Posts Tagged ‘gallery’

the tree of life – a ceramic version

Posted: November 16, 2024 in galleries, general Toronto
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The Tree of Life is a symbol that originated in antiquity; it appears in most religions and cultures.  Over the centuries it has been depicted in many different ways.  Here, it is shown with colourful and imaginative flowers and leaves in an image that has been constructed using large ceramic tiles by artist, Marc Egan.  The resulting artwork is 9 feet by 12 feet big.

artwork by Marc Egan, a large image of his version of the tree of life made out of ceramic tiles.

It is on display at Gallery 235 in the Harbourfront Centre,  It is part of an exhibit titled “Elaborate” that continues until 29th December 2024.

two flowers, yellow centers, white petals, on larger pale blue petals, skinny green leaves

part of a ceramic art piece by Marc Egan, imaginative flowers and leaves on a tree, black background

yellow and pink flowers, ceramic artwork

puffy foamy blue flowers in yellow green cup like leaves, ceramic artwork, tree of life, in an art gallery, other flowers that look like chocolate chip cookies,

two pink flowers that look like pink feather dusters, with long droopy skinny pink petals,

There is even a creepy crawly red and white bug!

red and white caterpillar on a branch of a tree, ceramic art by Marc Egan, tree of life, black background

bottom part of marc egan ceramic tree of life, the trunk, masses of green leaves

 

art walk – outside and in

Posted: April 3, 2024 in galleries, graffiti and street art
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… As seen on Gerrard Street East and the alleys that run behind it.

mural that says you are here in 3 d looking letters, on side of brown brick building

below: Paintings in a little outdoor gallery space – along the fence on Craven.

few paintings in blues, purples, and teals, abstracts, mounted on wood fence on Craven Rd.,

below: Swirls in black and red

street art on side of white brick building, red and black swirls

below: Monstrous creatures and flowers on the stairs.

below: In a parking lot behind Gerrard, south side.

trailer parked in font of walls covered with street art murals including a woman's portrait by jarus

below: More laneway art

murals in alley

murals in alley

below: Close up view of a woman’s portrait painted by Anya Mielniczek

close up of face in woman portrait street art mural by anya mielniczek

below: Part of a mural by Chief Ladybird and Auralas

woman with feather in her hair, by chief lady bird, mural street art

below: It looks like the Venus Flytrap is trying to hide…

below: More illustrations of his work at SOWL, Art of Sowl

below: Tommy Drift characters on two sides.

tommy drift street art on two sides of a building in an alley behind gerrard street

below: The life of a mural isn’t always nice – the bottom part was tagged over and then painted.

an old mural with orange umbrellas that has had the bottom painted over in blue

below: Part of mural on the side of Whole Foods store

mural on the side of whole foods store

purple and blue banner attached to lamp post

below: Large yellow flowers on Kohinoor Foods store.

store front, Kohinoor Foods, building painted blue with large flowers

below: More flowers, bright bold coloured flowers

mural of white line drawings of flowers, on bright coloured backgrounds so it looks like bold coloured flowers, reds, blues, oranges, all on a royal blue background, mural

below: And a red rose in Blazeworks mural

mural by blazeworks, a young woman lifting hand weights, a red rose, other white leaves

below: Woman in a pink head scarf overlooks the street

store fronts on gerrard street east, mural on the side of one building that is taller than the others, woman in a head scarf in mural, car parked on street,

The Riverdale Hub and Gallery is on Gerrard Street.  It is now home to three floors of gallery space.  The remaining images in this post is a sampling of what I saw there when I visited back in March.

below: Poonam Khanna, Rainy Day series

two paintings on gallery wall, riverdale Hub, both are rainy day scenes, one has two people walking on a sidewwalk, with a black backpack, the other is looking out onto an intersection

below: Robyn Asquini

paintings on gallery wall, riverdale Hub, by Robyn Asquini, realistic painting of two women on steps of a stone building, one with very red hair who is standing, the other woman is sitting with a large brown hand bag

below: Detail, close up, of a Steve McDonald artwork.

