Featured Artist
KYLA CHEVRIER
Submitted by jen on Thu, 01/17/2008 - 19:23
KYLA CHEVRIER
Walking through the Whippersnapper Gallery for their current show PUSH IT, I was most struck by the three enormous photos of a naked girl falling backwards out of a cubicle, getting caught in the chords and desperately trying to free herself from the claustrophobic confines of the office. I was even more impressed when I met the artist, Kyla Chevrier - and she relayed it was in fact her in the photos. Asked if she felt exposed to the world, the recent Studio Arts graduate from Concordia remarked that she commonly used her self in artwork.
The three pieces, entitled TRAIN, WEDGE & SPILL are large scale photo transfers on Saint Amand Paper. They accurately capture the frantic nature we feel when boxed in by neon lights and enraptured with excel sheets, fax machines, tangled electrical chords and voice mail beeps. Chevrier captures this dehydrated environment while also injecting animation, sexuality and a feeling of unleashed animal instincts.
In a day and age where we all capture a zillion self portraits of ourself through a point and click, it almost seems ancient to see life size self portraits. There is an excited confusion that overwhelms you with the scale and use of juxtaposition in Chevrier's work, but this is not by chance. She enjoys mixing new and old mediums. The distorted photographs have a vintage appearance that contrasts well with the use of modern day technology and typical female poses that we are used to viewing amongst lush landscape scenes.
TRAIN, WEDGE & SPILL is bold, sexy and courageous with each photo gracefully but not whimsically falling into the next. Just looking at her work makes you feel stronger.
Chevrier's art will be exhibited at the Whippersnapper Gallery until Jan 26th.
Each piece is priced at $1150
Lauren White
Submitted by jen on Tue, 01/08/2008 - 18:36
by Jen McNeely
From the day I met Lauren White, aka Raymi-the-minx, I’ve admired her tenacity, honesty, wild spirit and gritty humour.
Whether striking a pose in a bathroom, opening up her fears and depressing thoughts for the public to scrutinize, taking photos of itsy bitsy charms she loves, strutting into a bar at 3 am with a mini skirt, knee socks and big fluffy hat or writing a book – White is an artist from her pinky finger to the clothes in her laundry basket. Most know her as the gutless girl who storms the net with notes, posts and photos most would dare not to do or say, but now she’s showing the public a new thing – her painting.
Her imagination flows much further than the confines of her apartment and creates another world where doing the dishes, eating a burger or feeling ‘blah’ become lively adventures in themselves. As she explains, “…you have to have a big imagination about yourself which is why my blog is full of demented baloney.” It is this baloney that myself and bored out of their fucking mind office drones cling to as a way to save them from slicing their wrists in the paper shredder. Beyond the fantasy outlet that White provides, there is an endearing, psychologically comforting aspect in the fact that we can get a glimpse into another persons life who struggles with their weight,anti-depressants, with getting up in the morning – just like the rest of us.
Like her writing, her painting examines the sarcasm, underbelly and dirty corners of culture. She strips celebrities of their gloss and glamour and smacks them up on the canvas for what she really sees in them.
Her paintings of bone thin Nicole Ritchie, hunched and half naked Lindsay Lohan and disastrous Courtney Love make me laugh. They accurately capture the nonsense which is the current state of our pop culture, or as White accurately describes, “noxious, sickitating and addictive”.
Like Lohan and Ritchie, White has also grown up in the public eye. Obviously not the kind that chases her around with cameras, but she has put herself out there for all to see since she was seventeen – way before any one was blogging and describes that time as being ‘lonely out there on the web’. Seven years later, she has seen the Toronto blog scene grow from a small group to a gigantic business, and although there are tens of thousands of Toronto blogs out there – Raymi’s still charges ahead as one of the most honest and daring of them all.
So yeah…go check out her art at Crooked Star and if you haven’t already – get addicted to one of Toronto’s most talented young creative forces:
http://www.raymitheminx.com
Crooked Star
202 Ossington
Jan 8 – end of month
Papersnake Jewellery
Submitted by Lizzie McNeely on Tue, 12/11/2007 - 17:56
by Lizzie
The time of holiday parties is upon us and, with it, the awkwardness of small talk with great-aunts, that dude who lives in the basement apartment, and your boyfriend’s co-worker. Make it easy on the stuttering fools; wear conversation piece jewellery by Allison Wells of Papersnake Jewellery. People can’t help but comment upon her piggy necklaces, donkey ass pins, literature earrings and scissor cufflinks, all affordably priced between $10 and $60.
