KWT contemporary

Copping, DeMooy at Inaugural Triennial, Art Gallery of Peterborough

2012-03-20T17:05:00.000-04:00

The Art Gallery of Peterborough is celebrating their Inaugural Triennial, March 9 to April 29, 2012.

Brad Copping and Caroline DeMooy have work included in the Triennial.

Brad Copping, Level Conversation, 2005, H 150 cm x D 11 cm x W 28 cm (variable)
glass, vinyl tubing, water

Brad Copping, Raindays, 2001 H124 x W12 x D12cm
hotworked and carved glass, glass tubing, wood, metal leaf, brass

Caroline DeMooy: Reminiscence, 2011, oil on board, 54"x60"

Here's what Gil McElroy (March 20, 2012, Akimblog) has to say:

"Over at the Art Gallery of Peterborough, they’ve just opened their Inaugural Triennial Exhibition, focusing on Peterborough-area artists. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that, of course, if this show is at all representative of what’s happening aesthetically in the area, a heck of a lot of artists are working two-dimensionally. There are a lot of paintings and drawings here. So, as a minority-report kind of person, I’ll focus on some of the things – that is, the objects – in the show, like Brad Copping’s work. You could call him a glass artist, but that doesn’t really do justice to what he’s up to. Copping has two works included here, one of which is a wall-mounted piece entitled Level Conversation. It’s by no means a recent work, but still good to see. Two clear drinking glasses affixed to the wall at slightly different heights are connected with one another by a long clear tube the sags down to the floor and is filled with water. There’s water in the glasses as well, more in the slightly lower one, but the top of which is even with the water in the slightly higher glass. It’s a level, of course, a version of a working tool elegantly and simply reimagined. Kudos."

A Virtual Tour of Fiona Crangle's "Be Prepared"

2012-03-16T16:04:00.000-04:00

In the Upper Gallery, Crangle's "Baroque" Series:

"Rufina", Agatha" and "Cecilia"

"Lucy" and "Catherine"

"Margaret"

"Casilda"

Three from the "Medieval" series, in the Mezzanine Gallery

From L to R: "Catherine", "Dorothy" and "Margaret"

And in the front window:

"Apollonia"

Go here for close-ups and further information.

Artist Statement:

"In art, the idea of human goodness is packaged and delivered to us as beauty. Saints, the definitive do-gooders, are rendered as exquisite creatures: glowingly beautiful, artfully posed, often adorned with arichness usually reserved for more worldly personas. During the Baroque period and especially in the hands of Zurbaran and Caravaggio, the paintings of these perfect young things mix desire with the desire to be good, creating a push/pull response in the viewer. Allowing light and dark to fight for space on the canvas reflects the conflicting nature of the viewer's response.

It was the overlapping iconography of "sainting" and "scouting" that initiated this body of work: hagiographic symbols litter the insignia, motifs and especially the badges of the world of scouts and guides. The trials and stages of each saint's quest towards ultimate goodness can be mapped out via an accumulation of scouting badges. The symbols that throughout art history have visually identified each saint - originally for an illiterate audience- are also found in the Catalogue of Scouting Honours. But the similarity does not stop at the symbolic; both these young female saints and Girl Guides are in pursuit of a goal of self betterment, moving toward an ideal vision/version of themselves through a series of challenges. And importantly, both groups are adolescents.

Adolescence is a short lived period of idealism. Physically, we are at our most ideal, like a young Greek kouros or kore, with lithe and supple bodies poised at the cusp of adulthood. Emotionally, this is a time of black and white belief systems, of unshakeable idealism. The saints depicted in Be Prepared have been chosen because at the root of their stories they are defiantly stubborn in a way that only a teenager can be. They have made choices that no amount of forceful persuasion can sway. Most often their stories involve rebuffing the advances of a man that responds to their physical desirability- the ideal beauty of adolescence enhanced by their innate goodness that polishes it to perfection. This holds true to images of adolescents today- their ripening beauty compels us to stare and in fact demands it. And yet the gaze that returns ours is aggressive and challenging, masking an uncertain reaction to the invitation to become a sexual being. The contemporary faces of the girls used for the blended Girl Guide- saints in Be Prepared are armoured with a modern belligerence.... Look, but don't touch."

-Fiona Crangle (January, 2012)

Virtual Tour of Daryl Vocat's "One Continuous Mistake"

2012-03-14T17:15:00.000-04:00

As you enter the gallery:

"Silent Signals" (2012), aluminum, 22"x44"

"We Never Fear or Falter", (2012), aluminum, 443"x25"

"Who are you!" (2011) aluminum, 43"x30"

"Prints-on-a-roll" (2011) silk screen on craft paper, industrial paper dispenser: a series of three repeating prints in an edition of 100 each

"From Being to Becoming" (2012), aluminum, 38"x35"

"What Obligation Do They Carry?" (2012) aluminum, 42"x21"

Four Archival ink jet prints on baryta paper, edition of 3, 36"x36", as follows, from top clockwise:

"Wearing the Leash of the Universal Contimuum"

"Awaiting Certainty While Contemplating an Inner Situation"

"Performing the Ritual of Dampening the Poisoners"

""The Incantations of Becoming a Better Person"

"...In Their Undershorts?" (2012) silk screened fabric, custom sewn, 52"x30"

"Playing the Game" (suite of 20 etchings) (2012) etching on Somerset paper, edition of 10

And lastly, in the front window:

"An Impressive Introduction" (2012) aluminum, 46"x23"

Click here to see close up images of the individual etchings and ink jet prints.

Exhibition is up through March 31, 2012

KWT contemporary

624 Richmond St West (at Bathurst) in Toronto, Canada

Hours: Wed-Sat, noon-6.

Review for Daryl Vocat's "One Continuous Mistake"

2012-03-03T15:46:00.000-05:00

From the review by Chris Dupuis:

"Not Your typical Boy Scout" Xtra, Toronto, Friday, March 02, 2012

The exhibition’s title had less to do with the collection Vocat is presenting than his overarching experience of being an artist. Originally a reference to the process of lifelong learning through trial and error in Zen Buddhist practice, he found it an appropriate metaphor for his life’s work....

“As an artist, you just keep putting stuff out there, trying to make sense of it and hoping it will resonate with other people,” the York University graduate says. “I think if I keep making mistakes and keep carrying on it’s a good thing. I don’t want to pretend I have all the answers about my work. There’s a vulnerability I like in the idea.”

As with past works, Vocat also makes liberal use of Boy Scout iconography. Often taken directly from the organization’s handbooks, his iconically scarf-necked patch-sleeved boys cavort as they challenge behavioural norms, sexuality and constructs of masculinity. A 12-year Scout veteran himself (that’s Beavers to Ventures for those in the know), much of Vocat’s time growing up was spent within the organization’s fold...

“Once I was away from Scouting for a while I started to rethink what was taught,” he says. “I wanted to be critical of the more militaristic aspects of Scouting, but I am also appreciative of the better parts, like striving to be a good person, being generous and helping other people out.

“Growing up is a pretty loaded and turbulent time, so it only makes sense it’s pretty rich with possibility for art,” he adds. “I remember looking at those Scout handbooks and how pure everyone was. That seemed miles away from my experiences of nearly lighting our leader’s tent on fire and running around in the woods all night in our underwear.”

More

(We'll post installation shots soon!)

Jay Wilson on the role that craft plays in his practice

2012-02-18T15:04:00.000-05:00

An interview with artist Jay Wilson about the role that craft plays in his practice.

Produced to accompany the exhibition 'The "C" Word: A Look at the Role of Craft in Contemporary Art' at the Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough (February 8 - April 4, 2012).

(More)

Pearl Van Geest at Robert Langen Art Gallery

2012-02-17T13:33:00.000-05:00

Better late than never...this exhibition closed last week, but for the record:

January 4 - February 11, 2012

Pearl Van Geest's exhibition "INTO PLACE" includes an interactive video projection and is linked to the Department of Philosophy at Wilfred Laurier University. Van Geest worked with Dr. Gary Foster and presented a lecture for his course, The Philosophy of Sex, Love and Friendship. "INTO PLACE" explores concepts surrounding the human relationship to the physical and natural world. Through this interactive piece Van Geest invites viewers to participate as collaborators in the creation of a large work that reflects ideas around love and desire and the potential consummation of this longing.

Some views of the installation follow:

KWT contemporary Celebrates First Birthday

2012-02-16T16:12:00.000-05:00

The artists and staff (along with a few spouses and partners) recently celebrated the first anniversary of our re-launch with a dinner at the gallery. These pictures pretty much say it all...suffice it to say that I feel lucky indeed to be working with people like this.
A.K.C.

An Interview with Moira Clark

2012-02-11T17:54:00.000-05:00

An interview with artist Moira Clark about the role that craft plays in her practice.

Moira Clark, Jay Wilson @ Doris McCarthy Gallery, Feb 8-April 4

2012-02-10T17:26:00.000-05:00

The "C" Word

Doris McCarthy Gallery

University of Toronto

Feb 8-April 4, 2012

Jay Wilson, Floppy Foam Stack, 2011
Craft foam, bracket, 24 x 23 x 21 cm

Moira Clark, Livadia, 2001
Acrylic on canvas, 101.6 x 137 cm

Guest curated by Richard Mongiat

The "C" Word is a group exhibition exploring the role of craft in contemporary art, through the work of eighteen Canadian artists. Suggesting that “craft” sometimes carries negative connotations, the exhibition celebrates the making of things, drawing attention to the continued presence of craft in the work of well-known contemporary artists.
The artists selected for The "C" Word recognize that their production engages in craft—whether rejoicing in, re-framing, or battling against preconceived notions. Recognizing a diversity of approaches, the exhibition includes works in a range of media, including Gord Peteran’s furniture/sculpture hybrids, Sheila Gregory’s raucous paintings, Jay Wilson’s dollar-store-foam wall pieces, Gerard Gauci’s lush interior scenes, Moira Clark's geo-abstraction and Marianne Lovink’s quirky organic forms. Central to the artists’ work is a love of the process, for the struggle of working with materials and transforming them into objects.
The exhibition is accompanied by a series of video interviews, in which each of the artists speaks about the role that craft plays in their practice, and a publication featuring texts by Shelley Adler, Richard Mongiat and Richard Rhodes. Both the videos and texts will also be accessible on the DMG website, as part of The "C" Word

Dagmara Genda at Neutral Ground

2012-02-10T15:32:00.001-05:00

Dagmara Genda is showing along with Bruce Montcombroux and T+T (Tyler Brett and Tony Romano)
at Neutral Ground Contemporary Art Forum in Regina, Sask. She's installed an amazing vinyl wall drawing, and she writes to us:

"The piece in Regina presented new problems in terms of install but we surpassed them. The premask was barely sticking to the vinyl because of the type of ink used. It was a beautiful rich satin finish but hard to work with. I'm attaching a few snapshots!