part of an artwork by Steve McDonald, digital art, tall yellow flower like plants

below: Kyla Yager, “Looking for Words”

painting by Kyla Yager hanging on a gallery wall, abstract, a green flower, some eyes, a mouth full of teeth, a red arrow, other shapes and colours

below: Three little pieces by Natalie Plociennik

three paintings by Natalie Plociennik, one round one, one vertical rectangle, and one square, abstracts, curvy shapes

below: Karen Couillard, part of a series, “ Beautiful Chaos : Nature’s Resilience”

paintings on gallery wall, riverdale Hub, by Karen Couillard, pink abstract flowers in a vase, a greenish yellow bird sits on one of them,

below: Marina Doukas, “Performance by Bob the Drag Queen”.

paintings on gallery wall, riverdale Hub, blad black man in drag, painted by Marina Doukas, green lipstick, holding a smoking gun (not real), pink stripe down middle of face,

below:  Miyakah Emon, part of the “Invisible Playground” exhibit.

two artworks on a gallery wall by Miyakah Emon

below: Mimmo (Domenico) Baronello, owls, the story tellers.

paintings on gallery wall, riverdale Hub, both feature owls, realistic paintings,

trim on a green awning on a store in little india, tassels and shiny bits

 

Sarindar Dhaliwal’s Oscar, Frida, and many flowers

Posted: January 7, 2024 in galleries
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For more than 40 years, Sarindar Dhaliwal has been creating works of art.  She was born in Punjab India but grew up in Southall London England.  The family moved again when Sarindar was 15, this time to rural Ontario.  Her work is colourful – vibrant and full of life.  Many of her pieces are being exhibited at the Art Galley of Ontario at the moment.  This is a sampling of them.

below: “Oscar and the Two Fridas”, 1991.  Oscar Wilde and Frida Kahlo are two artists that Dhaliwal admires.

 

painting by Sarindar Dhaliwal on the wall at the Art Gallery of Ontario, featuring a picture of Oscar Wilde in black and white in the middle, and two coloured portraits of Frida Kahlo in opposite corners, vase of flowers as well

Two women looking at painting by Sarindar Dhaliwal on the wall at the Art Gallery of Ontario

below: The garden outside, and the window through which you can view it…  An interesting way to present perspective.

painting by Sarindar Dhaliwal, garden, window in a pinkish adobe wall looking out onto the garden, metal bars in the window

below: A part of “At Badminton” another mixed-media collage-like work on paper; here woman in traditional saris are playing badminton.

part of a mixed media collage, pictures of women as seen out a window, plus a line of flowers, the work is "At Badminton"

below: “When I Grow Up I Want to be a Namer of Paint Colors”.  If you look closely, the names don’t always match the colour.  There are pinks called ‘powdered baby lemon’ and ‘chalky eggshell’ while some reds are “imperial indigo” and “periwinkle”.  A work of imagination – ‘vanilla twilight’!  A work that ignores the rules and norms.

I want to be the namer of colours by Sarindar Dhaliwal, a chart in grid shape of various shades of pink, red, and orange, that she has given names to

below: “Indian Billboard” 2000.

mixed media collage artwork by Sarindar Dhaliwal, lots of billboards and a tiger,

From the words on the wall, “The idea for this work came from a trip Dhaliwal took to Bangalore India in 1996. Here she saw a feminist billboard in India for the first time. The hand-painted sign openly critiqued the dowry system used in arranged marriages and featured the slogan “Is Your Husband Worth the Money You Paid For Him?”.
“In this work, she recreates the same text a well as advertisements ranging from the refrigerators to beedies (a type of Indian cigarette). Images of tigers, paint swatches, and her ubiquitous flowers are peppered throughout. In some of the billboards, Dhaliwal depicts Hindi script. Unable to read Hindi herself, she wrote the letters backwards. When this was pointed out to her, she decided to write one of the English language billboards in reverse as well.”

