Gallery Walk: May 31 – June 2, 2013

Kim Adams: Recent Works
February 20 – August 11, 2013
Art Gallery of Ontario
317 Dundas Street W.

Kim Adams, Artist’s Colony (Gardens) (detail), 2012-13, HO plastic model parts eand landscaping, 48″d x 32″h x 80″l. Courtesy of the artist and Diaz Contemporary. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid

Using commonplace objects ranging from farm machinery and automobile parts to household objects, toys and model train parts, Adams creates sculptures in large and small scale that resemble fictional worlds and imaginary landscapes – a type of collage in three dimensions.

Val Nelson
May 18 – June 1, 2013
Bau-Xi Gallery
340 Dundas Street W.

Val Nelson, Thief with a Toy Camera, oil on panel, 45 x 60 inches

“…she crafts the kind of post-photographic painting that does its best to make an eye dulled by electronic media vibrate anew. I am happy to say she is largely successful.” — Terence Dick

Michael Smith
May 30– June 22, 2013
Opening Reception Thursday, May 30, 6 – 8 p.m.
Nicholas Metivier Gallery
451 King Street W.

Michael Smith, Shadow Burn, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 57 x 60 inches

In his most recent paintings, Smith investigates a wide range of mark marking to create his highly abstracted landscapes and seascapes. Several of the works in this exhibition are large scale and depict what may appear to be a magnified view of a forest floor. The specificity of nature however is subjective as the paint refuses to fully define trees or foliage and the image is left in a constant state of flux. While several of the works are similar in theme, each painting has a distinct temperament depending on Smith’s use of colour and texture.

Reclamation by Sally Thurlow
May 22 – June 15, 2013
Red Head Gallery
401 Richmond Street W.

Sally Thurlow, Swimmer, 2012.  Lake Ontario driftwood, 58 x 94 x 29 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

“Time worn driftwood, the textured surface of ancient rocks, and porcelain shards from shattered china; each fuel her creative vision. These objects have been carefully collected and studied by the artist during her shoreline wanderings. Both natural and man-made, they have been transformed by time and the elements. Sally reclaims these objects, reinterprets and reshapes them, imbuing them with new meaning while honouring their origins and history.” – James Campbell, Executive Director/Curator of Visual Art Centre of Clarington

Unburying Our Histories by Alicia Coutts, Coco Riot
May 31 – July 13, 2013
Opening Reception: May 31, 2013, 6 – 8 p.m.
A Space Gallery
401 Richmond Street W. Suite 110

Coco Riot, Los Fantasmas #6, Ink and Acrylic Paint on Paper, 2013. Photo: Salma Al Atassi

Unburying Our Histories lays bare the devastating intimacy of political violence, and the centrality of its denial to our unequal social and political reality. In works that trace their families’ histories in meticulous detail, Alicia Coutts and Coco Riot have created vivid, trans-generational archives of genocide that confront us with the violence of their disavowal.

The Print Process: Varied Prints on Washi: Rebecca Cowan, Catherine Farish and Jerry Silverberg
May 24 – June 22, 2013
Open Studio Gallery / Print Sales Gallery
401 Richmond Street W. Suite 104

Left to right: Rebecca Cowan, #4 Balsam Cres. (detail), double accordion book, 4.25” x 23” (open), drypoint with pochoir on Sunago Mingei White, Sudare Kingin Beige, and Sunome Gold on Tan washi, 2013, Catherine Farish Day Scribbles #2, relief on Hadura S3 paper with chine collé, 2010, Jerry Silverberg, Rojo, collagraph on Gozan paper, 12.5″ x 9″, 2013.

Historically used by Japanese Buddhist monk for writing sutras, contemporary artists in the west have gravitated towards using washi, or Japanese papers, as an alternative to western paper. The paper’s strength, pliability, and absorbency provides an ideal surface for various print media. This group exhibition focuses on the use of washi in printmaking by Rebecca Cowan, Catherine Farish and Jerry Silverberg.

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