I’m speaking from experience. This weekend I stirred a commotion at a party with a pair of dangly earrings that Allison made out of museum gift store-like pterodactyl figurines: pure flights of whimsy that Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus would wear. Friends started cawing and flapping their arms everywhere, channeling their inner dinosaur / bird.
Allison, a Material Art and Design student at OCAD, wants her jewellery to encourage such playful and humorous reactions. Based on the feedback she’s received, I’d say she’s achieved her goal. One customer loved Allison’s most popular piece – a sterling silver scissors necklace – so much that she not only wore it everyday, but also photocopied it and had an enlarged image of the pendant tattooed beside her crotch! Now that’s customer loyalty.
My favourite piece is the 2-D interactive birdcage. You get a silver birdcage necklace ($75) then buy different bird pendants that can be hung inside or bird broaches that can be pinned on your shirt to create the illusion of the bird flying away. Each additional pendant or broach costs $35. Every day you can have a new, subtly different look.
Allison will have a booth at the Clothing Show next weekend listed under Papersnake Jewellery. Some of her pieces can also be found at Frock (97 Roncesvalles), Distill Gallery (55 Mill St, Unit 56) and Made You Look (1338 Queen West). But, she also invites people to check out her website, www.papersnake.ca, pick pieces they like and then meet up at a café to finalize transactions. These treasures are perfect for Christmas treats or for self-indulgent buying.
Aleks and Sylwia Bartosik
Submitted by jen on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 15:51
When I saw an image of artist Aleks Bartosik and her sister Sylwia holding hands emerging from an alley clad in dainty dresses and adorned with HORSE HEADS I was immediately struck with the beauty of this image.
For those of you with siblings, their performance art will likely conjure up images of childhood when playing little people, lost orphans or backyard pioneers was so powerful that any sense of reality was thwarted by an overwhelming imagination. Everyday problems like parental fights, looming homework or schoolyard bullies could be conquered with an escape through play.
One memory that particularly comes to mind is when, for what seemed like days, my sister and I created an entire community of families with magazine cut outs. The naming process, breakdown of ages and relationships was so thorough that we felt like Gods. In one fell swoop I decided a tornado would hurl through the village strewn across the bedroom floor.
The organized imaginary world was ruined instantaneously and all our efforts to create a cohesive environment vanished. Being the older sister, I had control over these Mother Nature catastrophes, and my poor younger sister was left crying and deflated feeling like her careful hours of time devoted to these paper people was for nothing.
GAME OVER.
These major decisions then were indicative of an age where play began to disappear. Being ten or so at the time, I had grown sick of the village and decided that I'd rather wander downstairs and watch TV. However, for the younger sibling this was devastating, as she was nowhere near the end of the game.
How do we as adults return to this world where reality is frozen and play dominates our mind and spirit completely?
As adults we drink, dance and screw to have fun. This is how we remove ourselves from the routine of hard work, difficult times and stress. Perhaps if we adorned ourselves in costume, and held hands through the streets or tapped into our inner child more often we wouldn’t require so many vices, and would return to a spot in time where things stood still and closet doors led to magical worlds. It’s difficult to do this for several reasons, but perhaps the scariest being that if we try we may fail and be struck with how distanced and jaded we’ve become since childhood.
I asked Aleks what inspired her and she responded sincerely:
People. I'm inspired by the particularities, delicacies, sensitivities, beauties and obsessions held within relationships between lovers, siblings/twins, friends, strangers, or themselves. I like to observe the visible (and accessible) interactions between people and the situations they are placed in and re-create my own scenarios and my own environments and narrations.
If people were to walk away and express your Horse Head art in a few words, what would you want them to say? What is the thought that you want people to leave with having seen this work?
I want the viewers to have experienced some sort of a visual pleasure. Entered some sort of an imaginary land or situation. I am not particularly sure what I would like them to say, but I know what I would like them to experience. Perhaps they may say something like: "That was strange." in a delightful sense or a frightened sense. The Horse Heads (a work in progress) are rooted in a larger and deeper narrative, but I purposefully want them to appear playful and child-like.
Unlike most of the Featured Artists, I found it very difficult to sit down and write about the HORSE HEADS. The sight of them swarmed me with memories, feelings and emotion; the fragility of childhood, power of the imagination, and preciousness of magic.
Some art is difficult to verbalize yet makes us feel completely alive. I have described the HORSE HEADS performance as best I can and can only hope that if you are walking down Queen Street one day and are greeted by two sisterly mares, that you become overwhelmed with soft childhood memories – the kind that pull at your heart.