below: Closer view of some of the billboards.

close up of a piece of art, a tiger,

A couple at the AGO, woman is seated, man standing behind her. They are watching a video on a screen mounted on the wall

below:  Dhaliwal’s work consists of more than these mixed-media ‘collages’.  There is video as you can see.  There are also large panels that tell a story.  This one in English and a second in .  The story starts with a sick child whose mother and aunt took her from village to village, “the embroidered cuffs of their baggy pants encrusted with…”.

a story written in red letters on a black wall, goes around a corner

below: These are some of the women whose photographs were incorporated into a work called “Hey, Hey Paula”.  What do they have in common?  They were all featured in the Sunday edition of the ‘New York Times’; they were the brides-to-be in the Engagement Announcements section between 1989 and 1992.

Grid of photos of young women, all red tones,

below: There were many women!  The wall most easily seen in the photo is a grid of 9 x 27 photos, with no duplicated that I can find.  That makes 263 women represented on that wall… and that’s only part of the whole.

man in white shirt standing in the middle of an art piece of pictures on two sides of a corner, and a red phone in the middle Hey Hey Paula by Sarindar Dhaliwal

below: If you pick up the receiver on the red phone you can listen to a recording of the 1963 hit song ‘Hey Paula’ recorded by Ray Hildebrand and Jill Jackson under the name of Paul and Paula.

an art piece of pictures on two sides of a corner, and a red phone in the middle Hey Hey Paula by Sarindar Dhaliwal

some people standing in front of, and looking at, an art piece of pictures on two sides of a corner, and a red phone in the middle Hey Hey Paula by Sarindar Dhaliwal

“…that [art] is a world that can belong to you and in it, you can make your imagination come alive.”
is a quote by Dhaliwal in an interview by the CBC.

This exhibit continues until mid-July 2024

the lure of Craven Road

Posted: March 15, 2022 in locations
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Here are a few photos from a recent visit to Craven Road, one of my favorite streets.   The last time I posted about it was “Craven Road once more“, in May 2019.  That’s almost three years! – it doesn’t seem like that long ago but then again I find that COVID has really messed with my sense of passing time.  Anyhow, it’s always interesting to see what remains, what’s new, and what has just been rearranged.

below: Part of the fence

Craven Road art on a wood fence

below: Back in 2019 the clock read 12:10.  Time has passed.

found objects displayed on wood fence on Craven Road, green clock, angel figure,

Craven Road art on a wood fence, a black dog portrait, with snow in front

below: The sheep have been here for years (since at least 2015) and they are starting to show their age.  The other two images are recent additions.

Craven Road art on a wood fence, an old ripped painting of a flock of sheep in the snow, an orange sign that says Every Child Matters, and a night scene painting

below: Abstracts in blues

Craven Road art on a wood fence, small abstract paintings in shades of blue and purple

below: An upside down Q for the little red man.

found objects displayed on wood fence on Craven Road

below: I am hoping that the painting on the right says “The Great White North” …

Craven Road art on a wood fence, partially buried in the snow, blue circles around a green face

below: Even the mask has a mask

objects attached to a wood fence, a yellow plastic mask, small rubber boots, an old calculator, a small piano keyboard, a portrait of Marilyn Munro

a wood fence with many objects displayed on it, guitars, pictures, other found objects

below: Rubber boots, rubber gloves and a white hat make for a dashing figure.

found objects displayed on wood fence on Craven Road

found objects displayed on wood fence on Craven Road, two black guitars and some rainbow flags

found objects displayed on wood fence on Craven Road, diamond shaped mirror with markers to draw on it

below: Some newer landscapes

small landscape paintings displayed on a wood fence outdoors, Craven Road

paintings on wood fence

torn canvas, portrait of a dog lying on a porch, attached to a wood fence outdoors

below: …. and last, another two oldies of the feline variety.

canvas, portrait of a cat lying on a rug, attached to a wood fence outdoors

painting on canvas, goldish color cat, on a wood fence

Andy Warhol at the AGO

Posted: July 30, 2021 in galleries
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The Art Gallery of Ontario has re-opened after several months of COVID lockdown. They have created an all new Andy Warhol exhibit in celebration.

