium of choice for more than a decade. In Toronto, her work can also be found at the Nikola Rukaj Gallery and Open Studio. SCRAP consists of three distinct parts: an installation of hanging books, and two large-scale wood panels. Its inspiration comes from varied sources, including Aztec codices, Hebrew text, ancient Equadorian pottery designs, the bold graphics of Nancy Spero, and the histories, quirks, and sorrows of Rubinstein’s family. Rubinstein is a Toronto- based printmaker, painter, fabric and book artist, community arts facilitator, and curator of Mon Ton Window Gallery. Her work has been exhibited in such diverse places as Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Yeshiva University Museum, New York; Print Triennial, Estonia; and McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton.

Loop @ ART SOUTERRAIN

Loop Gallery member Sandra Smirle and former member Yvonne Singer were selected to participate in this year's edition of Art Souterrain in Montréal.

Opening as part of:

In this fifth edition year, Art Souterrain is bringing together artworks under the common theme of Labyrinth. The exhibited works explore the serpentine complexity of a passage, whether composed of a single winding pathway or replete with intersections, dead ends and wrong turns intended to confuse or impede those who dare to enter. The theme hints not only at the filligreed course of the subterranean city, but also at the intricacies of the art world itself – most particularly the contemporary art world, where it is so easy to get lost.
There are more than 120 projects from local, national and international contemporary artists, spread across 14 zones of Montreal’s underground, over a network of 7 km. Art Souterrain's invited city for 2013 is Barcelona. 

The show runs until March 17th and is offering both free guided tours and a free downloadable audio guide made available through the iPhone.

 

Sandra Smirle, 

Sous-Bois, laser cut birch plywood. 30" x 30', 2013 

Sous-bois explores geographies of otherness by transforming maps and aerial images into laser-cut drawings. A labyrinth is not always a series of alternate paths and dead ends; it may consist of a single path winding towards the centre and out again. In a world of pervasive monitoring, where choices are limited and influenced by the awareness of surveillance, one may find one’s way into the “sous-bois” - on a journey originating in an urban maze of ceaseless scrutiny and winding towards the centre of an obscure underground labyrinth.

Sandra Smirle is a mixed media artist who uses aerial maps to create laser cut drawings. Her work explores how new technologies impact the way we view our world. Her piece is a survey about seeing and being seen. 

Currently, she is a MFA Candidate at Concordia University in Montréal.

  

http://www.artsouterrain.com/fr/sandra-smirle/

http://www.loopgallery.ca/loop/S._Smirle.html  

http://www.sandrasmirle.com/

  

 








Yvonne Singer,
The Game of Life: 1 step forward, 10 steps backwards, vinyl floor piece, 2013

Inspired by Milton Bradley « The Checkered Game of Life » (1860), the Toronto base artist, Yvonne Singer is proposing for Art Souterrain 2013 her interpretation of the theme of labyrinth, the idea of life and politics as a board game that are filled with obstacles we have to navigate. The Game of Life board game is marked with some of the political hotspots/conflicts in the world. The participants will navigate the path on the floor, following instructions to move forward to a safe spot or backwards to a hot spot.

Yvonne Singer is an Associate Professor at York University. Her installation works employ multi-media techniques, often with cryptic texts, to articulate cultural issues of disjuncture and perception. She is particularly interested in the intersection of public and private histories.
 


http://www.artsouterrain.com/fr/yvonne-singer/

Opening This Week: Jane LowBeer and Rochelle Rubinstein

Sunday March 3, 2 to 4 p.m. is the Opening Reception for Jane LowBeer: Seams and Rochelle Rubinstein: SCRAP The exhibition runs from March 2 to March 24, 2013. The Artist Talk, moderated by Lanny Shereck, is Sunday March 24 at 2 p.m. Inspired by the scenic views from her new hill-top studio overlooking swathes of rolling farmland and cedar woods, Jane LowBeer has created a suite of abstract images which reference the patterns of fields, the gestures of grass under snow, angled barns, and forest lines. Seams (2013) Using a sewing machine as both pencil and glue, the artist combines off-cuts of both old and new prints and monotypes. The sewing holds the integrity of the rag paper and the stitches act as both lines and seams. Unstitched pieces create subtle changes to the collage, leaving textured traces that evoke erased marks, pentimenti and ghostings. In response to the large and elusive qualities of landscape, LowBeer presents a body of work that is textural and direct. LowBeer is a mixed media artist living in downtown Toronto. She trained as a printmaker at Atelier 17 in Paris; monotypes have been her medium of choice for more than a decade. During her artistic career she has garnered prizes and exhibited in Europe, New York and Montreal. Her works are in many private and public collections, including The Victorian & Albert Museum in London and the Biblioteque National in Paris. In Toronto, her work can also be found at the Nikola Rukaj Gallery and Open Studio. SCRAP, a new exhibition by loop member, Rochelle Rubinstein, draws inspiration from varied sources, including Aztec codices, Hebrew text, Nancy Spero's bold graphics, ancient Equadorian pottery designs, and the histories, quirks, and sorrows of her family. 31 hanging accordion-folded books, in an installation named SCRAP, are connected through shared themes of repression, ambiguity, loss, pleasure, memory and its displacements. SONOGRAM, block-printed, painted and carved wood panel (2013) SENESCENCE and SONOGRAM are two large-scale, block-printed, painted and carved wood panels. In SENESCENCE, the framework is a repetition of the Hebrew text of Kaddish, a mourner's prayer that addresses the releasing of attachment to mortal existence. In SONOGRAM, the central image is based on a fetal sonogram, but also resembles a pond, consisting of dozens of prints of fish, babies, stones, socks, and flying women. The pond echoes amniotic fluid, nourishing and protecting new life. Surrounding the pond/sonogram are layered representations of rural Ontario's vegetation and hills. Seen from a distance, the morass of images dissolves into abstraction. Rubinstein is a Toronto- based printmaker, painter, fabric and book artist, community arts facilitator, and curator of Mon Ton Window Gallery. Her work has been exhibited in such diverse places as Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Yeshiva University Museum, New York; Print Triennial, Estonia; and McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton.