Finished piece: 12 feet tall, about 3 feet on the floor and 20 feet wide. The piece is a tracing of a tracing of a tracing. It's an apartment block in Poland, the one I used to live in and where my aunt lives now, that I traced in ink onto a plastic-like material, cut that out, photographed it as a 3-D maquette, retraced it in illustrator, printed it and cut it out to be a two dimensional shadow of it's former self. It references it's flat 3-D state by the white lines cutting through the black that hint at peeling or bending."

Looks amazing, Dagmara...sorry we won't see it in person. But luckily, we still have two more weeks to enjoy your installation here at KWT contemporary.

A not-great snapshot of the wall painting at KWT contemporary...I'll replace it with a better one soon.

Here is curator John G Hampton's statement for "Unplanned Architectures" at Neutral Ground:

"Within artistic production, architecture is a discussion about society and interactions, while within the discourses of capitalism, architecture is a commodity, whose production rises and falls according to periods of growth or recession. "Unplanned Architectures" looks at artists' representation of the architectural plan in our current state of global instability and uncertainty. During the great depression, there was a dramatic rise in "paper architects" (architects who focused on plans for buildings and cities that were never meant to actually be built). Similarly the great recession offers us the unique opportunity to rethink our place in this world; it is a time for architectural experimentation, to examine the philosophical implications of our constructed environments and our relationships with them.

The "unplanned" here is multiple: it is the architectural cousin to capitalism or other unplanned economies (market architecture), it is the architecture of necessity that is borne from crises, it is the unforeseen forms that emerge from buildings as living systems (living architecture), it is the intuitive patching together of previous forms like the Frankensteinian advancement of Western civilization (automatic architecture). As the consequences of sprawl and deregulation become widely apparent, the architecture of our current system is readying to be uprooted, to be rebuilt yet while this market architecture is being dismantled, what will replace it is unknown. The artists in this exhibit use new media, sculpture and installation to provide insight into our current state of limbo. While we demolish the foundation on which we stand, they illustrate our fascination with the collapse, they illuminate our feelings of dread and excitement, they examine failings in analogous architectural shifts, while all along appreciating the beauty of the uncertain and emergent structures that rise from the natural movement of cities, buildings and culture."

Tali Dudin (ArtSync) interviews Jay Wilson and Dagmara Genda

2012-02-10T15:24:00.001-05:00

Tali Dudin's Gallery Hop of January 12, 2012 included a stop at KWT contemporary, for discussions with Jay Wilson and Dagmara Genda. View it here. (at the 6'40" mark)

Virtual Tour of Jay Wilson's "Yes. Yes. Try Less"

2012-02-08T15:48:00.000-05:00

Here's a tour of Jay Wilson's current exhibition at KWT contemporary:

For more information and close-ups of Wilson's work, visit his page on our website, here.

The exhibition runs through Feb. 19, 2012

Globe and Mail: R.M. Vaughan's review of the Wilson and Genda exhibitions

2012-01-28T13:52:00.000-05:00

R.M. Vaughan
Globe and Mail: Jan 28, 2012

Dagmara Genda and Jay Wilson at KWT Contemporary:

"Painter Dagmara Genda and sculptor Jay Wilson are an odd couple, or coupling.No sensible curator would put Genda’s mad, cacophonous paintings of worlds flooded in flesh-pink waves next to Wilson’s meticulous toothpick towers and laser-cut steel assemblages. But common sense is a bore.

Genda is a part of a burgeoning school of painting I am dubbing the New Neo-Expressionists (okay, yes, that tag needs work). In such paintings, the strategy is to draw the viewer in via a whirlwind (or whirlpool) of kineticism, with bold flourishes of blended colours, and then hold the viewer tight with feverish daub-and-swipe brushwork juxtaposed against clusters of maniacally detailed illustration.

Wilson, on the other hand, is about as open to accident as a heart surgeon. His works are so exquisitely crafted and make no gesture toward covering their labour-intensiveness, so that they make you a bit light-headed and cause the hands to tremble in a sympathetic attack of nerves.

The connection between the two artists is thus one of point-counterpoint. Genda masks her labours with decoying, bold strokes. Wilson practically sits you down and makes the work with you.

Pick your favourite style of high-wire act."

Opening Night Scene for Genda and Wilson: January 12, 2012

2012-01-28T13:37:00.000-05:00

Dagmara Genda and Jay Wilson: Jan 12-Feb 19, 2012

2012-01-11T18:34:00.000-05:00

KWT contemporary is proud to present two solo exhibitions of new work

by Jay Wilson and Dagmara Genda

                                    opening reception with artists present:
                                Thursday, January 12, 2012 from 6 - 8 p.m.

Lower Gallery

Jay Wilson: "Yes. Yes. Try Less."

Jay Wilson, "Sterling Mountain 2", 2012: solid sterling silver, approx. 9" x 9",

"This show of recent work consists of both labour-intensive toothpick pieces as well as graphic, colour-field, wall-mounted foam and aluminum abstractions. The work is at once obsessively detailed while being approachable in both colour and materialiality.

The toothpick works depict herds of elk with typographic declarations held high in their antlers that vaguely announce sentiments such as Above All Else and Reckless Abandon, spelled out with twigs and safety matches respectively. For me, these declarations are not only words to heed but also evocations of both optimism and hope in a non-hierachical battle of suggestion vs. meaning.

Contradictions abound in the exhibition. Hand-pencil-crayon-coloured toothpick elk pairs read YesYes, or Try Less, while assuming push-me-pull-you configurations. Ordinary toothpicks are re-envisioned as cast sterling silver toothpick structures; one a Tatlin-esque sketch, the other a facetted mountain. The pieces speak of a process that is both highly structured and the developmentally random.

Other works entitled Patternpattern are inclusive collisions of pattern and colour. A decade ago, I saved orange peels that I had peeled all in one piece, the results of which have been enlarged and laser cut in aluminum. Each silhouette is mapped with colourful sheets of craft foam. The resulting topographies resemble islands but more importantly to me, are simple, almost gestural declarations of two structures overlapping and informing one another."

-Jay Wilson (January 2012)

Jay Wilson is an artist/educator from Toronto, Canada. He is a full-time professor of Design in Art and Art History, a joint program between Sheridan College and the University of Toronto, Mississauga. He has shown both internationally and locally and served on the Board of Mercer Union, Toronto and Oakville Galleries, Oakville. He was the inaugural recipient of the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Artist Prize.

He would like to acknowledge the support of Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council.

Jay Wilson is represented by KWT contemporary.

Mezzanine and Upper Gallery

Dagmara Genda: "Tracing Tomorrow"

Dagmara Genda, "Palace with Apartments", 2012 (detail). ink and acrylic on paper, 29.5" x 73"

"Tracing Tomorrow is the latest iteration of my interest in the production of space and identity. I explore these notions through tracing lines to make new territories, surfaces, definitions and objects. I'm interested in one line in particular, the historically problematic and shifting division between East and West. I make use of this blurry division by tracing Soviet architecture that bears an uncanny resemblance to American capitalist buildings. These structures, so pregnant with the promise of a better tomorrow in their time, are drawn together to form perversely patterned spaces that lack a centre of gravity.

Yesterday's future and how it might leave us wanting today, is a common idea in post-communist and Eastern European scholarship. A post-communist world is often described as a terrain of broken promises, nostalgia, competing narratives and instability. Increasingly this description applies to the so-called Western world. The global financial crisis, coupled with environmental crises and the persistence of war, has not only fuelled doubt in a system that was to mark the "end of history" but has brought up the question of what sort of system, what kind of tomorrow, awaits us?

Tracing Tomorrow tries to delineate, through a literal act of tracing, what the future might look like but not as a futuristic, identifiable territory. Instead it highlights the problem of producing a totalizing vision of a future space. This act of delineation is the main problem I wish to address in my drawings. To delineate is to define, to mark a territory or to create a space-how we do so is informed by a myriad of factors. My drawings are made from a complex system of tracing that starts from traced architecture and ends with traced paint strokes. Forms weave in and out of each other, mixing foreground and background, delineating features and dissolving into nothingness. The way we identify things is tentative, always hovering at the edge of non-existence. This formal aspect of the drawings is a way for me to find new ways of identifying what we see while also pointing our attention to the very contingency of our sightlines."

-Dagmara Genda (January, 2012)

Dagmara Genda was born in 1981 in Koszalin, Poland, and now lives and works in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She holds an M.F.A. from the University of Western Ontario. In addition to her studio practise, Genda is active as an arts writer and is Director at AKA Gallery, an artist-run centre in Saskatoon. Genda has received many awards and honours, including most recently, the 3rd Ward Artist in Residence, Brooklyn, NY (2011).

Dagmara Genda is represented by KWT contemporary.

KWT contemporary
624 Richmond Street West
Toronto, ON
M5V 1Y9
tel. 416-646-2706
gallery hours: wed-sat 12-6

www.kwtcontemporary.com www.kwtcontemporary.com

Media inquiries:
Aurelie K. Collings, Ph.D.
Director and Curator

Upcoming: Dagmara Genda and Jay Wilson

2012-01-04T15:59:00.001-05:00

My holiday reading has included John Roberts' The Intangibilities of Form, in which he discusses the role of labour, skill and "de-skilling" in contemporary art. Fitting then, that with Jay Wilson and Dagmara Genda, the 2012 exhibition schedule at KWT contemporary opens with work that is so labour-intensive, so skilled, and frankly, so beautiful, that it makes my heart ache. Spinning straw into gold, each of these artists takes humble material as inspiration (paper and ink for Genda, and toothpicks and orange peels for Wilson), and through their skill and transformational vision, elevates the everyday to the extraordinary.

Jay Wilson, "Yes. Yes. Try Less." and Dagmara Genda "Tracing Tomorrow" opens on Jan. 12.

If you saw our booth at The Toronto International Art Fair a couple of months ago, you'll no doubt have a vivid visual memory for Wilson's tall "stalagmite" or tower built of toothpicks, and Genda's remarkably detailed large scale drawing. Click here for our earlier post with installation shots. Here is a close-up of the tower under construction:

Jay Wilson: JayAlbertNandiniDrewMarkEmmaJesseCynthiaManojMattAngelaShelleyHowardKathleenChris
HeatherBrentKatherineLauraGwenMeilMalloryLilyanMatthiewEdithMartynaMoira (detail) toothpicks, white glue; 98cmx415cmx102cm

And here is the Genda drawing we showed at TIAF, followed by a close-up detail:

Dagmara Genda:
UNTITLED (wallpaper) (2009) mac-tac, acrylic, pen and ink; 60x 48in (sold)

A very close detail of Genda's "UNTITLED (wallpaper)"

Here is a teaser of what is to come in their upcoming solo exhibitions:

Jay Wilson: no title for this work yet. It is a small sculpture, made of toothpicks cast in solid sterling silver.

A frustratingly small image of a very large drawing by Dagmara Genda.
PALACE WITH FLESH AND HAIR (2010), latex paint, pen and ink, paper, 60x48in

More info., and images, to come...