This is some of what can be seen:

 

people standing in an art gallery looking a three large and colourful paintings by Andy Warhol of faces

below: Elvis Presley

a man in pale blue jacket and baseball cap stands in front of a portrait by Andy Warhol

below: Part of a series of images of an electric chair in different colours

two women look at prints of electric chair in 4 different colour tones

three young women look at two paintings of guns by Andy Warhol, large and on a gallery wall

a couple pass by six Andy Warhol paintings. Two of Debbie Harry and two of Dollie Parton and two of Mick Jagger

below: Debbie Harry

Andy Warhol portrait of Debbie Harry

below: Karen Kain

two portraits of Karen Kain, one on turquoise background and the other on light purple background

The exhibit is on until October 2021.

winter village evening

Posted: December 3, 2020 in events, locations
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Another COVID cancellation is the Christmas Market at the Distillery District.   This year’s offering is “Winter village”, a down scaled version of past years’ festivities.

evening photo, distillery district, decorated for Christmas, large snowflakes projected onto the side of an old stone building

The lights are up, the tree is gorgeous, and the atmosphere is almost Christmas-y.

evening photo, distillery district, decorated for Christmas, large Christmas tree, sign Gooderham and worts over the road, strings of white lights

evening photo, distillery district, decorated for Christmas, a street lamp that looks like an old gas lamp, with a wreath and a big red bow, beside a mens wear store with a picture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in it

evening photo, distillery district, decorated for Christmas, people taking pictures, people walking

evening photo, distillery district, decorated for Christmas, a couple walking, a woman pushing a stroller

lights reflected in a window, green window frame, on old brick building, also a puffy winter jacket hanging in the window

patio outside a restaurant window, wreath on window, snow on the table on the patio, metal table and chairs, old brick building in distillery district ,

an art gallery window from outside, evening,

evening photo, distillery district, decorated for Christmas, the words art is love in big block letters, outside the window of an art gallery with a painting in the window

metal sculpture in a window, made with metal wire, many spiral shapes

pictures in a gallery window, most pictures are of faces

looking in the window of a restaurant wherre the cashier is dancing

I’m going to say that I actually prefer this year’s less crowded version.

Acts of Erasure plus

Posted: November 10, 2020 in galleries
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green ribbon woven into the chainlink fence between the West Toronto Railpath and MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art

The main exhibit at MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art, when I was there a couple of weeks ago was ‘Acts of Erasure’.

“Acts of Erasure brings the two distinct artistic practices of Fatma Bucak and Krista Belle Stewart into dialogue. This pairing opens space for conversations around political identity concerning land and heritage, historical repression, and more.”   I’ve added this sentence because every review I’ve read of this exhibit start with these words that also appear on the MOCA website and on the wall in the gallery.

This exhibit was part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival that was planned for May 2020 but this being the year of Covid, it had to be rescheduled.

Photos covering the floor were the work of Krista Belle Stewart who is a member of the Upper Nicola Band of the Syilx (Okanagan) Nation in British Columbia.   They are part of ‘Truth to Material’ and were taken in Germany were there is a group of people like to dress up and play Indian. They call themselves Indianers.  Once you know that, the fact that they are on the floor and not on the walls makes a bit more sense.

two boots walking on a picture on the floor

calves and shoes of people standing on pictures on the floor of a gallery

a person walking on the floor, pictures on the floor

below: A dress made by one of the Indianers.