Adair and D'Agostino Closing Sunday February 24!

Sunday is the last day to see Mark Adair's The Hungry Throat of the Sea. It is the final installment of Death Dreams a Martini, Adair's decade long project employing miniature charcoal drawings.

Sunday is the last day to see Elizabeth D'Agostino's Nature Collapse, which examines relationships within the natural world inspired by botanical and entomological research.

loop is open Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.

Gareth Bate's 2012 Newsletter Update

Check out what loop member Gareth Bate has been up to in his annual newsletter! 

Included will be the 800 portraits he just finished for the Jewel Net of Indra installation:  
to learn more click the link below:

http://www.garethbate.com/newsletters/2012_newsletter.html

Mark Adair & Elizabeth D'Agostino Opening Photos

 

Thank you to everyone who came to Mark Adair's and Elizabeth D'Agostino's opening reception on February 2. More photos can be found on our Facebook page here.

If you'd like to learn more about Mark and Elizabeth, there will be a Q&A with invited guest Alex Jansen coming up on February 16 at 2pm. More information to come! 

Learn more about Mark Adair’s and Elizabeth D’Agostino's work!

Invited guest Alex Jansen will be facilitating an Artists' Talk with Mark Adair and Elizabeth D'Agostino on Saturday, February 16th at 2pm.

Opening February 2, 2 to 5 pm: Mark Adair and Elizabeth D'Agostino

Mark Adair, The Hungry Throat of the Sea, charcoal on paper, 4 x 4 in, 2011 The Hungry Throat of the Sea is the final instalment of Death Dreams a Martini,Adair's decade long project employing miniature charcoal drawings. The new works reveal the fate of Death's Children as they are first taken, then separated, then re-united. Adair has added nearly thirty new drawings to the sixty or so completed between 2004 and 2011. Inspired by the art history of the fourteenth century in western Europe (think plague, war and starvation) Adair created this long narrative series about Death and his adventures in a world increasingly threatened by our collective behaviour. TheHungry Throat of The Sea will also include two new large drawings that will be added to the three previously exhibited at loop in 2011. Adair is a graduate of York University (BFA 1979) and the University of Victoria (MFA 1982). He was active with the Torontoniensis Collective before joining loop in 2004. Elizabeth D’Agostino, Nature Collapse, episode 1. silkscreen in Gampi tissue, charcoal on paper, 22 x 30in, 2012. Working with the notion of longing and belonging, Nature Collapse examines relationships within the natural world inspired by botanical and entomological research. D’Agostino draws from observational notes and re-counts specific sites to create new roles within a fabricated landscape. By assembling hybridized forms, objects of curiosity and deliberate combinations of biological imagery, Nature Collapse reflects the integration between form and function within the natural world. D’Agostino is an artist and educator living and working in Toronto. She received her BFA from the University of Windsor and her MFA from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, IL. She has exhibited in Canada and internationally. Recent exhibitions of her work include: Harbourfront Gallery, Toronto, Ontario (2012); Art Gallery of Algoma, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (2012), Okanagan Print Triennial, Kelowna Art Gallery, British Columbia (2012). Her work can also be found in many private and public collections including the University of Changchun Jilin, China; Frans Masareel Centrum, Belgium; and Ernst and Young, Canada. Please join the artists in celebrating the exhibition opening on Saturday, February 2nd from 2-5 PM. Learn more about Mark Adair and Elizabeth D’Agostino’s work during an artists’ talk with invited guest Alex Jansen (Pop Sandbox) at loop Gallery on Saturday, February 16th at 2PM.