"Yes. Yes. Try Less" and "Tracing Tomorrow" will open on January 12, 2012, and run until February 19, 2012. Opening Reception Thursday Jan 12 fro 6 to 8 at KWT contemporary.

Alex D'Arcy: "Nocturnes"

2011-12-12T17:30:00.001-05:00

KWT contemporary is pleased to welcome Alex D'Arcy back to Toronto, and to her first solo exhibition with the gallery, following completion of her graduate studies at Central St. Martin's School for Art in London, UK. This new suite of paintings represents a visual synthesis of her experiences in the built urban environments of the old and new worlds of London and Toronto. While developing this body of work, D'Arcy immersed herself in Chopin's piano sonatas, which informed the rhythm, movement and colour sequences of the paintings themselves. The result is an exhibition of oils on canvas which is, in totality, cooly elegant, restrained, and yet vibrantly alive.

Regarding her latest work, D'Arcy states: "Chopin's Nocturnes are melancholic, elegiac demonstrations between form and mood. Counterpoint to create tension, a technique for Chopin, evokes my own tandem interests as a painter. As with the music, weaving through the compositional structure of the paintings are broken chords that animate the space around them. Many of the works in this exhibition begin from the formal structure of optical relations, or how subtle variations in color will strive to become as different from each other as possible when put side by side. The seemingly neutral ground in the work becomes the support, an animated space, an active context that holds and dissembles, conceals and reveals. These relationships, among the individual colours and in relation to the space that holds them, can foster mood or provoke emotional experience."

Here is a virtual tour of the current exhibition, "Nocturnes", which closes on Jan 7, 2012. Please note that we are open by appointment only from Dec. 22 to Jan. 7.

In the window: "Untitled #5", 2011, o/c, 36x48

Seven small studies, 10x12, and preceeding those, "Grey Map", 2010, 38x54

"Snowblind" 2010, 51x39, and to the right, "Untitled 12", 2011 and "Untitled 10", 2011, each 26x48

Far right: "Nocturne 5", 2011, 38x54

Detail showing brushwork

"Nocturne 3" 2011, 38x54

Detail of Nocturne 3

"Nocturne 5" 2011 38x54

" Untitled 14", 2010, 28x40

"Turn III", 2011, 38x54

Heather Nicol: "What You (may) Want"

2011-12-03T14:48:00.001-05:00

In the "better late than never" category, here is a virtual tour of Heather Nicol's exhibition, "What You (may) Want", which closed on November 19, 2011. Nicol is a multidisciplinary artist, whose practise includes hybrid audio sculptures, sound and light installations, and independent curating.

Exterior shots give a first glimpse of the red "Salon" installation, and the two sound sculptures, "The Object" and "The Lesson", with narratives by Tahireh Lal and Martin Julien, respectively.

The Salon Wall:

"The Lesson"

"When I Get Married (should I get married): featuring the spoken spontaneous thoughts, wishes, hopes and opinions of 20 school girls on the subject of weddings and marriage, from interviews collected by Nicol over several years. The unvarnished truth: surprising, funny and poignant, these childish voices exhibit the keen powers of observation peculiar to the very young.

Small speakers are hidden in the flowers around the perimeter of the sculpture.

"Below the Waist": in which a female voice prescribes an uncannily prescient series of instructions on the proper viewing of art... how close to stand, when to step back, fold your arms, circle the work, and so fort.

A small salon installation in the Mezzanine.

Marina Black: virtual tour of "14 Metres to the Daylight Surface"

2011-11-25T15:56:00.000-05:00

A virtual tour of Marina Black's recent exhibition, " 14 Metres to the Daylight Surface". The exhibition ran from Oct. 20 to Nov. 24, 2011, and chronicles some of her experiences at her recent residency in Donetsk, Ukraine. For further information, check her artist pages on our website, here.

KWT contemporary at the Toronto International Art Fair, 2011

2011-11-10T11:10:00.000-05:00

In no particular order, here are some snaps of our booth on various days at the recent Toronto International Art Fair, Art Toronto 2011.

In the foreground, Jay Wilson's impossibly ethereal 12 ft tall stalagmite. In spite of fragility, it survived a packed Gala evening, and four subsequent days of capacity crowds. From left to right on the walls: works by Paul Dignan, Kieran Brent, Paul Dignan again, Daryl Vocat's amazing roll of 300 screenprints, and a framed Jay Wilson.

Dagmara Genda's monumental mactac and ink drawing, Amy Tungs lovely miniature triptych sculpture, and our vintage mac, pressed into duty for the slide show.

Another view of the back wall on another day.

Two paintings from Kai McCall.

Daryl Vocat...yes, there really are 300 prints on that roll.

Lauren Nurse self-portrait triptych.

Top-0'-Tower

Close up of Jay Wilson's sculpture.

Kieran Brent and Paul Dignan paintings

Jay Wilson's "Above All Else"

Art Sync's Gallery Hop down Tecumseth and over to KWT

2011-11-07T12:09:00.000-05:00

Click here to view Art Sync's October 28 gallery hop, dashing down Tecumseth St. and jumping a block over to KWT Contemporary at Richmond and Bathurst. The fleet-footed Tali Dudin covers Tony Scherman @ Georgia Scherman Projects , Micah Lexier @ Birch Libralato , Corwyn Lund and Stephane La Rue @ Diaz Contemporary  and ends with Heather Nicol and Marina Black @ KWT contemporary (at the 6:19 minute mark on the clip).

Juliusson and Nurse at upArt: installation in progress

2011-10-27T11:09:00.000-04:00

Installation is almost complete for our room at upArt, the alternative art fair opening tomorrow at the Gladstone Hotel. Lauren Nurse has made Habitat 67-inspired chrome birdhouse/condos, and Svava Thordis Juliusson offers a selection of her wall-and-ceiling-installed spikey, icy and pooling sculptures, upcycled from humble materials such as rope and cable ties. More to come, including icebergs, I am told.

All fitting for the theme of upArt 2011 : Nature/Culture

Opening Reception October 27 – 7-10pm Exhibition Hours October 28-30 – 12-5pm
ArtStars* DVD Launch Party: October 29 – 7-10pm
Curators Talk and Tour Sunday October 30, 2pm
Admission $5

This year, upArt seeks to address interactions between nature and culture; offering an examination of the environmental chaos around us through a distinctly contemporary lens. The Gladstone’s annual contemporary art fair, upArt coincides with Art Toronto and has been a site of experimentation and emergent work for over 5 years. upArt offers visitors a fully immersive experience of site-specific projects by local, national, and international artists. upArt 2011 is curated by Laura Berzadi & Britt Welter-Nolan.

More info here.

BIG DOINGS!

2011-10-27T10:01:00.000-04:00

Nothing like a busy art month to keep you hopping, and keep the blood warm as the temperature plummets! Fall is my favourite season.

On Tuesday of last week, we participated in Art With Heart, with works on auction by the best of the best Canadian contemporary artists, including our own Lauren Nurse and Alexis Lavoie. Word is the auction alone netted over $500,000 for Casey House.

Last Thursday, we opened the Heather Nicol and Marina Black exhibitions at the gallery. Two gorgeous shows, and we'll have a virtual tour up for you soon.

Tonight is Gala Preview night at the Toronto International Art Fair. We are in Booth 1104, in the NEXT section, along the West wall. (hint...look for Jay Wilson's 12 foot stalagmite made of toothpicks...really!.. and Kieran Brent's penetrating portrait Will. We'll be easy to spot.) Also, look for Heather Nicol's amazing installation, Spun Out and Lovely in OPEN SPACE. And check out Svava Thordis Juliusson's Esjublatt, big, blue and anthropomorphic, and chosen by the Art Dealers Association of Canada for their Masterpiece Wall at the fair.

And, at the Gladstone Hotel, opening tomorrow, upArt, Toronto's alternative art fair. We'll have a room-sized installation by Lauren Nurse and Svava Thordis Juliusson (room 207) and an installation by Rachael Wong in the public gallery area.

Lots of pictures to come, I promise. Just need a few extra hours in my day.

Yvonne Singer to present her work at Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art

2011-10-13T15:47:00.000-04:00

WORK LABOUR CREATIVITY

Seminar at Konsthallen–Bohusläns museum in Uddevalla  Sunday 23 October, noon–4 pm
Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, 2011, is titled Pandemonium – Art in a time of Creativity Fever. It touches on issues such as creativity, fictions, utopias and the rapidly changing conditions of today’s politics and economy. An open seminar on Sunday, October 23 at Konsthallen–Bohusläns Museum, aims at deepening discussion on today’s labour market and the wide use of the term ’creativity’.

Linking Pandemonium: Remembering, Forgetting, Learning

 Asma Mahmood, artist and curator from Toronto, Canada  and Yvonne Singer, artist and Professor of Visual Art at York University, Canada, will present their works. Through her practice, Asma Mahmood has engaged as an activist in several areas of thought and action in Canada and in terms of immigrant and diaspora voices –especially in relation to the Indian subcontinent. Yvonne Singer engages with the intersection of public and private histories, and her installation works employ multimedia techniques, often with cryptic texts to articulate cultural issues of disjuncture and perception. Their presentations are followed by a discussion with Professor Gertrud Sandqvist, co-curator of Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art 2011.

More information here.

A lovely time of the year to visit Sweden. Congratulations, Yvonne!

Lavoie and Lafrance: "Nature Deficit" extended to Oct 15

2011-09-30T15:27:00.000-04:00

We have had a wonderful response to the work of our two visiting artists from Montreal, Alexis Lavoie and David Lafrance. Their exhibition, "Nature Deficit" has been extended until October 15, 2011. Alexis will also be bringing in two new paintings for inclusion in our booth at the Toronto International Art Fair at the end of October.

Here is a partial walk-through of "Nature Deficit":

Alexis Lavoie stands outside the gallery, with "Découpe 1" 2011, oil on canvas, 51" x 54"

in background.

Also in the front window: David Lafrance, "Aux Limites du décor" 2011, oil on canvas, 40 x 48.

Our virtual tour of "Nature Deficit" continues inside the gallery with David Lafrance: "Synthétieur" 2010, oil on canvas, 60" x 36".

David Lafrance: Plage Pauvre, 2010, oil on canvas, 36 x 36, Contre le Jour, 2010, oil on canvas
60 x 65, and Fertilité 1, 10 x 12, oil on canvas.

Alexis Lavoie, "Brouillon", 2011, oil on canvas, 66 x 72 and
David Lafrance, "Dépeupler", oil on canvas, 48 x 42

Three by Alexis Lavoie (all 2011, oil on canvas, 48 x 48):
"En Pièces 14", "En Pièces 13" and "En Pièces 10"

Kieran Brent: "New Paintings" extended to Oct. 15

2011-09-24T12:43:00.000-04:00

Kieran Brent (left) with "Will": 2011, oil on canvas, 48"x48"

and (you guessed it!) model Will (right)

Virtual tour of the exhibition:

Rachael Wong: "Markings" extended to Oct.15

2011-09-24T12:32:00.000-04:00

We are happy to announce that Rachael Wong's Markings has been extended for two weeks, until October 15.