pictures on the floor of a gallery

The other artist, Fatma Bucak was born in Iskenderun, on the Turkish-Syrian border;  she identifies as both Turkish and Kurdish.  Her contribution to the exhibit is ‘A Study of Eight Landscapes’, an ongoing project.  Each photograph is a pair of objects.  Each object was collected at one side of a border.  This is an attempt to explore the dynamics of borders, their effects on people living near them, the politics that result, and other consequences of having borders.

below: left: “Too Heavy” and right: “In Splendid Isolation”

two pictures at a gallery, one on the floor and one hanging on the wall

From the MOCA website: “….confronts the contingency of border spaces and the tenuous interdependency that resides within them. To produce these still-life photographs, Bucak worked collaboratively with people living and working near and across borderlands. The composed objects collected from these sites explore mental and material realities of spaces where conditions of life are highly dependent on the entities on either side of a border. The photographs present a stark view of transitional landscapes, such as those between the United States and Mexico, Turkey and Armenia, and Syria and Turkey.”

I would love to have more of the story explained to me, such as, what the objects are, where they came from, and why the artist chose them.  Isn’t it difficult to have a dialogue about random items removed from even minimal context?

below: left: ‘There May be Doubts’, center: ‘A Border View’, right: ‘Undetermined Remains’.

three pictures at a gallery

The day that I was at MOCA, the ground floor was being prepared for ‘Archipelago’ by Taiwanese painter and conceptual artist Michael Lin.  The designs are based on Taiwanese and Indonesian textiles and are being painted by local artists.

a woman painting the floor

women painting on the floor of a gallery

A third exhibit, ‘Medusa’ was bring installed at the time and was closed to the public.

the word kiss is made with fabric woven into the chainlink fence

Acts of Erasure remains until January 2021
Archipelago remains until March 2021

the Yorkville-ification of street art

Posted: September 13, 2019 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Over the span of just a few years I have watched as street art went from questionable legality to mainstream; now it’s jumped to very trendy.  From vilified to Yorkvillified?

man working at a table, with reflections of a mural in the window, looking through the window

below: This large mural was created by Kazakhstan born, Montreal-based, Ola Volo.

mural of a woman with long hair, stylized, in red, yellow and black and white

two murals on two different walls of a building

below: Close up of part of the mural by Whatisadam

close up of a mural, a man and a woman are leaning together for a kiss. Woman has bright red lipstick.

below: Mathieu Bories, also known as Mateo, works on the woman’s blue and yellow head scarf.

a man is on a ladder as he paints a mural of a woman with henna coloured stencils all over her face, and a blue and yellow head scarf,

a man, street artist Mateo, spray paints a mural as he stands on a ladder. He's wearing a respirator, painting with blue paint

shoes on a ladder with the eye of a mural looking at them

below: This OK is coming unstuck, peeling off the wall.  This mural was painted by Ben Johnston whose work often features text that looks 3D

on the side of outdoor steps, a blue mural with the word OK in black and white such that it looks like the letters are curling up at the ends, 3 D effect

below: This staircase, with artwork by Getso, is going to turn into a instagram hotspot.   Her shoes may be famous already!  Actually, I took a quick look through a few possible hastags while writing this post but so far there haven’t been too many images of people posing here.

a young woman sits on the railing of an outdoor staircase that has been painted with street art. A man is taking a pictrure with his phone of her feet against the artwork

below: Across the back wall, above the upper level, is a long mural by Mr. Brainwash that is supposed to look like a wall of graffiti

part of a mural made to look like a wall of graffiti including a mona lisa, a man with a camera in triplicate,

mural made to look like a wall of graffiti including a pink marily munroe, a woman in brown and white dress and bonnet, the word i love you written in red,

below: Up on the scaffolding working on Mickey Mouse and his orange ears, is Xray aka Brian Lanier.

