Thursday, December 20, 2012

Hazleton Plinth Sculpture Contest

The results for the Hazleton Plinth Sculpture Contest were finally released yesterday! Looking at the call for submission back in November made me kind of wish that I made more free standing sculpture!
After seeing the results of the competiton, I am really excited about the juries final selections. So without any further ramblings, here are the results of the competition!



 I See Through Them
Jaime Angelopoulos, 2011.
55" x 35" x 27"
cotton and polyester fabric, plaster, foam.
Courtesy Parisian Laundry and the artist.


The Hazleton Plinth - Sculpture 
Competition, 2013

We are pleased to announce that Toronto’s Jaime Angelopoulos is the winner of the Hazelton Plinth Sculpture Contest. The judges felt that her strong and original practice, dedication to sculpture and singular voice combined to created an evocative and exciting work, worthy of the distinction.

Angelopoulos will receive an honorarium of $4000, use of The Hazelton Hotel’s private screening room for an artist’s talk, plus one night’s accommodation. Her work “I See Through Them” (2011), will go on display on the plinth in the hotel’s lobby in January 2013.

The hotel also decided to award two honorable mentions. The first honorable mention was given to Janet Macpherson for her work "Virgin Mary," for the intricate ceramic work and fine detail. The second honorable mention was awarded to Lee Kline's "Pink Resin Wedge," for the degree of finesse involved in resin casting and the dynamic use of colour.

In September 2012, The Hazelton Hotel placed a call for artists from The Greater Toronto Area (GTA), to submit a sculptural work for a designated pedestal in the dynamic and popular lobby space. The hotel received an overwhelming response with over 150 sculptural entries from artists across the GTA. The pieces were submitted by emerging, mid-career and established artists working in a full range of materials and styles – from figurative bronzes and stone carvings, to more conceptual and abstract works.

The submissions were judged by guest jurors: Bruno Billio (Hazelton Hotel artist, sculptor and designer at brunobillio.com), Kelly McCray (Curator, artist and co-founder of ArtBarrage and BANK On ART) and Troy Seidman (Art and design consultant and founder of Caviar20).






Jaime Angelopoulos received her MFA from York University (2010), and BFA from NSCAD University (2005). She completed Post Baccalaureate studies at Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas, TX (2006-07) and an artist residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts (2006). Jaime has exhibited her sculptures and drawings internationally and has presented solo exhibitions across Canada, notably at Parisian Laundry (Montreal, QC) and YYZ Artist Outlet (Toronto, ON). She was recently included in “trans/FORM: Matter As Subject> New Perspectives,” at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA). She is currently preparing for a solo project at VOLTA Art Fair in New York City with her representative gallery Parisian Laundry. Jaime’s work has been acquired by numerous private collections and can be found in the collections of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ALDO Group, York University and the Bank of Montreal. The Canada Council for the Arts, The Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council, have supported Jaime for numerous projects. She lives and works in Toronto and is represented by Parisian Laundry in Montreal.
Jaime Angelopoulos’ most recent body of sculpture explores figuration through abstract form. The abstract nature of her work speaks to the precarious and ambiguous nature of the human emotion and behavior. The sculpture "I See Through Them" is pink in color, shaggy in texture, and ambiguous in form. This sculpture is reminiscent of a child's fantasy creature with a humorous and playful quality. However, its form and stance is suggestive of a twisting body, revealing hollow sections where one can literally "see through" the sculpture. The title of the piece poses an accusatory tone; figuratively speaking, when we "see through" someone it insinuates deceit or trickery. Affixing cylinder foam tubes together and reinforcing them with several layers of burlap and plaster constructed “I See Through Them”. Over fifteen thousand fabric strips were hand cut and then hammered onto this plaster armature.
 

Virgin Mary
Janet Macpherson, 2012.
Porcelain, gold lustre.
22” x 10.5” x 10."
Image: Courtesy of the artist.


Janet Macpherson earned her Bachelor degree in philosophy from York University in 1996 and attended Sheridan College from 1999 to 2002. She holds an MFA from Ohio State University, where she was awarded a Graduate Teaching Assistantship and taught in the ceramics area for three years. Janet employs mold-making and slip-casting techniques to make small porcelain figures of animals and hybrid beings influenced by medieval marginalia and Christian iconography. She has exhibited her work in Canada, and extensively in the U.S. She has been the recipient of the David E. Davis Award for Artistic Excellence at the Sculpture Centre in Cleveland, Ohio, The Best in Category for Ceramics at The 51st Annual Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, and was nominated for the RBC Emerging Artist People’s Choice Award, which was held at The George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto in September 2012. Janet is currently an artist-in-residence in the Craft Studio at Harbourfront Centre, and most recently completed a visiting artist/faculty residency in the ceramics department at Sheridan College.



