RetroContempo / 5 Years 23 Artists / Their Works Today
Opening Reception: September 17, 2014 / 6 – 8 p.m.
Since 2009, The Al Green Gallery has started to expand its focus from sculptures to paintings, installations and other art styles, and from established artists to emerging and potential talents. To get a better understanding of what has happened in the past five years, you probably should have a visit to the gallery before October 18. A retrospective show is opened up there, presenting the works of twenty three artists. All of them have exhibited in the gallery during the past five years.
Al Green’s bronze statue (left) and Jerry Campbell’s Jade Pool, 2014, oil on panel.
Probably “collage” is the most adequate word to describe my impression while I was wondering around the gallery space on the opening night. Blue ceramics stand besides oil paintings; bronze statues are surrounded by graphic pictures and black-white photos. No certain topics, no limitations in styles and manners, and even no specific aesthetic considerations in presenting the works. Multiplicity and diversity in artistic expression is probably what the exhibition is to be expected.
Alice Vander Vennen, Connexion, 2014, detail, mixed media, found objects.
George Farmer, Clear Cut, 2014, wood, steel and glass.
Similarly, diversity could be used to describe the art pieces. Bronze wire, cloth strips and buttons are utilized in Alice Vander Vennen’s Connexion while George Farmer puts wood, steel and glass together to create a miniature “golden forest”. Also, the diversity is hidden behind a collection of thirty six paintings by Julia Vandepolder. Each one of them contains different images and signs (such as Lenin’s portrait, airplanes and red flags) and represents family letters of her grandparents in World War II. The paintings as a whole could be viewed as a memory of family members and a “black-humor” recording of the dark and gloomy days several decades ago.
Julia Vandepolder, Stamp Series (36 paintings), 2014 , oil on panel.
Nicholas Crombach, Foudling, 2014, resin, paint.
Multiple colors and mixed media, undoubtedly, could explain what the diversity is. Sculptor Christopher Reid Flock, however, attempts to examine multiplicity in single color and material. Passionate about ceramics since his childhood, Flock spent around seven years in Asia, studying techniques with ceramic masters in Japan and China. In his Basking Blue, ceramic is twisted like sea waves, which in his opinion is an attempt to blend boundaries of hard and soft. He also prefers to regard his pliable ceramic work as a metaphor of tolerance and absorption, which explains the Canadian spirits in an aesthetic way.
Christopher Reid Flock and his Basking Blue, 2014, stoneware, paint.
There was a nice atmosphere in the Opening Reception where artists and guests merged happily with a glass of wine in hand, discussing art and making plans for future exhibitions.
Text and photo: Daisy Li Meng
*Exhibition information: September 17 – October 18, 2014, The Al Green Gallery, 64 Merton Street, Toronto. Gallery Hours: Mon – Wed & Fri – Sat, 12 – 5, Thur 12 – 7 p.m.