a man in an orange vest is up on scaffolding as he paints a mural, two other men are looking at finished murals

a man sits on scaffolding as he paints a mural, LED spotlights are in the foreground

below: I think that it says love, a mural by Peru143

small mural by street artist peru that says love in very stylized and abstract letters

below: The streaks and splotches of colour are part of the wall that was painted by Risk.  It is also the space surrounding the entrance to the Taglialatella Gallery.  It was this gallery, along with INK Entertainment, that brought together the artists to paint the murals and many of them have pieces for sale in the gallery.   I appreciate that the gallery is supporting street art and that artists can make money from their work but there is a heavy presence of commercialism around this enclave of murals that makes me uncomfortable.

window of gallery with the exterior walls painted in pastel colours

a woman in an art gallery, is standing by two pieces that use neon lights. One is large red heart as part of a painting with an image of Charlie Chaplin meant to look like a wall of graffiti, with a yellow neon light in a heart shape

two pictures on a gallery wall, in red, black and white, on wallpaper that is red and beige intricate floral pattern

mural with a pink marilyn munroe, the words i love you in red, mural, Cumberland private wealth

Drake, by Cronenberg

Posted: May 31, 2019 in galleries
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At the Coldstream Fine Art gallery near King & Spadina is an exhibit of photographs by Caitlin Cronenberg called ‘Strange/Beauty’.  Among the photos are some of Drake, Toronto’s own rapper and most visible Raptor fan. two photos by Caitlin Cronenberg. On the right is a night time photo of Drake, the singer, standing beside a car that has its front headlights on. The photo on the left is of 4 men, including Drake, sitting at a table, all dressed in suits. a photo of Drake sitting among many colourful flowers

Cronenberg was the photographer who produced the image for the album cover for Drake’s “Views from the Six” album. The cover shot, of Drake sitting on top of the CN Tower, is also in this show.  Some of these photos appear in the digital booklet that accompanied the album.  The album was released in April 2016.

A winter scene, Drake, holding the leash of a dog, outside, standing beside a rolls royce car that has been out in the snow, and standing in front of a large house with white columns in the front

 

Remember that these photos are behind glass, hence the reflections.  In other words, these photos on this page are merely representations of the real thing.  They look much better in real life.

The exhibit is on until June 8th.

Contact at 401 Richmond

Posted: May 15, 2019 in galleries
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401 Richmond is a renovated industrial building that is now an arts and culture hub; it includes many little galleries. The building was built in stages between 1899 and 1923 for the Macdonald Manufacturing Company who made lithographed tinware such as biscuit tins and containers for tea and  tobacco.

Many of the galleries are participating in the CONTACT Photography Festival and what follows is a selection of what is on display at the moment.  A few non-photography installations have snuck in as well.

One of the galleries is the Red Head Gallery. Their exhibit, titled ‘Pentimento’, is a collection of work by some of their members.    From their website: “The work presented is a diverse commentary on the idea of photography and the definition, role & relevance of the photograph, both directly & indirectly, in the act of image and object making.”

below: ‘Untitled’ by Tonia Di Risio. The photos have been printed on vinyl and then stuck to the gallery wall.

an artwork that is a collage of photos of cookies, tables, and bungalows, stacked on top of each other to make a large tower

below: “Still Life with Paper’ by Jim Bourke

image on a gallery wall, orange table cloth, an open newspaper with illustraion of a woman's head, two partially filled cups of tea, with saucers

below: ‘Process’ by Sally Thurlow is 6 photographs of a demolition and renovation of a house (prompted by a rotting roof) and the upheaval that that causes.   Each little frame is made from something from the job site including Tims cups and yellow caution tape.

Process, and artwork by Sally Thurlow, of photos in a wood frame and each photo is framed with found objects

The word pentimento means “a visible trace of earlier painting beneath a layer or layers of paint on a canvas.”  The last blog post dealt with palimpsest which is erased text that becomes visible and it seems to me that pentimento is very similar, but with pictures not words, paint not ink.