Pink Resin Wedge
Lee Kline, 2011.
Polyester Resin
10” x 20” x 48.”
Image: Courtesy of the artist.


Lee Kline has been exploring the consequences of materiality within the contexts of art and architecture for the past 25 years. As an artist and materials engineer, his artistic vocabulary has distilled into the realm of physics, and how we not only respond to, but also understand that we are living within that world - a world transcendent of words, where one experiences light, form and physicality in a way that places them directly within the work. Lee’s work evokes a sense of memory to what the world is made of, yet how man plays creator through innovation and science, calling our modern world out with both judgment and seduction. Lee’s mandate is to create the illusion of simplicity and delicacy by mastering the limits of a material, and then deliberately re-contextualizing it in a way that can betray itself. Kline has moved through the mastery of materials over the years, from wood, glass, Italian mosaic, and cast metals, through to plastics, resins and organics.


Please direct any inquiries regarding this competition to Samantha Mogelonsky at artconcierge@thehazeltonhotel.com. For media inquires, please email Lindsay Tessis at media@thehazeltonhotel.com.

100th Post! - Exhibition: Flight Distance

I've been sitting here for days and days now, wracking my brains in excitement, wondering what I should write about for my hundredth post -
all the while, one of my favorite collaborative exhibitions is on display on the other side of the wall from where I sit!
Consider this post a very important last call to check out Flight Distance,
by Jesse Bromm and Janet Macpherson. The exhibition, on at Harbourfront Centre, will be closing this sunday!


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flight Distance 

Jesse Bromm & Janet Macpherson

Harboufront Centre - Craft corridor vitrines
235 Queens Quay W. Toronto
Sept. 29th - Dec. 23rd, 2012

“Flight distance” refers to the distance that animals like to keep between themselves and a threat of danger, and this distance varies with the degree of wildness of the animals. This collaboration between Craft Studio artists-in-residence Janet Macpherson and Jesse Bromm explores this idea through found objects, manufactured environments and slip-cast ceramic multiples. The twelve installations, divided into four sections called Tame, Feral, Sundry and Culled, examine the human propensity for violence and control through the manipulation of animals and the environment.
Macpherson’s porcelain animals have been altered, fragmented, and reassembled, creating aberrations of their original forms. Often they are blindfolded, bandaged and masked simultaneously, exposing the fine line between protection and restraint. Bromm’s mundane and readable found objects and miniatures situated out of context, explore what lies beneath the façade of human civility, bringing to the surface the conflict between internal and external. Each of these elements collide in contrived landscapes to create strange and unsettling worlds.

























































Saturday, December 15, 2012

Artist: Mary Button Durell

"When I was 9 years old I wrapped the entire backyard in string.  I wove the string from one branch to the next, over to the fence, back to the tree, around the trunk, over and around until this great web appeared.  There were lines everywhere, joining different objects and cutting up space in strange ways.  I felt completely enchanted with the new environment and excited knowing I could rearrange reality.

On Easter, growing up, we were given large decorated eggs, colorful and lacey on the outside with an opening on one end to show scenes inside.  I remember looking in, so fascinated with this miniature landscape, wanting to crawl inside this other world.  Art has since become a way of building relationships between my interior and exterior worlds." - Mary Button Durell

Here is a look at the studio and work of paper-artist Mary Button Durell, one of the many people who I have been inspired by lately. In her work she uses tracing paper, wire, wheat paste and acrylic paint to build up her abstracted organic forms, ribboned groupings and delicate modular structures. enjoy!















Balloon Is Free by AppleZilla

"When you are a child, you always want to own a balloon. The balloon makes you happy but actually it's not expensive and you can let it go at any time. The desire to keep searching is the most valuable element for what I do" - AppleZilla.

I recently stumpled upon these hand strung bracelets from 'Balloon Is Free' by Hong Kong designer AppleZilla. While I am not much for jewelery myself, these individual bracelets remind me of delicate, beautiful, little small-scale sculptures. Each piece is carefully selected and strung on copper thread using glass, bone, shell, seed and ceramic beads, you can find them online at AppleZilla's shop here or on offer at  Kapok.









Thursday, December 13, 2012

Interlace, Deconstruct - Extended till Jan.13th

Our exhibition - Interlace, Deconstruct, the Spaces In Between will be extended until January 13th, at the Telephone Booth Gallery in Toronto. Interlace, Deconstruct opened on November 14th as a part of the World of Threads Festival and was originally slated to close on Dec 23rd. The show will now be extended continuing past the hustle and bustle of holidays to give you the opportunity to still check it out. For more information on the exhibition please check out my previous post here.

