This show was the first time that I’ve had enough of an established body of work that I wasn’t rushing around at the last minute, fighting to crank out enough work to display. For this show, I was able to pick a theme, set out my entire body of work, stand back, and pick out a number of pieces that fit that theme. In this case, visual abundance was the focus – the density of images we come across in our daily lives from advertisements and videos to photos on social media, was something I was thinking about.
I selected paintings that were based on collages of images taken from time-lapse photography sequences, where I was literally choosing one or two images from thousands of possibilities and combining them into digital collages emphasizing speed, abundance, and visual density.
Ad Astra is a fan-run Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Paranormal literary convention that Adam Smith of Toronto’s Site 3 Co-Laboratory was kind enough to invite Brad Blucher and I to participate in. Two images from our “Take a Picture” series were included in this show.
Due to scheduling conflicts, I was unable to attend the Ad Astra event itself, so I don’t have any photos from the event itself. More information about this even can be found on the Ad Astra website.
“Wink” From the “Take a Picture” series. Brad Blucher, Kyle Clements.
“Build a man a fire and he’s warm for a day; set a man on fire and he’s warm for the rest of his life” From the “Take a Picture series”. Brad Blucher, Kyle Clements.
Whippersnapper Gallery has a great reputation for supporting emerging artists, so I jumped at the chance to show there when the oportunity arose.
My friends were a bit late showing up to this event, so for the first hour, I was rather uncomfortable. To distract myself, I devised a system for gaging how successful my work is compared to everyone else: I would count how many seconds people spent looking at my work, and add 9 points per second (because there were 10 artists in the show, value is number of artists -1) Then I would count how many seconds they looked at someone elses art, subtracting 1 point per second. At the end, if their score was postitive, I had earned more of their attention than the other artists, and was therefore “winning”. (…Yea, the first hour of a show opening crawls by very slowly.)
Untitled, 38″ x 52″, Acrylic on canvas, 2009.
Untitled, 37″ x 52″, Acrylic on canvas, 2009.
Untitled, 26″ X 40″, Acrylic on canvas, 2009.
Untitled, 20″ X 26″, Acrylic on canvas, 2009.
Untitled, 24″ X 24″, Acrylic on canvas, 2009.
Dog Days of Summer show opening, September 11th, 2009.
WhipperSnapper Gallery is huge.
Dog Days of Summer show opening.
Brad is admiring my work.
Dog Days of Summer show opening, September 11th, 2009.
There were a total of 10 artists involved in this show.
Shortly after the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, I received a letter from ARTA Gallery. They were inviting me to participate in a group show. This was my first opportunity to show in Toronto’s historic distillery district.
Untitled, 25″ X 53″, Acrylic on Canvas, 2009
Untitled, 25″ X 53″, Acrylic on Canvas, 2009
My artwork, minutes before the show opening. Shot with my cellphone camera.
The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition is the largest outdoor art show in the country. It takes place early each July, and draws over a thousand applicants, each one hoping to be awarded one of a few hundred spots that are avaliable. Normally, I avoid shows with application or jury fees on the grounds that it’s a rip-off for young artists, but my friend Raf convinced me that this event is worthwhile. I applied and got in.
Following this advice turned out to be a wise decision. At this show, some galleries had a number of scouts how were out poking around, looking for young blood for a show. It was through the outdoor show that I was found by Arta Gallery, who picked me up for two shows.
I brought along a little point and shoot to document my experience at the Outdoor show. I made this little video out of the footage. Click here to jump to the video, (or scroll to the bottom of this page).
My booth. I thought black would set off my paintings nicely. Instead, it seemd to scare people away.
Toronto City hall. This was my view from 7am to 8pm for three days.
This was my East wall, dedicated to showing older work.
Close up of my West Wall.
Some shots of how I set up my booth. I had to change it up a little bit each time something sold, and each day, my layout and set-up techniques improved noticably. And yes, the ‘Brain Candy’ series was on display!
Random shot of Toronto. Just because.
My friends Dave and Jeff made an apearance (and brought coffee!).
The booths are ready for the downpour. Why is there always rain at a big outdoor festival?
I brought my little canon point and shoot along with me to the show. I wanted to document the experience of my first show of this scale, and possibly assemble a video out of the footage. That video is posted below.
After my experience with Electrified, I wanted to keep the ball rolling, so I pulled this apartment show together. I was interested in taking a more minimalist approach this time around. I simplified my paintings by zooming in on small sections of other paintings, and using that as the basis for the next painting. My palette moved away from the primaries, and focused towards the tertiaries. Registration errors were made more prominent. I played around with the viscosity of the paint; going from thin and watery to thick like a drywall paste. I introduced pearlescent pigments. I wanted to see how far I could push this Urban Landscapes series, what would work, and what would not, and a non-commercial apartment showing was a great opportunity to do just that, and solicit feedback from my friends and peers.
Urban Landscape, 16″ x 16″, acrylic on canvas, 2006.
Urban Landscape, 16″ x 20″, acrylic on canvas, 2006.
Urban Landscape, 16″ x 20″, acrylic on canvas, 2006.