Beyond cavorting through the streets with this enchanting performance piece, Aleks Bartosik is also an accomplished painter. You can view her work at:
http://www.aleksbartosik.com/
http://aleksssstuff.blogspot.com/
Her sister Sylwia Bartosik is also an accomplished artist:
http://www.myspace.com/sylwanka
The World of Lesley Loksi Chan
Submitted by Olga Barsky on Wed, 11/14/2007 - 14:08
REEL ASIAN: Canadian Spotlight
The World of Lesley Loksi Chan
by Olga Barsky
Leslie Chan is no stranger to getting recognition for her work. Earlier in the year, Leslie received her second nomination followed by a second win at York University’s Cinesiege Awards. Other winners came and went, receiving their awards, shaking hands with the event’s sponsors, and posing for pictures. But Leslie’s like no other. She went up on stage, received her award, and took off, running as fast as she could right out the Bloor Cinema, forgoing the post event glad handing.
This is the Leslie Loksi Chan way. Her spunky, audacious attitude permeates her work, which ranges from quirky alternative dramas about brothels to playful animated shorts dealing with rape.
Looking at Leslie – with her messily endearing hair, colorful embroidered dress, and naughty smirk, you’d never guess that Chan is in her late twenties, let alone a mother. In fact, Leslie regularly involves her family in her work – from using her relatives’ stories, to casting her sister and son Piper as actors; she’s even co-written a short film with Piper.
Besides her boundless productivity, Leslie already holds degrees in anthropology and women’s studies. She is currently finishing up film production at York University. It is this well-roundedness combined with motherhood and an insatiably curious attitude towards life that separates Leslie’s work from the rest. Her films and videos combine conventional cinema with an animated twist. Her characters are innocent and loveable while her themes dark, often dealing with love, sex, and womanhood.
Painfully clever and truly unique, Leslie Chan’s work will first make you laugh, and then leave you unsettled and in thought. One more thing, when you go to see her films this Saturday; prepare to fall in love, with the wonderful world of Lesley Loksi Chan. We all do.
FILMOGRAPHY
i no i no
Through quaint collections of everyday objects and sharp unflinching wit, i no i no (2005) reveals some of Chan’s most painful moments in a video-diary about her sexual past and personal beliefs. Analyzing our complicated relationships to cinema, she tells us about her recurring dreams about The World of Suzie Wong (1960). Resisting all expectations to assume the role Suzie Wong, who like Chan is a young Chinese woman with an illegitimate child, Chan instead imagines herself as the protagonist, Robert Lomax.
Compost Mon Amour
In Compost Mon Amour (2007), we are introduced to the brief romantic history of Louanne Chan, and discover that when you are a single mother, fresh romance cannot simply end with a broken heart.
Bacon & Bovary
Co-written and starring her son, Piper, Bacon & Bovary (2007) is a story about a mother and son divided on the subject of bacon and books
Traveling to Tuesday
A tale of unrequited love, Traveling to Tuesday (2007) is about a woman who falls in love with a fox and must build a time machine so that she can be with him forever.
Wanda & Miles
In a narrative based on Chan’s grandmother who lived in a brothel, Wanda & Miles (2007) is about carrying the weight of heavy histories from one home to the next. Told from a child’s hopeful perspective, she continues to remind us that when times are difficult, we must always look for new ways to hold on to things.
Nadia Tan
Submitted by Olga Barsky on Wed, 11/07/2007 - 18:28
NADIA TAN
This week we thought we’d try something different. Instead of looking at galleries we decided to look at the Internet, more specifically Facebook. What started out as a social utility tool, Facebook has undergone a massive overhaul. Within a matter of months it was unrecognizable, and profile pages were bombarded with all sorts of crazy applications.
Most of these I find too complicated, unnecessary, or hard on the eyes. However, one application that stands out is Graffiti, which allows Facebookers to vandalize each other’s walls using a dumbed down Photoshop-like program. Most of these drawings are less than spectacular and play into inside jokes between friends, but Nadia Tan’s graffiti stylings are out of this world.
A filmmaker by trade, Nadia Tan’s graffiti has graced the Facebook pages of her closest friends and coworkers. At one point, Tan’s graffiti was so in demand, that she began whoring out her drawings in exchange for votes for a film festival she had entered. Nadia may not have won the festival, but she has certainly won over our hearts with her super cool, intricate drawings!