R.M. Vaughan had this to say about the installation:

"Winner of the 2010 RBC Glass Award, Wong twists the hard liquid around her little finger like a besotted lover. Seashells and single-cell organisms, intestines and seed pods, all captured in pristinely painted and polished glass, bounce off the gallery walls in a mad cascade. Let’s give her the 2011 prize too."

Wong's artistic practise extends beyond glass. Drawing and printmaking are also an important piece of the puzzle: witness her shimmering, gorgeously complex digital prints on aluminum.

Brad Copping: Untitled (Black Canoes), 2001

2011-09-11T09:36:00.000-04:00

Brad Copping, Untitled (Black Canoes), 2001
blown and acid etched glass, oil stain, wood, paper, 175 x 76 x 20

Brent, Lafrance, Lavoie and Wong open Sept 8, 2011

2011-09-04T11:06:00.000-04:00

KWT contemporary presents three exhibitions of new work featuring Kieran Brent, David Lafrance, Alexis Lavoie and Rachael Wong

Vernissage: Thursday September 8, from 5 to 7 p.m.
September 8 to October 1, 2011

624 Richmond St. W., Toronto

Lower Gallery
Kieran Brent: New Paintings

Kieran Brent, "Untitled 1" 2011 (oil on canvas, 48" x 48")

This is the first solo exhibition for Kieran Brent, a gifted young artist who is a recent graduate of OCAD. Brent explains: "Contradiction is an important aspect of my work. In my paintings I am exploring the boundaries and tensions between paint and flesh, abstraction and representation, stillness and motion, figure and ground."
Kieran Brent is represented by KWT contemporary.

Mezzanine Gallery

Rachael Wong: "Markings"

Rachael Wong, "Pile 2", 2011 (blown glass)

For her first solo show at KWT contemporary, Rachael Wong presents a large wall installation of glass sculpture and painting, smaller glass sculptures, and a series of digital prints on aluminum. She holds a BFA in Glass from the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary and an MFA in Sculpture/Dimensional Studies from Alfred University in New York State.
Rachael Wong is the 2010 winner of the RBC Glass Award.
Rachael Wong is represented by KWT contemporary.

Upper Gallery
Alexis Lavoie and David Lafrance: "Nature Deficit"

In their first exhibition at KWT contemporary, visiting artists Alexis Lavoie and David Lafrance present a series of new "landscape" paintings which explore themes of fragmentation and human desire, in collision with the natural world. Both artists are Montreal-based.

Alexis Lavoie, "En Pièces (14)", 2011 (oil on canvas, 48"x48")

David Lafrance, "Dépeupler", 2010 (oil on canvas, 48"x42")

Alexis Lavoie is the 2010 winner of the RBC Painting Award, and is a recent graduate of UQAM. He states: " In "Nature Deficit", I create zones of uncertainty, places that seem to be both the result of fragmentation and tension between several worlds. These psychological landscapes give rise to a troubled impression of lack and disconnect. Through the traces and scattered remains of past events the nature of these ambiguous locations constantly eludes us. What remains is only a threatening atmosphere, a sense of doubt and emptiness."

David Lafrance holds a B.F.A. from Concordia University, where he was awarded the Guido Molinari Prize. He is well known and respected in the Montreal art scene, as a prolific artist, working in painting, drawing and sculpture, and also as a musician and composer. Of his work in this exhibition, he states: " Nature Deficit Disorder is a contemporary urban affliction. We lack authentic experience with nature; "wild" nature, but also the ritual and celebrations of "deep" human nature. In this context, my paintings could be described as highly delusional and broken landscapes with the elements of nature and culture locked in a strange and struggling balance."

Dagmara Genda @ 3rd Ward

2011-08-18T10:16:00.001-04:00

Dagmara Genda Presents: Building Disaster 

Friday, August 19, 7-10 pm  195 Morgan Ave, Brooklyn, NY  FREE Admission

Dagmara Genda’s work is massive yet intimate, Soviet and American, insistently flat with a resonance achieved through technical ingenuity and a startling story-telling force.
Come celebrate the first NYC show of Dagmara Genda, the winner of the 3rd Ward Winter Open Call. Born in Communist Poland and a self-described nomad of Canada, Genda creates consuming cityscapes that tell of blunt, brutal histories with an uncommon delicacy.
Building Disaster will feature a large-scale, site-specific installation made of intricate hand-cut glossy vinyl that will take over an entire hallway in 3rd Ward. Other works are achieved through repeatedly layering rounds of wallpaper-like painting and drawing. Both painstaking methodologies confuse spatial relationships and create a visual tension with texture and a weighty world turned upside-down. By juxtaposing poverty and opulence, destruction and elegance, Genda has created a cacophonous riot that thrills.
Featuring DJs, live accordion music from Matt Dallow, and complimentary drinks and pickles from Spear's Spears.

RSVP at www.3rdward.com/rsvp

Dagmara Genda is represented by KWT contemporary, Toronto, Canada

August Vacation, Fall Schedule

2011-08-03T13:29:00.000-04:00

We're on Vacation

KWT contemporary is closed for the month of August. We'll be checking e-mails and voice mails from time to time, but please don't be disappointed if we do not get back to you with our usual efficiency.

Looking Ahead to Autumn:

September Exhibitions
Opening Reception Thursday September 8 from 5 to 7 pm
Lower gallery:
Kieran Brent: New Paintings
Mezzanine Gallery:
Rachael Wong, winner of the 2010 RBC Glass Award
Upper Gallery:
Two visiting artists from Montreal
Alexis Lavoie, winner of the 2010 RBC Painting Award, and David LaFrance: New Paintings

October Exhibitions
At KWT: Heather Nicol: Installation. Marina Black: Photography
At Art Toronto (Toronto International Art Fair) Find us in the NEXT section, along the west wall
At UpArt, Gladstone Hotel: Svava Thordis Juliusson and Lauren Nurse: Installation
At Art With Heart/Casey House Auction: Alexis LaVoie and Lauren Nurse

November Exhibitions
Lower Gallery:
Alex D'Arcy: New Paintings
Upper Gallery:
Jan Ollner: New Paintings

Virtual Tour of Summer Group Show

2011-08-02T16:44:00.002-04:00

Jan Ollner Woman Seated on a Bed, 2011, acrylic on board, 30x36


Jan Ollner.... Pearl Van Geest, Shift, 2010, o/c, 60x48

Moira Clarke, Ambient Sonnet, 2006 a/c 48x60


Paul Dignan, Untitled, 2011 a/c, 60x60 and Lauren Nurse Untitled (deersheds, rubber) 2010

Lauren Nurse

Paul Dignan, Untitled, 2005, a/c, 36x36

Alex D'Arcy, Snowblind, 2010, o/c, 51x39

Svava Thordis Juliusson, Esjublatt, 2011, plastic cable ties

Paula Savasta's installation of 69 small paintings (winner of William Huffman Award)

Jay Wilson, Reckless Abandon, 2011, toothpicks, safety matches, 76x36

Two prints by Daryl Vocat, painting by Cheryl Ruddock and print by Liz Parkinson

Paul Dignan painting, with Jay Wilson installation in background

Carolyn DeMooy painting, in background: video still by David Frankovich and digitized polaroids Paula Savasta

Heather Nicol, Salon Installation, 2010

Monoprint with flocking by Liz Parkinson and o/c diptych by Fiona Crangle

Emerging Artist Forum: Thursday July 28 @ KWT

2011-07-26T14:51:00.001-04:00

The Emerging Artist Forum

The Emerging Artist Forum invites current students, recent graduates and
emerging artists to join us for an artist talk moderated by William Huffman. The
panellists will share and discuss their own experiences of working toward their current positions as young arts professionals and about other potential
opportunities in the visual arts.

Panelists:

Lili Huston- Herterich and Brad Tinmouth

(Directors of Butcher Gallery),

Edward Kanerva

(Programs and PublicationsCoordinator at The Power Plant),

and

York Lethbridge

(Director of Operations and Development at Mercer Union)

KWT Contemporary Thursday July 28, 6-8pm

Please RSVP to: info [at] kwtcontemporary [dot] com 

(Photo Credit: Paola Savasta)

Opening this evening

2011-07-07T10:24:00.000-04:00

This evening, from 5 to 7: the opening reception for Paola Savasta's William Huffman Award Exhibition and our Massive Summer Group Show.

Savasta's "Couches for the Liberated" wraps around three walls of the Mezzanine Gallery...69 miniature paintings of Ikea furniture meticulously installed on a field of green. More is definitely more!

Two large paintings by Kelvin Britton and Kai McCall in the front windows of the gallery set the tone for our Summer Group Show:

The gallery is a blooming, buzzing profusion of colour (with apologies to William James) for our Massive Summer Group Show, featuring paintings, drawings, prints, photography and sculpture by 22 gallery artists.

Moving from front to back through each of our three gallery spaces there are works by Kelvin Britton, Kai McCall, Jan Ollner, Pearl Van Geest, Moira Clark, Paul Dignan, Lauren Nurse, Alex D'Arcy, Svava Juliusson, Jay Wilson, Yvonne Singer, Dagmara Genda, Daryl Vocat, Cheryl Ruddock, Liz Parkinson, Fiona Crangle, Kirsten Johnson, Paola Savasta, David Frankovich, Caroline DeMooy, Heather Nichol and Kieran Brent.

A garden of earthly delights!

Paola Savasta: Winner of 11th Annual William Huffman Award

2011-07-05T15:49:00.001-04:00

Huffman Award Exhibition Reception: Thursday July 7 from 5 to 7 pm at KWT contemporary

The faculty of the Art and Art History Program - a joint BA offered by the University of Toronto and Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning - is pleased to announce Paola Savasta as the 2011 recipient of the William Huffman Award for Excellence in Studio Practice. Savasta explores relationships and systems between people and their treatment of space. She is a recent graduate of the Art and Art History Program. Savasta will present a new body of work in a solo exhibition entitled "Couches for the Liberated" at KWT Contemporary.

Curator and arts administrator William Huffman created this award in 1999 to recognize an especially gifted student graduating from Art and Art History. Huffman has had an extensive involvement on both local and international cultural fronts and has worked with a number of arts organizations such as Blackwood Gallery, Arts Toronto, The Power Plant, A Space, Canadian Art Foundation and Art Gallery of Sudbury. He is currently Associate Director with Toronto Arts Council, a post he has held since 2004. Huffman is a 1991 Art and Art History Program alumnus.

Since its inception the award has recognized Sebastian Koever (2010), Jessica Vallentin (2009), Jaclyn Quaresma (2008), Marko Bursac (2007), Alison S. M. Kobayashi (2006), Tejpal Ajji (2005), Carolyn Tripp (2004), Jared Carlson (2003), Tannis Nielsen (2002), Erin Finley (2001), Amie Tolton (2000) and Heather Robinson (1999).