Urban Landscape 1, 44″ x 56″ (approx), acrylic on canvas, 2006.
Urban Landscape 2, 44″ x 54″ (approx), acrylic on canvas, 2006.
Urban Landscape 3, 42″ x 52″, acrylic on canvas, 2006.
Electrified was my first experience working with a curator. Kelsie Parsons did a wonderful job taking care of everything. I just had to make the art and show up. It was great! Kelsie also worked some media magic as far as advertising is concerned. This show was going on at the same time as the Toronto International Art Fair yet when googling “Toronto art”, information about my show came up first.
Urban Landscape, 18″ x 24″, encaustic on canvas, 2006.
Urban Landscape, 18″ x 24″, encaustic on canvas, 2006.
Urban Landscape 1, 44″ x 56″ (approx), acrylic on canvas, 2006.
Urban Landscape 3, 42″ x 52″, acrylic on canvas, 2006.
It Happened Here was the title of the 2006 Ontario College of Art and Design Graduate show. The thesis program at OCAD really drove in the importance of having a clear focus and presenting a cohesive body of work. I don’t think I was quite ready for this. After making three paintings that turned out just as I wanted them, I started experimenting again. I made two that tried to incorporate some techniques from my older paintings, but those techniques really didn’t need to be there. In retrospect, I was just showing off. I was telling the audience, “Hey, I know some fancy glazing techniques, too! Look! Please ignore how out-of-place the technique might be…”
The Urban Landscapes series has been my primary focus ever since this show. It’s hard to explain through words, but painting this way just feels right.
Urban Landscape 1, 44″ x 56″ (approx), acrylic on canvas, 2006.
Urban Landscape 2, 44″ x 54″ (approx), acrylic on canvas, 2006.
Urban Landscape 3, 42″ x 52″, acrylic on canvas, 2006.
Urban Landscape 4, 44″ x 54″ (approx), acrylic on canvas, 2006.
Urban Landscape 5, 44″ x 55″ (approx), acrylic on canvas, 2006. SOLD
Urban Landscapes:
2006 Artist Statement
I see my recent art as a dialogue between my knowledge of art history and my experience with the images being made today. The images of today often fit into the digital aesthetic. They remind me of a buzz, of being completely overwhelmed by the amount of stimuli coming at me.
I enjoy looking at a lot of the art that came out of the Modern era. Abstract Expressionism in particular is a favourite of mine. I go into galleries and museums to spend time with several pieces that I really like.
I also enjoy looking at images that come out of our era. Subway ads, billboards, posters, magazine layouts, internet pop ups, photo blogs, screen shots from streaming videos, and digital camera preview screens. Images from these new mediums are far more prevalent in my life than what I see inside a gallery. I briefly glance at these images when I am passing by, and I notice that they often share a certain aesthetic, something not seen in the works of the past. I find this new aesthetic to be very interesting.
It is my goal to understand and capture this new aesthetic in my paintings. I brush, scrape, and squeeze acrylic onto the canvas, using what I see around me to inform my decisions as I build my paintings.
Three Point Turn was held in OCAD’s Transit Space Gallery, and featured artist’s Brad Blucher, Kyle Clements, and Mark Zydaniuk.
I was still working on my Texture series at this time, including some oil/alkyd paintings that I had been working on for several years, building up countless layers of transparent paint. This labour-intensive technique creates a glowing pearlescent effect when the painting is viewed under the right lighting conditions. Unfortunately, Transit Space didn’t provide those lighting conditions, but it was still nice to have my work on display in Toronto
I was also working with acrylic at this time. Acrylic doesn’t have the same transparency as oil, so the glazing technique wasn’t nearly as impressive. I threw in some pearlescent pigments, and had a stronger pearl effect after 15 minutes than the oil paintings had after two years of work!
Installation Pictures
The plinth in the centre of the space presented a CD player, which contained Brad Blucher’s sound piece. You would not believe how much use Bard has gotten out of that plinth. He still has it to this day, and its been sanded and repainted so many times, it looks better today than it did when it was first constructed. Four of Mark Zydaniuk’s paintings can be seen in the background, along with one of mine on the right.
Brad Blucher takes a close look at one of my paintings. Brad, I miss the awesome hair!
Getting myself into this show was perhaps the strangest and most serendipitous experience I’ve had. Someone was curating an art show at the University of Toronto. She ventured down to OCAD in search of artists. Not knowing the layout of the building, she got lost wandered through the Design departments, and didn’t come across any artists. She had just left the building, when Brad caught her attention. At the time, Brad had some nice dreads, which let her know he wasn’t a practical designer type person. “With hair like that”, she thought, “he must be an artist.” After a few seconds of chit-chat, Brad had charmed his way into our very first Toronto show.
Cubist Deconstruction of a Face (version 2), 46″ X 52″, acrylic on canvas, 2005.
Lego, 46″ X 56″, acrylic on canvas, 2004.
Biomorphic Forms, 46″ X 46″, Acrylic on canvas, 2004.
My parents are supporting me at my first Toronto art show. A group of people admiring my work.
Blaze and Brad Blucher talking about their art.
Kyle Clements and Blaze sip coffee and discuss art.