Stephanie D’Amico and Lindsie Canton
Submitted by Olga Barsky on Tue, 10/30/2007 - 17:39
Stephanie D’Amico and Lindsie Canton
When I think of art school, I think of those awful group critiques where students pseudo-intellectually bash each other’s work. There’s the stoner who submits his clearly unfinished painting under the guise of minimalism. The chick, with the electively shaved head, who glues her hair to canvas amongst depressing rants and mystery substances as some sort of forward-thinking, feminist anti-colonial bullshit. Next is the smart ass who worships Duchamp and submits plastic baggies filled with used floss. The class stands around this cacophony of crap as the professor tries to muster up some sort of positive comment about each piece. Ring the alarm.
It was at one of these critiques that I first came across Stephanie D’Amico and Lindsie Canton. Friends since grade nine, they broke every art student stereotype. Their work possessed maturity well beyond their years; they lived and breathed art. I quickly moved to the easel closest to them, in hopes basking in their skills.
Their current exhibition, “Peripheral Fields,” seeks to revive representational painting, that beautiful time in art history when a painting was enough to stimulate and visually entice, before the world ran amuck with conceptual and performance art.
I ask them to describe their work in three words. Stephanie chooses “bold, confrontational, and introspective.”
Lindsie has some trouble, she goes back and forth a couple times before deciding on “meditative, mystical, and immediate.”
Indeed, whenever possible Lindsie works in the lotus position, cross-legged on the floor. I listen in amazement as she delves into an intense conversation on charkas and energy centers. She speaks about her preference to work outside, but not when it’s too cold because her paints would freeze, “ice ice baby” she belts out, and we all erupt in laughter.
Lindsie used to work in a variety of mediums but has over the last year developed, what she calls, a watercolor fetish. She likes to work fast in order to capture the energy of what she’s doing. She’s completed works from anywhere between 15 minutes to 2 hours, - “it’s economical too” she jokes. Due to the time constraint, she’s forced to work with smaller sized paper, anything bigger would cost her $30 a sheet. “I can’t afford that!” she exclaims.
Stephanie is inspired by Romanticism, most notably by Eugene Delacroix. She is especially fascinated by the emphasis of shaping with colour that is characteristic of the “ism.” She prides herself in working against the cult of popularity of artists like Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp, as well as exploring taboo subjects through her work.
So why should we go out of our ways (York University, Keele campus) to see their show? Because it’s not something we can find anywhere else. These ladies are less than thrilled with the modern day art scene, and they’re not too happy with what the downtown galleries choose to showcase. They’ve termed this type of art a “non-visual practice filled with sensationalized ideas.”
What are their favorite pieces in the show? Lindsie likes “View from Cuma” (landscape above). She painted it in Italy using the ocean water for her watercolors, and sand from the beach, for a funky salt effect. This small painting took her about 15 minutes to complete (including drying time) and she has no recollection of ever working on it.
Stephanie’s favorite piece is a work in progress (portrait above). It is a four by four foot oil painting on a canvas, which she stretched herself. She credits this physical bond with the work for making it her most prized piece in the show.
So why should YOU attend this show? To see a beautiful collection of painting that you can visually immerse yourself in, but most importantly, to see two young artists, who are well on their way of ushering in a new “ism.” That and free food of course!
Stephanie D’Amico’s work can be found at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16650017@N05/
Lindsie Canton’s work can be found at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindsie_87/
Where: Gales Gallery, 105 Accolade West Building, York University
When: November 5th, 7pm-10pm (Reception)
Show runs from Monday Nov 5th to Friday November 9th
The Monster Factory
Submitted by jen on Wed, 10/03/2007 - 10:46
THE MONSTER FACTORY
…ever wanted to know what one would look like? If you go to King and Sudbury you will find a bright loft office space with a giant friendly pickle puppet hanging from the ceiling, play-do critters lining the bookshelves and monsters lined up in the hallway as if greeting you in a parade. They aren’t necessarily scary monsters but peculiar characters that have complicated personalities and experience human conditions like panic attacks, excitability, frustration and anxiety. Each monster is equipped with a little backgrounder like:
Philip has trouble getting out of bed in the morning
Heather tries to avoid big family get togethers
Despite her best efforts, Joan can’t shake her reputation as being a bit of a ‘wild card’.