With "Couches For the Liberated", Savasta has created an installation of 69 minitare paintings of Ikea products, primarily depictions of couches and shelving units, for her exhibition at KWT contemporary. Savasta's installation is a smart and serious exploration of consumer culture and acquisitiveness, but is not without an underlying wickedly quirky sense of humour (talk about turning the dreaded "sofa painting" trope on its head!). We'll have installation shots posted later in the week.
Her statement follows below:

"The culmination of these 69 pieces is a result of four series of panel paintings that I have been working on – each series toying with my growing concern with the location of power in consumer culture. Each series function as proposals or “solutions” for maximizing the potential of a living space. (I would also like to note that my humour is in equal parts with my concerned and suggested analysis). I work with selected images from Ikea catalogues, where I model and manipulate the existing domestic structures. I transfer my constructed images on medium-density fibreboard, which references the material that most Ikea furniture is made of. I use couches in my first two series, as I find them to be most iconic of the living room furniture. My latter series use shelves as a way to employ excess, indecision and possibility.

My first series is a set of 3 tiered black couches, each in a different configuration, with negative space left to suggest the ability to plug in or accommodate existing living room fixtures (such as plants, windows, or television sets). This series explores a Do-It-Yourself aspect of customizing and maximizing the seating space of a living room to a point of absurdity. The shelving in my second and third series depict different configurations of the same subject – each pushing further ideas of combinations and the freedom of decision. My fourth series (the second couches series) allows for colour and pattern and leans towards the consumers and their lifestyles. It again pulls on the availability of too many possibilities and suggests consumer excess and perhaps even boredom or indifference."

Dignan Painting Selected by Canada Council Art Bank

2011-07-05T14:48:00.000-04:00

Paul Dignan's painting, "Cota 1", has been purchased for the permanent collection at the Canada Council's Art Bank. There were 1875 submissions to the collection this year, with a mere 52 selected.

Congratulations, Paul!

(Our Summer Group Show, opening Thursday, July 7, will contain Dignan's recent work, as well as work from an earlier period, making for an interesting comparison in his evolution as a hard-edge abstractionist.)

Terence Dick reviews Johnson's "Prom Storm"

2011-06-14T11:58:00.000-04:00

"To paraphrase Mike Kelley, “an adolescent is a dysfunctional adult and art is dysfunctional reality”: an equation that might explain something of our culture’s ongoing fascination with things teenage. There is a certain appeal to the heightened emotions of youth; it certainly makes for good melodrama; though, having spent the last couple years working with living, breathing young folk, the reality is nowhere near as entertaining as the finely crafted version we are exposed to in films and on television. This Platonic Ideal of adolescence sets the standard even in its carefully scripted failures. For those of us realists, however, who can’t abide by such groundless conceptions, our only recourse is to the material truths of our own past. The trials and tribulations (and sometimes triumphs, but mostly trials and tribulations) of our high school years feed the pool in which we reflect, looking for some clue to our adult selves."

"Kirsten Johnson’s series of prom-themed paintings at KWT Contemporary are rooted in such a return. The short video that accompanies the exhibition is essential viewing for those of us who didn’t peak at graduation. Her refusal to succumb to nostalgia is the first step in a critical, rather than celebratory take on that fraught party at the precipice of adulthood. Intercut with footage of Johnson from the past and a present-day soliloquy on that past are scenes from the photo-shoot that resulted in the paintings. The models she chose to play the part of the revelers seem a tad old to me, but they manage to get the moves of a dancing mass down pat, and the artist does a swell job of capturing those gestures and expressions on canvas. The puzzle is completed with the background newspaper images of storm damage. Without the video, this conflation of two forms of disaster is too simplistic, so even though she distances herself from the autobiographical elements of the project (having the models read her diaries, instead of revisiting them herself), the specific circumstances of Johnson’s past are the real story here."

Read the rest of Terence Dick's column here

A brief trailer of Johnson's short film can be seen here

Paul Dignan at Thames Gallery, Chatham

2011-06-13T13:47:00.000-04:00

Paul Dignan will be exhibiting several new paintings in "Systems Check", curated by Jordan Broadworth at the Thames Gallery in Chatham. The exhibition runs from June 10 to July 24, 2011, with an artist reception coming up this weekend, on Saturday June 18.

Paul Dignan "Cota 1", 2011 acrylic on canvas 48" x 48"

Paul Dignan "Cota 3", 2011 acrylic on canvas 48" x 48"

About the exhibition:

"There is a form of abstraction that is born from the knowledge that painting is process and that paint, like print, television, the Internet – is not simply a conveyor of content but is in-itself the stuff of thought. The artists in Systems Check: Lowell Bradshaw, Mathew Bushell, Ingrid Calame, Paul Dignan, and Angela Leach have each created their own idiosyncratic, methodological approaches to painting. These artists, from Canada and the United States utilize a wide variety of sites, systems and tools in shaping well-defined and deliberate frameworks; each one incorporating varying degrees of chance, mystery and the matter-of-fact. As divergent as their work may appear the artists featured in Systems Check share a common sense of clarity and economy. This is work that avoids painterly pratfalls and bluster while contributing to an expanding vision of painting’s potential."

Yvonne Singer: Installations at KWT

2011-06-08T15:14:00.000-04:00

We are pleased and privileged to present the work of Yvonne Singer, a distinguished Canadian artist who is respected for her contributions as both a practicing artist and educator. In her current exhibition at KWT, Singer presents two neon installations ("IIIII wawawawant " and "if only ") as well as two versions of an editioned installation in plexi, an homage to Louise Bourgeois: "I do, I undo, I redo". By unplanned yet remarkable coincidence, Singer's exhibition was installed at the gallery on May 31, one year to the day from Bourgeois' death in 2010 at age 98.

"I I I I wa wa wa want" is an installation with neon letters, mounted on a pair of opposite-facing mirrors. The self-reflecting mirrors create the illusion of repeating the words to infinity as well as implicating the viewers who are also reflected in the mirrors. The work speaks to our desires. Neon signs are familiar signifiers of commerce in our urban setting and the media advertising that surrounds us promotes our endless desiring. Who doesn't want something? Who hasn't looked longingly at a shop window?

..."if only" is an excerpt from a longer neon work with 3 other phrases; I should have, I could have, I would have... ...if only. The phrases are a lament that references regret and longing for unfulfilled desires as well as a response to social expectations. By reading the words, the viewer is at once in both a public and private space.

...."I do, I undo, I redo" is a phrase borrowed from a drawing by Louise Bourgeois, who wrote these words to describe her working process. For Singer, the phrase succinctly describes the creative process and also functions as a metaphor for the endless routine of our daily life. It can be interpreted pessimistically as a dead end or optimistically as the opening of creative possibilities. The script version (a rendering of Singer's own quirkily charming handwriting) of this plexi/acrylic installation is presented as a multiple, in an edition of three in each of several colours. The typographic version of the same phrase consists of Singer's modification of classic Helvetica, presented in three one-off plexiglass renderings in red, blue or black.

Can't resist ending this post with Mapplethorpe's 1982 portrait of Louise Bourgeois and her sculpture, "Fillette (1968)".

(For more information about Yvonne Singer, visit her CCCA pages.)

Kirsten Johnson and Yvonne Singer: June 2, 2011

2011-06-01T11:09:00.000-04:00

Two new solo exhibitions open tomorrow, June 2, 2001. Join us at the opening reception from 5 to 7 pm. Prom Attire Optional!

Kirsten Johnson and Yvonne Singer will both be present at the reception. This will be Johnson's third solo exhibition with us. We are pleased to welcome Yvonne Singer for her first solo exhibition at KWTcontemporary. Singer is an established artist, distinguished and respected for both her artistic output (primarily text-based conceptual installations in recent years), and for her academic contributions to the Canadian contemporary art scene as Professor of Fine Art at York University.

Kirsten Johnson
"Prom Storm"

Deliberately theatrical, provocative, yet humourous: Johnson's paintings explore the specificity and range of human emotions. Her paintings play with the stylistic traditions of classical portraiture while subverting the formality in favour of social commentary.
In her new series, "Prom Storm" Johnson's oil on wood paintings present portraits of adolescent prom-goers superimposed on tornadoes and other images of extreme weather conditions culled from the internet and historical archives. Her bold, graphic colours lie just below (and sometimes above) the surface of nature. Utilizing realism to the extreme, moments are frozen in time, dynamic actions and reactions are caught in a freeze-frame.
The subjects of the paintings become characters whose personalities are exposed to reveal the storm of emotion and hormones that constitute the typical adolescent Prom experience. Desire, hope, envy, disdain and regret are fully on view. You may recognise yourself.
Accompanying the exhibition of paintings, Johnson presents a video installation which is at turns funny, self-depreciating and poignant, chronicling her own adolescent experience, as understood from her now adult and mature perspective.

Yvonne Singer
"I I I I wa wa wa want"

"I I I I wa wa wa want" is an installation with neon letters, mounted on a pair of opposite-facing mirrors. The self-reflecting mirrors create the illusion of repeating the words to infinity as well as implicating the viewers who are also reflected in the mirrors. The work speaks to our desires. Neon signs are familiar signifiers of commerce in our urban setting and the media advertising that surrounds us promotes our endless desiring. Who doesn't want something? Who hasn't looked longingly at a shop window?
..."if only" is an excerpt from a longer neon work with 3 other phrases; I should have, I could have, I would have... ...if only. The phrases are a lament that references regret and longing for unfulfilled desires as well as a response to social expectations. By reading the words, the viewer is at once in both a public and private space.
...."I do, I undo, I redo" is a phrase borrowed from a drawing by Louise Bourgeois, who wrote these words to describe her working process. For Singer, the phrase succinctly describes the creative process and also functions as a metaphor for the endless routine of our daily life. It can be interpreted pessimistically as a dead end or optimistically as the opening of creative possibilities. The script version (a rendering of Singer's own quirkily charming handwriting) of this plexi/acrylic installation is presented as a multiple, in an edition of three in each of several colours. The typographic version of the same phrase consists of Singer's modification of classic Helvetica, presented in three one-off renderings in red, blue or black.

Trailer for "Prom Storm" by Kirsten Johnson

2011-05-30T14:23:00.003-04:00

More about this in our next post, but for now, a little teaser-of-a-trailer for Kirsten Johnson's exhibition "Prom Storm": new paintings and video installation. Opening at KWT this Thursday, June 2, reception from 5 to 7 (prom attire optional).

(Please note our address is 624 Richmond St. West, at Bathurst and 1 block south of Queen)

Welcoming Alexis Lavoie

2011-05-18T13:19:00.003-04:00

En Pièces (9), 2010
Oil on canvas
121.9 x 121.9 cm

We enthusiastically welcome Alexis Lavoie as a guest artist to our roster, and look forward to presenting his work to a Toronto audience.

Alexis Lavoie, recent winner of the coveted RBC Painting Prize, is featured on the cover of the current issue of "Vie Des Arts", with and article by Christian Roy. The magazine is well worth picking up this month, with articles on Shary Boyle, Nancy Spero, and Marc-Aurèle Fortin among others.