***

Urbanspace Gallery, “Further Along the Road”, an exhibit of photos taken on Dupont Street in Toronto, by Eliot Wright.

below: Left: 1220 Dundas St looking west.  Right: 1072 Dundas Street West.  Both photos were taken in July 2016

two photos taken on Dupont street, the one on the right is of 3 old cars parked in a driveway. The other is of signs for taxis and car repair shops

below: Left: CP railline, west of Shaw.  Right top: Creeds coffee bar, 390 Dupont St., taken from the CP tracks, July 2016.   Right bottom: CP rail line west of Dufferin, August 2016

Three photos of trains and train tracks on Dupont Street

***

below: Laura Shintani, Bodywashi! at Tangled Art Gallery

art installation that uses strips of plastic shower curtain. The squares in the plastic make the person on the other side appear many times - one each in every square

It’s like a car wash for people although no water is involved.  Strips of translucent plastic (shower curtain material?) hang from the ceiling.   After walking through the plastic you encounter the scene below.

an art installation that looks like the puffy pieces in a car wash

***

Gallery 44, “Developing Historical Narratives”

art gallery room with three large canvases on the floor, all wth bright yellow backgrounds

 

below: One of the images in ‘Petro Suburbs’, a series of black and white images by Hajra Waheed, also Gallery 44.   The subject matter is based on old aerial photos of Dhahran Saudi Arabia, a town that the artist grew up in.  It was also a gated town built for Saudi ARAMCO (Arabian American Oil Company).  Dhahran was protected by airbases, both US & Saudi, as well as by the CIA and such.  Access and privacy were strictly controlled and photography and filming were not allowed.

an aerial photo of a U shaped street of suburban houses, surroundings are blacnked out with translucent paper or something similar

 

below: Untitled cyanotypes by Sarah Comfort, part of a series called “More Than This”.

4 cyanotype prints (blue) on a gallery wall

***

below: An image by Shelley Wildeman, superimposed people in the hallway.

a photo of a large entrance way, lots of glass, and many people superimposed over each other.

***

below: Two pieces by Florence Yee, who introduces herself on her website as: “Florence Cing-Gaai Yee is a queer Cantonese visual artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto and Tiohtià:ke/Montreal.  These hang in the Space Gallery which are windows in the hallway on the ground floor at 401 Richmond.

4 rice clear rice bags with red handles, with embroidery on them, red words that say, she saw me at the grocery store and remembered to get rice

artwork by Florence Yee, a plastic dry cleaners bag hanging on a hanger on a wall with a white fringed piece of cloth inside, on the outside of the bag are the words, They said I was whitewashed by Chinese people only run dry cleaners

***

The last of the 401 Richmond galleries that I explored this past week is the Abbozzo Gallery where Patty Maher’s exhibit “The Sky as my Witness ” is now being shown.

below: “The Quiet Storm”

a large photo of a red headed woman, long hair, in a braid, standing on a snow covered road with her back to the camera, in the countryside

below: “Parallel Universe”.  Because we are all just dots in the universe.  The same but different.

close up of a Patty Maher photograph, Parallel Universe, the back of two red headed women, both with large dice on their head, one die per head,

below: “Land Line”.

A Patty Maher photo of a woman standing on a deserted country road with an old rotary phone at her feet, her head has been cropped out of the photo, foggy in the background

The above photo is from a series called ‘The Liminal Field’.  On her website, Maher describes the series thusly: “This staged self portrait series is an exploration of the state of liminality that occurs in midlife.  It is an attempt to symbolically describe the transformation that needs to take place when moving from youth to the second half of life.  The field depicted here is a construct and does not exist in real space.  It has been constructed to indicate a place that is both personal an intangible.  Each photo symbolically depicts an internal struggle that is necessarily part of this transition.”

 

As you can see, there is a a wide selection of images and ideas lurking in the galleries at 401 Richmond.   Most exhibits change over every month or so – so there is always something to see.

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