Interlace, Deconstruct, the Spaces in Between
Fibre works by Lizz Aston, Noelle Hamlyn, Pam Lobb

Telephone Booth Gallery
3148 Dundas St. W. Toronto

The three artists in this exhibition use and manipulate fibre in different ways, creating textile patterns deconstructed to reveal single lines that trace points of intersection between a thread and a surface.
Featuring a variety of media including paper burn-out, free-motion embroidery, salt encrusted textiles, printmaking, hand-cutting, hand-dyed fabric, found doilies, book pages and mixed media techniques.




Lizz Aston: Exploding Lace View #1, 2012, linen, fibre reactive dyes, starched, hand-cut, 32 x 37"

Lizz Aston: Exploding Lace View #3, 2012, Kozo paper, fibre reactive dyes, hand-cut, 18.5 x 16.5"


Gallery Hours:

Wed.-Sat. 11am - 6pm
Sun. Noon - 4pm
& by appt.

Monday, December 10, 2012

New Laser Cutter for the Studio!

I am super excited! after months of researching and waiting, I've finally invested in a Laser Cutter for the studio. I am currently in the process of figuring out the software, and experimenting with cutting and engraving using different materials. I will be sure to post more photos of samples and new work as it progresses!








Monday, December 3, 2012

Richard Boulet: Stitched & Drawn

Stitched & Drawn @ the Textile Museum of Canada
55 Centre Ave. Toronto
December 3rd, 2012 - March 10th, 2013
Opening reception: Dec. 3rd, 6:30-8pm

Curated by Wayne Baerwaldt

The Textile Museum of Canada and Illingworth Kerr Gallery presents: Stitched & Drawn - an exhibition of recent work by Canadian artist, Richard Boulet. 
This IKG-organized touring exhibition includes more than thirty works by the Edmonton based artist, addressing issues of an eventual spirituality through the cultivation of mental health. His practice is a multifaceted one that includes mixed media drawings and fibre sculptures incorporating quilting and cross-stitching techniques. Boulet's work has probed subjects including his personal history of schizophrenia and references homelessness, psychosis, crisis intervention, family issues, medication, and coping strategies.

Richard Boulet has worked and lived in Edmonton for the past twelve years. He has a BFA from the University of Manitoba School of Art, Winnipeg, and an MFA from the University of Alberta, Edmonton. Boulet has exhibited at Plug In ICA, Winnipeg, the 2007 Alberta Biennale, Creative Growth, Oakland (in association with Paul Butler's Collage Party and Matthew Higgs) and Keyano College Art Gallery, Fort McMurray, Alberta.

The artist's latest body of fibre work is decidedly reflexive in nature, confronting past behaviours and decisions that have impacted negatively on his mental state. Boulet's time-intensive working process provides the artist an opportunity to contemplate the past and, stitch by careful stitch, to put things right. As he explains, "To use quilting and cross-stitching in a body of work that alludes to the psychological dilemmas of redressing regrets seems appropriate, in that there is a strong sense of comfort and self care in these two fibre techniques. Things can't be so bad, so confused, so basically wrong, if the resulting product produced instills a sense of a home well tended, eventually."











Friday, November 30, 2012

Lululemon Perimeter Mall by Lizz Aston

A while back I had the pleasure of working with the design team from Lululemon to conceptualize and create an installation, commissioned for one of their latest store openings - Perimeter Mall in Atlanta!
Working with up-cycled Lululemon fabrics from the lab in Vancouver, I was inspired by patterns, topographies and the local landscape of the Atlanta region. 
While the Grand Opening for the store has recently passed (Nov. 9th) 
If you are in the area please pop by, check it out, and have a look around. At 9 ft long and behind the cash desk, you can't miss it! Here are a couple of images of the project and a time lapse video we made of the install...! enjoy!


Taking reference from the local landscape in Atlanta, I wanted to design a large-scale, textile based pattern that would represent an abstracted topographical view of the land and a major artery that runs through it, the Chattahoochee River.
Inspired by dynamic symmetries and organic forms found in nature; patterns of lines stream outwards, branch off and break away, intersect and re-connect again to form a larger whole.

work in progress






Thursday, November 29, 2012

NEW WEBSITE!!!

Hey guys! Just a quick post I wanted to share, as I am really excited!!!
After years of having an out-of-date website of my work, made-up of images spanning back to my school days in the textile studio at Sheridan, 
I finally decided to take some initiative and put together an all new website ON MY OWN! and I am soo happy I did!!!