Lavoie's paintings are ambiguously staged set pieces, bearing traces of trauma or violence, incongruously mixed with mundane objects which float, disembodied and untethered across a screen-like ground. These objects are frequently related to children, their games or their toys. The confluence of the serious and the trivial, the bloody and the prosaic, produces an effect which is quite beautiful, but extremely unsettling. This ambiguity is further emphasized by Lavoie's flat, planar and rather matter-of-fact style of laying down his paint.

As mentioned in the article, Lavoie had expected to have a solo show this spring at Galerie Orange in Montreal, but unfortunately, the gallery was forced to it's doors at the end of March. Fortunately, I had already been in discussion with him to arrange a show in Toronto. He will have work in inventory at the gallery from September through December of 2011, and plans are in the works for a show in the fall.

Elevator Art Lab

2011-05-10T12:15:00.002-04:00

As any emerging artist soon learns, sitting around waiting for "things" to materialize is not an effective strategy. I am a big admirer of the young artists at Elevator Art Lab. They have taken the bull by the horns, and carved out their own space, with their own resources, and collective effort.

Founded in the fall of 2010, Elevator Art Lab is an independent artist run space in downtown Toronto, encompassing a gallery/event space & resident artists studios. They are a collection of contemporary artists working in the areas of craft, visual art and performance, seeking to broaden the potential at the intersection between artistic disciplines.

Two Elevator members have been visiting artists at KWT (glass artists Aaron Oussoren and Sally McCubbin) and two are represented artists at KWT: sculptor Annie Tung and installation artist and printmaker Rachael Wong. Annie Tung comes from a metalsmithing background, and Rachael Wong from a glass background. Both make art which, while rooted in process and material, is conceptual in nature. Annie had a solo exhibition with us in January. Rachael was awarded the 2010 RBC Glass Award last fall, and has an upcoming solo exhibition with us this fall.

Elevator Art Lab is having a party this Friday, May 13, 2011 from 3 to midnight, and an open house on Saturday from noon to 6, in their space at 97 Niagara Street. That's about four blocks south of KWT... why not check it out?

Rachael Wong: Installation detail (blown glass elements, paint), 2010.

Annie Tung: Love Spoons (cast silver and brass, erotic love poem by Gwendolyn MacEwen, in Braille, meant to be read with one's tongue), 2009.

At the Frankovich and Cronenberg Reception:

2011-05-08T18:54:00.001-04:00

Before nightfall, and before things got hectic (in a good way!) at the Frankovich and Cronenberg opening on Thursday evening, urban cycling consultant and photographer Yvonne Bambrick arrived and snapped some candid shots, just a few of which are below:

Lower Gallery

Caitlin Cronenberg and gallery owner Kristyn Wong-Tam

Caitlin's dad, David Cronenberg

Upper Gallery: Gallery Administrator Jessica Vallentin with artists Daryl Vocat and Johnson Ngo.

David Frankovich and partner, artist Laura Paolini.

Caitlin Cronenberg is seeing RED

2011-05-05T13:14:00.001-04:00

From Rebecca Spence"s article in the National Post, May 4, 2011:

"Last June, photographer Caitlin Cronenberg spent a full day snuggled up on her couch with her laptop, a cup of tea and a hard drive holding 54 folders filled with scanned photos from the New York Times Canadian Photo Archive. She didn’t move for eight hours as she examined about 24,000 photos, using her gut to decide which ones should be mounted and displayed in RED, an exhibit set to go on display in September as part of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. After several days, she had narrowed the photos down to 40. By the time the exhibit launched, there were only a dozen.
Christopher Bratty, co-founder of toromagazine.com and Black Angus Media, purchased the archive’s collection of photos in an effort to trace the evolution of Canada over the past century. He then commissioned Cronenberg to use her bold and contemporary artistic vision to curate RED, which is now a part of Toronto’s CONTACT Photography Festival, featuring eight photos from the original exhibit that will be mounted at KWT Gallery until May 31.
The photos from the archive date back to 1910 and cover a diverse assortment of themes. Notable photos of Canadian icons include Pierre Trudeau, Karen Kain and Barbara-Ann Scott, while others feature international figures on official visits to Canada, including the Royal Family and Winston Churchill. But these aren’t the images that will be on display at RED.
“We wanted to use photos that showed Canada in a way that we haven’t really seen before,” says Cronenberg, daughter of acclaimed Canadian director David Cronenberg.
The photographer’s favourite image is QEW at Night, which shows the Ontario highway back when it was just a car stop. Other personal highlights include Virgin Mary on a Plane, which tells the story of a priest who flew a statue of the Virgin Mary all over the world for missionary work; and Nurses in NY, which depicts a group of Canadian nurses in long black coats and hats standing on the roof of the Empire State Building."
read more here

Opening reception tonight, from 7:30 to 9 pm.

Plus de Deux/Pas de Deux

2011-05-05T10:56:00.000-04:00

David Frankovich's "Plus de Deux" is wonderful on the small screen, but seen as it was intended, projected in large format in a gallery setting, it is a sublime, serene and hypnotic contemplation on the human form. Taking his inspiration from Norman McLaren's 1969 classic short film, Pas De Deux, Frankovich has used digital compression artifacts and datamoshing to open up possibilities for representation. Bodies become increasingly abstracted and genders indistinguishable. All that remains is form, colour and movement.

Frankovich is an emerging film maker, and a recent graduate of York University's Experimental Film program. Norman McLaren (1914-1987) was Scottish-born animator and experimental film director, who, during his years at Canada's National Film Board, produced many award winning, internationally recognized short films. He was a pioneer in a number of areas of animation, including drawn on film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation and graphical sound...all long before the advent of digital processes. Among his many honours and prizes (an Oscar, Silver Bear, BAFTA, CC, QC....), he was awarded an honorary doctorate from York University in 1972. It is wonderful to see that his work continues to be an inspiration to young film makers at York University and beyond. Visit the NFB's fabulous website to learn more.

Opening reception, with David Frankovich in attendance, from 7:30 to 9 this evening, May 5, 2011, at KWT Contemporary.

Caroline DeMooy in the studio

2011-05-04T13:50:00.001-04:00

A video by Jasper Savage showing Caroline DeMooy at work in her studio in rural Ontario, preparing for her recent show at KWT Contemporary, "Visible World". (music credit: Sigur Ros)

Frankovich and Cronenberg: Opening Thurs. May 5, 2011

2011-05-03T11:13:00.000-04:00

KWT Contemporary is pleased to present two exhibitions in association with the

Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival

OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday May 5, 2011 from 7:30 - 9 p.m.

David Frankovich: Plus de Deux

KWT Contemporary is very pleased to announce our first presentation of time-based work, as we continue to unroll our new curatorial mission following our re-launch in February.

Starting Thursday, May 5, and running through to May 28th, KWT Contemporary will mount a continuous screening David Frankovich's remarkably beautiful 13 minute single channel video, "Plus de Deux". Frankovich, a very talented young experimental film maker, is a recent graduate of the Experimental Film program at York University. "Plus de Deux" is inspired by, and a tribute to, Norman MacLaren's classic short film, "Pas de Deux,".

Frankovich has used digital compression artifacts to open up possibilities for representation. A technique called "datamoshing" is used to edit the video, which allows for the composition of one shot to be carried over to the next, and transformed by that shot's movement. The image becomes unstable and littered with digital artifacts and traces of previous shots. Colours are swept across the frame by the dancers' movements, like the stroke of a paintbrush, and bleed into one another. The dancers' bodies themselves become transformed, and gender becomes unstable as they transition between male and female forms. A rigid gender binary gives way to a fluid spectrum of possibilities, lying just beyond the represented. The dancers' bodies become increasingly abstracted. All that remains is form, colour and movement.

The film will be available for purchase as a special signed and numbered DVD, edition of 10.

Preview the video here.

Also included in the exhibition are archival pigment prints, (selected stills from the video, edition of 5 each, image size 47" x 20"). Printed on fine art paper, these prints have a dynamic and painterly quality. Figures are captured mid-transition, in between states of maleness and femaleness, in a state of motion between two states of rest. In contrast to the video, in which these moments are fleeting, as prints, they become frozen in time. Consequently, our attention becomes drawn away from the figure as male or female, towards gender as a field or landscape through which these bodies move.

Caitlin Cronenberg "RED: Selections from the New York Times Canadian Archive"

Christopher Bratty, co-founder of TOROmagazine.com and Black Angus Media, purchased the New York Times Canadian Archive with a goal of both preserving this remarkable historical record in it's intact form, but also to use as a jumping-off point for an ongoing artistic project. It is Bratty's intention to invite Canadian artists to select images from the Archive and to provide their own unique interpretations of this historical record. Emerging photographer Caitlin Cronenberg is the first artist to have been invited by Bratty to participate in this multi-year project.

Caitlin Cronenberg's "RED" features interventions and re-imaginings of eight images selected from the New York Times Canadian Photography Archive. Using digital alterations, salvaged barnwood frames, and remote-controlled lightboxes, Cronenberg has produced a dramatic and cinematic narrative, resulting in a succession of revealing glimpses into how Americans have historically viewed Canadian culture, and how Canadians in turn view themselves. Dating back to 1910, the Archive consists of 24,000 images taken by New York Times photographers forming an invaluable cultural record that traces the evolution of Canada as a nation.

In addition to Cronenberg's interventions, framed reproductions of the 8 original images she selected from the Archive will be on display and available for purchase.

Installation Shots: McCall, Britton and Selected Works Group Show

2011-05-03T10:56:00.001-04:00

One last look at our Exhibitions for April, 2011.

Starting in the Lower Gallery with Kai McCall: "The Weightlessness"

And now, up the stairs to the Mezzanine Gallery and Kelvin Britton: "That and This"

On to the final gallery...

The view into the Upper Gallery, Group Show of Selected Works by Gallery Artists.

Paul Dignan painting in foreground, Khang Pham New marble sculpture in background.

Two Caroline DeMooy's flanking a Kieran Brent.

Annie Tung: three new spoon sculptures

Three Pearl Van Geest paintings.

A Kelvin Britton "Rose" painting, sculptures by Svava Juliusson, and a Lauren Nurse self-portrait.

And, tucked away in the reference corner, a Jan Ollner painting and another Svava Juliusson sculpture.