These well crafted and deep characters spawn from the creative minds of three good friends, Rhya Tamasauskas, Bliss Man and Adam Dunn. They certainly took a risk in 2003 when they started The Monster Factory, but have grown extremely well and have a very loyal fan base. The “Heartbrakers” were the first crew of Monsters birthed and now they have 68 characters, with the newest 8 named, “Forgotten Lore” to be introduced this coming Thursday evening at the Gladstone .
Although it may seem like the dream job, it is a TON of work. Even as I visited the factory for a twenty minute chat, they didn’t stop patching on eyes and sewing up bottoms. Unlike most toys that are mass produced in China , each of these critters is put together with great attention to deal and artistic craftsmanship. When asked what the best part of the job was they responded unanimously that working together was the most rewarding.
The monster maker trio all come from video / film backgrounds, and this is one of the routes they are currently exploring to expand into. With each monster having such strong character and expression it’s hard not to visualize them with voices interacting and moving around.
Although many of their sales are done through gallery, art and craft shows – the monsters are starting to be move into creative Toronto boutiques like Magic Pony.
I will definitely be heading to the Gladstone this Thursday evening from 7:00PM – 12:00AM to meet Wilma, Sally and the rest of the Forgotten Lore.
Monsters are priced between $22 -90, and make WICKED unique gifts – just saying.
Meet the other characters and find out more about the Monster Factory - http://www.monsterfactory.net
Elana Ginsberg
Submitted by jen on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 13:44
If you walk North of Queen Street on Shaw, you will meet a pleasant surprise: The Smith Café & Gallery.
Elana Ginsberg rented the space nine months ago and has since created a most inviting and relaxed live/work situation. On the first floor is a coffee shop that doubles as a jewellery store and on the second floor is her apartment…how utterly romantic. After years of splitting her time between bartending and working on her craft she decided that it was high time she found a balance that allowed her to spend ample time on what she loved best – creating beautiful objects with her hands; and thus took the giant leap to owning her own business. Elana works in silver and gold. Her pieces are full of character, life and good taste. The Stag’s Head necklace is what caught my eye on a few occasions and led me to approach Elana for a meeting. Resting on the bones of your upper chest, this piece is both incredibly strong and powerful while being dainty and feminine, and has the flexibility to be worn with jeans and a cut off rock shirt or a black GUCCI cocktail dress. The silver hand carved Stag necklace is priced at $245 while the 14k Gold one is $1950. Beyond her work, Elana represents other jewelers whose work she falls for, my favourite is by far the Gun Cuff Links priced at $195 by artist Calvin Munroe. Sexy. Next time you are walking down Queen West, take a few minutes and walk north 30 feet on Shaw, grab a latte and gaze at the wares – perfect for a major gift to someone you love.
Beverly Owens
Submitted by jen on Tue, 09/18/2007 - 11:45
Beverly Owens art is haunting yet warmly familiar and comforting.
She currently has a solo show, “Trigger” at the Eastern Front Gallery at Queen and Broadview. She explains choosing the title Trigger “to represent that millisecond, that particular time frame that activates a memory flash.” And although the images from which her work spawns took only a millisecond to take, they capture an entire event, lifetime and even era.
Her work is a combination of digitalized vintage photography mixed with a highly textured medium called encaustic, or using wax as a pigment. Previously Owens worked as a sculptor, and incorporating this art form allowed her to maintain layers, textures and density in her paintings.
Being an art form dating back thousands of years, mixing encausting with digitally manipulated photos adds to the premise that memories aren’t locked in time. The wax, being thick and sometimes cloudy – also lends mystery to the concept of time. Owens describes her work TRIGGER as, “plucked from an unfinished story on the cusp of documenting a graspable memory, something about to be further explored but now frozen.”
Owens takes great care, and pleasure, in digging through old black and white photos and finding the characters who reach out to her. She will extract from the old photos the personalities that speak strongest to her, and piece them together with characters from other photos, often removing much of the background details as a way to hone in on the subject matter. Viewing the art, you will find yourself examining the subjects with care and becoming mesmerized by the each character.
Like most riveting artwork, Owens work demands a stretch of the imagination, time to construe a story and a sort of empathy towards the subject matter. I’m not sure if it’s the mix of mediums, the careful selection in photographs, the way she chooses to place each character – or the synergy of all these choices, but her work is without a doubt alive.
The pieces at Eastern Front Gallery are priced between $1000 – 3900 and will only be up until September 23rd, so if you are heading to Bonjour Brioche this weekend for brunch, or need a wonderful gift for a major birthday, head East.
http://www.easternfrontgallery.com/
If you can’t make the exhibition, check out her website:
http://www.beverlyowens.com