Over the course of the next few months, I plan on making some big studio equipment purchases and beginning the process of prototyping an all new line of production-based work!
So please feel free to have a look, drop me a line or leave a comment, and let me know what you think! And be sure to keep your eyes open for an online shop coming sometime in the new year!

For more information, go to www.lizzaston.com
cheers! Lizz



Tuesday, November 27, 2012

SHOP STUDIO HUDDLE

MADE - Give & Take Ornament Exchange

MADE in Collaboration with Moi Moi Present -
Give & Take 2012, Christmas Ornament Exchange and Installation

MADE Design - 867 Dundas St. W, Toronto
Nov. 29th - Dec. 24th, 2012
Opening Reception - Thursday Nov. 29th 6-9pm.

Now in its third year, MADE asks you to Give & Take again! 
This site-specific installation is formed from a collection of ornaments made by local Canadian artists and designers. Ornaments purchased will subsequently be replaced with a momento serving as a record of your contribution and participation in the cycle of exchange. All proceeds from Give & Take will be donated to the registered charity Oolagen.

Participating artists include: Ruth Adler, Alexx Boisjoli, Comrags, Bettie Cott, Kerry Croughan, James Fowler, Dayna Gedney and Joseph Bauman. Scott Eunson, Angela Iarocci, Claire Ironside, Karcass, Christine Lieu, Kristen Lim-Tung, Tania Love, Ashley Mauerhofer, Ellie Oram-O'Donnell, Frieda Periera, Andrea Poorter, Orest Tataryn, Kevin Taylor, Toma Objects, Anneke van Bommel and more.

Laser cut ornaments by Henderson Dry Goods.

Oolagen is an accredited mental health center helping Toronto youth and their families. Highly respected work it does, Oolagen serves as a University of Toronto teaching facility and is a long-term partner with the Toronto District School Board, the Children's Aid Society, Catholic Children's Aid, Ministry of Children and Youth Services as well as other children's mental health agencies and community groups. For more information, please visit www.oolagen.org

MADE (Julie Nicholson and Shaun Moore) engages in the design of objects and interiors; installations; comissions; collaborations and curatorial projects. MADE is committed to the representation of compelling functional works made in Canada. For more information please visit www.madedesign.ca 

Ornaments by Orest Tataryn, Katherine Morley, Tomas Rojcik, and Kristen Lim-Tung

Opening: Ed Pien, Under Water

Pierre-Francois Ouellette art contemporain
372 Ste-Catherine Ouest #216
Montreal, QC

Exhibition: Nov. 28 - Jan. 26, 2013
Vernissage Wednesday Nov. 28th 6-8pm

Pierre-Francois Ouellette art contemporain is proud to present a solo exhibition of current work by Ed Pien featuring exquisite new paper cut works and over eighty unique drawings exploring themes of under water life, sea monsters, and the imaginary. All works are available at www.pfoac.com, and a text by Karl-Gilbert Murray is published online to accompany the work.


Sediment, 2012 
ink on 3M reflector and shoji paper cut



Bloom, 2012 
ink on 3M reflector and shoji paper cut





Here's an excerpt from Ed Pien, Diving Into an Imaginary Water World -

Designed as an exploration of cultural diversity inspired by underwater flora and fauna a thousand leagues beneath the seas, the exhibition Under Water by Toronto artist Ed Pien dives into the heart of an unfathomably profound aesthetic. A meeting of the imaginary that swings between the decorative, ornamental aspect of calligraphed creatures rendered in the chinoiserie style, Ernst Haeckel's plates depicting sea life forms and phantasmagorical worlds, the exhibition illuminates two horizons that evoke a feeling of continuity between two cultures: the East and the West. One horizon, pinwheeling into the exoticism of the Other towards a better mutual understanding, is comprised of a collection of drawings entitled Two Worlds. The other, four paper-cuts of interwoven water dreams and mysteries, cultivates a fascination for the grotesque and constrains the aberrant to better tame it. 
Thus, these graphic and cut out representations serve as a reminder that marine biodiversity provides a metaphor that, as interculturalism emerges from the depths of the white page swarming with anguished ecosystems, describes a relationship between cultural metissage and, well beyond appearances, collides with our essential "otherness". Trying to understand how the process of enculturation complicates our relationship to space/place and with our surroundings, Pien reveals the identity construct at the centre of the work. He does not summon the Other; he goes to meet it. Rather than keeping it at a distance, he explores various possibilities of engaging in a dialogue rooted in a fantastical visual language that allows him to create a middle ground, a liberating space where each and every one might easily situate him or herself in the world and adapt to the exoticism of theOther.