In Toronto: 1,001 Chairs for Ai Wei Wei

2011-04-21T17:27:00.002-04:00

This video was shot at the Toronto action for 1,001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei, an event which took place around the globe on April 17, 2011, to protest the arrest and disappearance of the Chinese artist. Here, KWT artist and event co-organizer Svava Thordis Juliusson discusses the importance of the protest. Her comments accompany a canadianart.ca report by editor Richard Rhodes on the event. (Video courtesy Chris Healey)

McCall and Britton: Exhibitions Opening Sat. April 2, 2011

2011-03-29T15:54:00.002-04:00

Kai McCall: "The Weightlessness"

"Like characters in a work of fiction, the figures in my paintings confront challenges and conflicts as they navigate a variety of enigmatic situations and settings. I think of them as semi-autonomous individuals whose poses evolve as I paint them, and who become defined by the eventual actions that they assume in a composition. However, despite the recognizable imagery and actions of the figures, the overall meaning of the work eludes us. The paintings read more like a work of fiction with the concluding chapters missing; we are conscious of a conflict developing yet the resolution remains suspended in time, the outcome ambiguous." McCall (2011)

Kai McCall received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario. He is a three-time recipient of Canada Council Grants and has works in numerous private and corporate collections across Canada, the United States, the UK and France. This is his second solo exhibition at KWT contemporary. He is lives and works in Montreal.

Kelvin Britton : "That and This"

In his first solo exhibition at KWT contemporary, Britton plays with hi/lo references to icons of 50's visual culture. Vintage toys float, leer, gloat and giggle on gorgeously painted abstract expressionist backgrounds. Britton states: "The act of painting takes the form of a conversation, a unique experience, a journey. A new dialogue is engaged in with each new approach to the work, new layers of discovery are revealed, realms of consciousness, otherwise inaccessible become apparent. The different stages/aspects/ layers of the painting represent a record of a dreamlike encounter. Looking at the evolution of the paintings feels like an archaeological expedition through time and space, through interior and exterior realms, through form and feeling."

Kelvin Britton was born at the Covered Wagon Trailer Park in Fort Garry, Manitoba. After studying Philosophy at University of Victoria, he attended Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, where he studied painting under Gerald Ferguson. He lives and works in Toronto.

***Our new website is under construction, but we have posted images for McCall and Britton on our old site, here ***

Caroline DeMooy Interviewed by Lori Starr

2011-03-29T15:23:00.001-04:00

Lori Starr, art historian and Executive Director of the Koffler Arts Centre, interviewed Caroline deMooy at the gallery last Saturday morning. The interview was aired on ArtSync TV, and we are told that it will become part of a boxed set of interviews of contemporary Canadian artists (in production) which will be made available as a teaching tool for art educators at the secondary and post secondary levels. We are thrilled to know that such an initiative is underway, and we'll post more information about the project as it becomes available. For now, you can watch deMooy's interview here.

JP Robinson: ArtSync Interview on Opening night march 5, 2011

2011-03-29T14:53:00.000-04:00

John Paul Robinson has recently been interviewed by ArtSync about the exhibition "New Work" which will be on exhibit here at KWTcontemporary from March 5 - 26, 2011. You can watch the interview in which Robinson speaks about the themes in his work: time, space, nature, science and personal mythologies, here.

“The work in this new series explores the connections between the sublime nature of natural phenomena, the subconscious, and the fields of physics and biology. The pieces themselves are part of a set of metaphorical symbols that I am building to describe my experience, my place, and my life, to myself.”

Born in 1954 in Toronto, Ontario, John grew up in cottage country 2 hours north of the city. He was first introduced to glass while studying Child Care at Georgian College, Barrie, Ontario. In 1980, after working with children and then alcoholics for 6 years, he built his first glass studio with a friend, who had studied glass at Georgian. In 1982 he was hired by the Ontario College of Art, Toronto, where he worked as a glass studio technician and instructor until 1998. His work has been exhibited internationally, and is represented in public collections such as the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Museum of American Glass. John is presently living, working and teaching in Montreal.

LAST DAY for Caroline deMooy, John Paul Robinson, Chris Langstroth

2011-03-26T13:50:00.000-04:00

Publications for Marina Black

2011-03-08T14:30:00.001-05:00

Marina Black's work is included in "Burn O1 Magazine" a collector's edition representing some of the best photographic essays from the Burn Magazine website, edited and published by David Alan Harvey. The publication includes 25 photo essays and various texts, and was printed in Italy (1000 copies). More information, including how to order, here.

Black was also among the 118 photographers from around the world personally invited by James Whitlow Delano to “share with me one photograph that says to  you, ‘MERCY’” The result is a beautiful book, "The Mercy Project/Inochi".

"The Mercy Project Inochi" is a charity  photo book project featuring the work  of photographers  from Magnum, VII Photo, Noor, and National  Geographic, coming  together to create awareness and raise  funds for hospice and palliative care.

The book has now been released and can be purchased through Amazon (Japan).

From Niko Koppel's recent NY Times Lens Blog article:

"Mercy is commonly defined as compassion, forgiveness, kindness or an act of piety. But photographs of prisoners reaching through bars, a wrestler being contorted by masked men and an infant dressed for burial are among the many interpretations of the word in the book “The Mercy Project/Inochi,” created and curated by James Whitlow Delano.
Mr. Delano’s sister, Jeanne, had terminal renal cancer in 2007 and spent her last months in hospice care. “I felt she got merciful care,” he said “Humane care. She was treated like Jeanne.”

With his emotions still raw from that experience, Mr. Delano set out to draw attention and funding to hospice and palliative care. He reached out to other photographers, asking them to submit work for a book based on the concept of mercy. The response was overwhelming.

And it was frequently surprising, sometimes even a bit confounding. “Everyone’s interpretation is absolutely different,” Mr. Delano said. “I didn’t challenge. I didn’t ask. If you say that’s mercy, that’s all I need to know.”

See more of Marina Black's photography here.

Liz Parkinson at Benedicta Art Centre, Minnesota

2011-03-07T13:33:00.000-05:00

Above image from an installation of Liz Parkinson's "Popular Nature Project", earlier last year at Visual Arts Centre, Clarington.

We recently posted about Paul Dignan's exhibition at the Benedicta Art Centre at the College of St. Benedict/University of St. John in Minnesota. By a strange co-incidence, Liz Parkinson, also a KWT artist is exhibiting there, at the same time, in the Gorecki Gallery. (Note to Paul, Liz and Pearl: try to find a warmer place next time...Minnesota, Banff...brrrr! It's cold enough here in Toronto! )

Liz Parkinson's "Popular Nature Project" is an ongoing accumulation of images that aspires to completion as a collection. Each twelve-inch unit, although an independent composition, is seen as a possible component of the larger taxonomic entity: Popular Nature. Overall the project explores relationships between "natura" and "nature inspired" objects and systems of understanding. The portable scale of individual panels enables them to be worked on while traveling, as such acquiring aspects of the souvenir. Often, added to in the studio and inserted into the logic of the growing collection, the gathered information changs as it is influenced by surrounding references. Each addition and reorganization of the collection presents a revised understanding of what is meant by "nature". And like most collections, it may never be complete nor, like nature, its meaning fully explored.

These small mixed media works are a painterly departure from Parkinson's more traditional printmaking practice, but incorporate familiar techniques and media, including Japanese Paper, Rag Paper with litho, drypoint, relief, gold leaf, flocking, encaustic, plaster, and acrylic painting. Parkinson is widely respected as a master printmaker, but we love this new direction too, and we understand she plans to continue with it in a much larger format in the near future.

You can see images of Parkinson's earlier work (from the "Morphology" series at KWT) here.

Banff Residency for Pearl Van Geest

2011-03-07T10:01:00.003-05:00

Pearl Van Geest is currently Artist-In Residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts. In a recent e-mail, she writes:

"I will be setting up two collaborative Kiss Paintings, one here at the Banff Centre as indicated by the invitation above and one this weekend in Golden BC. For both I will project a topographical map of the surrounding landscape and people are invited to put on lipstick and kiss the places that hold meaning for them. The paintings will be 6' x 9'. I will then make photo emulsion silkscreens from photographs of the kiss marks and use these to make a further series of paintings based the places identified and from sketches and photographs done while visiting the places that are accessible.

In addition - for the installation in Other Gallery here at the Centre I will be adding a large scale grid of "pronto plates" (they act like a litho stone) on which I will have digitally printed the topographical map. When the kiss marks are added I will print these plates much a like litho so for these the contour lines, the tones of the landscape features and the lip marks will all be in tones of black and grey so that the lip marks will be another shape integral to the map.

My project draws upon and extends my ongoing exploration of our connection to and perception of the natural world and the environment, our place in it and our desire to be part of it. The work draws upon the theory of biophilia, the idea that humans have an innate love of nature, as proposed by Edward O. Wilson.

Other ideas are alluded to: for example, in Erick Fromm’s allegorical explanation of the exile from the Garden of Eden story he proposes that humans became aware of themselves as being separate from nature while still being part of it and that this existential dichotomy can be solved by the human powers of love and reason. In Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky, the mystic Father Zossima, says that we should "“Kiss the earth and love it with an unceasing, consuming love.”"

Kiss marks are used for their mutable symbolic significance and also for their remarkable morphological similarity to other natural forms -- suggesting by implication, an essential corporality and an evolutionary connection with the natural world.

Conceptual/process painting and performance art is combined with the language of abstraction, pop art and landscape painting."

Before leaving for Banff, Van Geest began working on a new series of paintings: they are very different from the "kiss" painting, but it is evident that she continues to explore themes of biophilia, exile and connection, and our place in the natural world. We'll post images of her new work in the near future.

See work from Van Geest's recent exhibition at KWT here.

Art Fair Week in New York: Lauren Nurse at Armory Show

2011-03-03T15:51:00.001-05:00

Two of Lauren Nurse's provocative self-portraits have been chosen by the Art Dealer's Association of Canada for at their pavilion at the Armory Show (March 2-6, 2011, Pier 94, # 1511)

"Twigs" and "Horns" were most recently exhibited at KWT in Nurse's solo show, "you are my mirror", which closed this past weekend. These archival pigment prints were produced in an edition of 5 on Hahnemuhle paper. We have one set, available for viewing by appointment at the gallery.

deMooy, Robinson and Langstroth: Opening March 5, 2011

2011-02-26T21:29:00.001-05:00

We are pleased to present three exhibitions of new works by three contemporary artists, each working in a Modernist vein.

Lower Gallery
"Visible World": Caroline deMooy
With this new series of oil paintings, deMooy continues to explore abstractions which are layered and complex, and suggestive of urban architecture and street scapes. DeMooy says:"The work is not based on any specific idea, but rather a feeling or thought that I have about the essence of the world around me. Depending on time of day, climate and seasonal conditions, my experience and my perception, nature provides me with a symphony of information that becomes my palette- much like notes in music. The multi-layered world, with its endless possibilities and outcomes presents a vast riddle of visual, emotional, psychological and spiritual information. These paintings represent the architecture of this complex survey."

Mezzanine Gallery

"New Work": John Paul Robinson
Robinson's latest sculptural works in glass are elegant, arcing and streamlined forms, suspended from polished metal wall mounts. Robinson says: "Science and technology are revealing a universe that is completely counter intuitive. Solid mass turns out to be a lot of energy and a lot of space and what time it is depends on how fast you are going. My work is an attempt to build a set of symbols that describe this reality. The pieces combine aspects of natural phenomena we grasp intuitively, pebbles in a pond, with those we don’t particle – wave duality. I am attempting to build a functioning model/myth of my world."

Upper Gallery

"Between Lines": Chris Langstroth

According to Toronto based art writer and educator, Betty-Ann Jordan, "Chris Langstroth's semi abstracts ostensibly depict people in crowds, but really, the main attraction is his patchwork of streaky, thick-as-boiled-frosting acrylic paint. The artist works intensely and swiftly while his pigment is still wet, laying down his colour swatches with a small trowel-like palette knife and plasterer's scrapers. About his self-appointed challenge to blend abstraction and figure painting, Langstroth says: "I don't want my paintings to be still - I like them noisy."

Paul Dignan at Benedicta Arts Center, Minnesota

2011-02-25T17:57:00.003-05:00

Paul Dignan has been invited to exhibit work created between 2004 to 2009 in a solo show at the Benedicta Arts Centre at Saint John's University in Minnesota. The exhibition runs from March 3 to April 8, 2011. These paintings, which differ from the work now showing at KWT Contemporary, use ambiguous imagery taken from sources such as monograms, wallpaper designs, sections of cartoons and other sampled imagery as well as self generated drawings.

"Untitled", 2006, acrylic on canvas, 48"x48"

Paul Dignan's latest paintings (on view at KWT Contempporary through Feb. 26, 2011) can be described as neo-op, hard-edged geometric abstraction. Dignan is a master of the unexpected when it comes to colour,. His work has literally been stopping traffic on Richmand St. W. for the past few weeks. The sidewalks may be slushy and the skies grey, but it is spring on the other side of our 14' main floor windows. Given that Minnesota has even harsher weather conditions than we do here in Toronto, we know that Dignan's work will be well received.

"Untitled (pink)", 2010, acrylic on canvas, 54"x54"

Of his latest work, Dignan says: "I make hard edge abstract paintings that use a simple grid as a starting point. The paintings produced for this show came about through a decision to re-examine the defined, schematic striped paintings I made in the UK in the 1990’s and also in relation to the paintings I made between 2004 – 2009, after I had relocated to Canada. I wanted to reintroduce the illusion of order into this new body of work by using a rigidly defined specific structure as a starting point - usually an 8 x 8 grid. This is then deconstructed, manipulated and altered through intuitive decision-making processes whilst at the same time making reference to the original grid format.... The colour choices have been influenced by my experience of living in Canada as I have become more and more aware of the effects of the extreme shifts in Canadian weather. Objects and buildings become faded, bleached and weathered - for example, the faded orange of a rusting child's bicycle that has been left out all winter or the bleached yellowing green of a fence subjected to constant bouts of humidity and a scorching summer sun."

You can see more of Dignan's work here.

Lauren Nurse: "you are my mirror": Feb 5 to 26, 2011

2011-02-23T17:23:00.004-05:00

Lauren Nurse interviewed by Tali Dundin at KWT Contemporary on February 5th, 2011 (later aired on ArtSync)

Click here to watch the interview

"Cultural perceptions of nature have always held a certain amount of anxiety, and have spawned numerous myths, legends and fables. These narratives expose culture’s uneasy relationship with the natural world. For example, the figure of the werewolf is the ultimate symbol for the transgression between human and animal, and fears about being consumed are embodied in the figure of the vampire. I believe that looking closely at these legends provides a key to understanding the culture that produced them. In viewing the monstrous body as a metaphor for the cultural body, I consider the mythic as a symbolic expression of the cultural unease that pervades a society and shapes its collective behavior.
Previous works of mine have revolved around the idea of collisions between nature and culture - passing comment on some of the ways in which we see nature as existing outside of culture and society, yet simultaneously influencing the ways in which we live.

The new body of work that I am exhibiting synthesizes my previous interest in the modern separation and opposition between culture and nature, and my current interest in locating the mythological/uncanny in evocations of the ‘wild’. I am interested in the dissolution of boundaries between categories, ideas, and objects, the tension between inside and outside, and the intersections that occur when borders of the body become fluid and porous." -Lauren Nurse (2011)

Pearls. Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle paper. edition of five, framed. 2009

Svava Thordis Juliusson: "Saman Safnast": Feb 5 to 26, 2011

2011-02-23T17:22:00.006-05:00

Svava Thordis Juliusson interviewed by Tali Dundin at KWT Contemporary on February 5th, 2011. (later aired on ArtSync).

click here to watch the interview

Juliusson is interested in using and manipulating traditional sculpture techniques and various non-traditional sculpture materials to express her concerns and ideas. The studio investigations, which often commence at the kitchen table or the laundry room, tend to oscillate between curiosity and the desire to articulate a response to her surroundings.

Current investigations, such as Horizon Orange, are part of a recent shift in her art practice. While still wanting to respond to larger events and domestic situations, the works are executed with a more intuitive approach to material and are primarily composed of plastic such as the cable ties, or safety fencing. These materials are designed for a specific purpose, but once manipulated, or re-purposed, the elements as a new whole, have the potential to become something else, something perhaps found in a natural environment like a cloud or a landmass.

Accolades and International Exhibitions for Annie Tung

2011-02-16T18:37:00.004-05:00

Above: Annie Tung, "Love Spoons, erotic poem in Braille to be read with one's tongue", edition 3/3, 2009: cast silver and brass.

(poem by Gwendolyn MacEwen (CAN, 1941-19870)

This work was most recently shown in Annie Tung's solo exhibition, "Strangely Familiar" which ran from Dec. 4 , 2010 through Jan. 26, 2011, KWT Contemporary (formerly XEXE Gallery)

Congratulations to Annie Tung for having been selected for the following honours and international exhibitions:

Best of 2010 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Sculpture:
Annie Tung won Best of Show in the Sculpture Category at this past summer's Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. Her work was on exhibit through January 2011 in "Best of 2010, Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition Award Winners" at FCP Gallery, Toronto. (First Canadian Place,100 King Street West, Toronto) (more information here).

Silver Triennial, 16th Worldwide Competition:

"Love Spoons" will be traveling until Jan 2012 to the following locations:

German Goldsmith’ House inHanau; Fair Ambiente, Frankfurt; MuseumKunstgewerbesammlung Huelsmann, Bielefeld; Zilvermuseum Sterckshof, Antwerp, Belgium; Wasserschloss Klaffenbach, Chemnitz.

(more information here)

9th Helen Keller International Art Competition:

"Love Spoons" will be exhibited in Glasgow through May, 2011 (more information here).

Inaugural Show Reviewed in Globe and Mail

2011-02-12T17:08:00.045-05:00

The re-launch and inaugural exhibitions which opened last Saturday saw over 350 in attendance, followed up this weekend by a complimentary review from R.M. Vaughan in the Globe and Mail: "... three excellent mini-shows: a suite of crisp neo-Op Art works by Paul Dignan, paintings wherein interconnecting, bent geometric shapes overlap in soothing, hazy colours, with the brighter tones jumping off the canvas like hurled blades in a 3-D movie; Svava Thordis Juliusson’s wacky, twitchy collection of sculptures made from Play-Doh-bright twist ties and packaging materials; and Lauren Nurse’s surreal set of photographs, including a face covered in white globules (pearls? fish eggs?) and a face with glued-on sticks for eyelashes." Read more here

Three Exhibitions and Gallery Re-launch

2011-02-07T23:56:00.002-05:00

Three Exhibitions and Gallery Re-launch

Reception: February 5, 6-8 p.m.

Lower Gallery
Paul Dignan: "Another After One"

Mezzanine
Svava Thordis Juliusson: "Saman Safnast"

Upper Gallery
Lauren Nurse: "you are my mirror"

Exhibition runs from February 5 - 26, 2011
Gallery Hours: Wed-Sat, 12-6 p.m.

Brad Copping: Reverse Osmosis

2011-02-02T12:52:00.003-05:00

Brad Copping interviewed by Tali Dundin in the December 10th, 2010 airing of ArtSync on the occasion of the opening reception for "Reverse Osmosis". Click on picture to watch interview.

"When I am working on a piece, I will start with an initial idea, thought, or vision and the work is honed in the process of making. I will constantly ask questions regarding my next step, if I use this material or this technique, how will it affect the piece, will it clarify or confuse what I’m hoping to achieve. Or will it possibly take it somewhere I did not think of, and hopefully that is a place where the process enlightens me. The work in this exhibition is a retrospective of sorts, a filtered view of some of the larger scale work that I have made. It is an opportunity to apply a similar process to building the exhibition to the one I use when making the individual pieces. All of this work makes reference to water. Water not only roots us and links us to a place – intensifying our relationship to the land, it also conveys us to different places, connecting us to one another. It is a large portion of what we are, what all life is, and that too connects us to the natural world whether we want to admit it or not. These pieces reflect my continuing search for balance and connectedness between people, people and place, and finally within people themselves." - Brad Copping

Raindays (detail), hotworked and carved glass, glass tubing, wood, metal leaf, brass. 2001. 124 x 12 x 12 cm ;

Portage. hotworked and carved glass, wood. 1999. 46 x 148.5 x 48.5 cm;

Seep. hot worked glass, wood. 2007. 183 H x 173 W x 12 D cm.

Pearl Van Geest : But this is not a place of words

2011-02-02T12:50:00.001-05:00

View Art Sync's interview with Pearl here.

Click on above link to view Pear Van Geest's interview with Micheal Hansen for Art Sync for the exhibition "But This Is Not a Place of Words" which ran from November 6 - 27, 2010.

Pearl Van Geest is interested in questions that arise about the nature of reality and the natural world, our connection to it, and the place of painting within this context. She is compelled by diverse sources: visual, literary philosophical and scientific. In her work, paint is used to explore these questions and ideas. Kiss marks are used as an abstract mark, for their mutable symbolic significance and also because they have a morphological similarity to other natural forms.

Neurartic: Pearl Van Geest: A Love Affair with Paint

" She paints with the sort of id-soaked, primary process-driven intensity often associated with "intuitive" or "outsider" art. However, she and her paintings are far from naive: she is a broadly educated, well traveled person, and a highly skilled, technically adept painter."

Pool, 2007. Oil on canvas. 72″ × 72″;

Cherries in the Snow, 2002. Oil and lipstick on canvas. 72″ × 72″;

Pool, 2007. Oil on canvas. 72″ × 72.

Welcome to KWT contemporary

2011-02-02T12:46:00.002-05:00

Kristyn Wong-Tam (owner) and Aurelie K. Collings, Director and Curator, are happy to announce that we are ringing in the New Year with a name change, a new look, and a new curatorial direction. We are now "KWT contemporary". During the transition, the old XEXE site (xexegallery.com) will remain active.

KWT contemporary (formerly known as XEXE Gallery) is located at 624 Richmond St West, Toronto, Canada. please send your inquiries to info@kwtcontemporary.com

KWT contempoary welcomes new staff:

Jessica Vallentin, our new Gallery Administrator,
Ebony Jansen, our Communications Intern, and
Emily Mahon, our Archives Intern.