On now! Robin Muccari at the Akin Vitrine Gallery

The Akin Vitrine Gallery is so excited to welcome a brand new exhibition, “Untitled” by Robin Muccari, an artist who works out of the Akin St Clair studios. The gallery is visible from the street, so swing by to check out Robin’s fantastic work any time, 24/7! 

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When: June 24th - August 31, 2024

Where: Akin Vitrine Gallery, 1747 St Clair Ave W

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Robin Muccari is an artist, illustrator, and designer located in Toronto, Ontario. His art ranges from analog to digital in collage, illustration, and animation. His three-dimensional analog collage artwork, "Untitled", was created in 2024 and will be on display in Akin Vitrine Gallery starting June 24th, 2024. The piece displays a static form of animated motion. Hands and objects rise from the bottom up, with light blue paths representing the direction and flow and energy.

We caught up with Robin to find out more about his inspiration, life, and work. 

Akin: What are you curious about right now?

RM: “I'm very interested in creating mechanical collages. Having seen interactive art in the past and watching mechanical objects in YouTube videos is inspiring.”

Akin: What was your first medium and what's your favourite tool/material right now? 

RM: “I grew up frequently drawing with whatever I had: crayons, No. 2 pencils, Berol colored pencils, ballpoint pens, and colored markers. Now, I am completely focused on analog collages using X-acto knives, glue, wires, wire cutters, pliers, and a saw.”

Akin: Do you have a studio routine ie: Are you a daily ritual person or are you project-focused in spurts?  

RM: “I try to make it to the studio as much as I can but it's usually 2 or 3 times a week, in the evening after work. It's mostly focused on more than one project at a time. There are some times when I look through boxes of magazines for images that work with my thoughts or I improvise based on what I find.”

Akin: Do you have creative prompts or habits to help you get started? 

RM: “Music and music videos. I go through phases and repeatedly listen to the same songs or albums because they give me motivation and help me think creatively. I also watch music videos on YouTube—generally from the 80s and 90s—for the same reason. I'm not sure why but outdated effects in them influence me.”

Akin: Is there an artist you'd like to go back in time to meet? What would you ask them about?

RM: “German Expressionists (George Grosz, Otto Dix, Hannah Höch, and many filmmakers) have been a major inspiration since I was a kid. I'd ask them about their inspirations, how they came up with their styles, and the Weimar Republic era in general.”

Akin: What are some of the benefits of being in the studio for you? What brought you to Akin?

RM: “It's really nice to have studio space because I'm able to leave home and focus on my work instead of being distracted by two cats. It's also great to chat with the other artists near me who work in mediums different from me. I looked for studio spaces on Google and Akin had a lot of locations and spaces at an affordable cost. I'm really glad I ended up at the St. Clair location because it reminds me of the studio spaces in the arts college I went to.”

Akin: What are you NOT very good at? What do you WANT to be good at? 

RM: “I'm TERRIBLE at applying glaze to clay sculptures. They never turn out as I hoped. I have really enjoyed sculpting in the past so, at some point, I'm sure I'll try to get better.”

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Learn more about Robin’s work: 

@oldman_muccari 

remuccari.com

Kolaj Magazine

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Akin Vitrine Gallery, 1747 St Clair Ave W

 

Opening Today! Satisfaction Guaranteed by Stephanie Avery

Satisfaction Guaranteed: Paintings by Stephanie Avery
Where: Flying Pony Gallery, 1481 Gerard Street East
When: May 3 - 31
Opening Reception: May 4, 4 - 7
Interactive workshop: May 12, 1 - 4. Come make some AdHacks of your very own!

Join Akin MOCA member Stephanie Avery for an exhibition of her ongoing 'AdHack' painting series. Stephanie uses reclaimed magazine ads as her canvas, painting her own whimsical additions directly onto them to critique and subvert the duplicitous aspects of consumer culture. ‘AdHack’ shifts the traditionally passive viewer/advertiser relationship into something much more active and empowering. By using humour and absurdity to co-opt advertisements, viewers gleefully disengage from the original narratives. 'AdHack' is a fun and engaging way to inspire critical thought/dialogue about advertisements and the role they play in our everyday lives.

Stephanie Avery is a Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist. Focusing on themes of play, discovery, identity and memory, Stephanie uses humour and absurdity to intervene with familiar objects and imagery to give them new meanings and narratives. Her goal is to inspire new perspectives and initiate critical dialogue about elements of contemporary culture that are often taken for granted.

Being Scene 2019 featuring work by Stephanie Avery

Workman Arts presents BEING SCENE, a sweeping exhibition encompassing over 100 artworks by 60+ artists, including work by Akin MOCA member Stephanie Avery, that give shape to compelling ideas and narratives from the sublime to the absurd to the fearless. Being Scene covers a wide range of conceptual and material approaches, giving voice to diverse life experiences.

Location: Toronto Media Arts Centre

Dates: February 28 - March 23, 2019

Exhibition is FREE and open daily from 12-6 PM.
Toronto Media Arts Centre is an accessible venue.

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AdHack by Stephanie Avery. More on view at Being Scene.

About Stephanie Avery:

Stephanie Avery is a Toronto-based artist currently working out of Akin’s MOCA location. She is best known for her ongoing project Ruins, a photographic journey through abandoned buildings around the world. Abandoned buildings possess a unique and surreal beauty that is completely unlike any other environment. Within the confines of abandoned spaces, time is in limbo. We are able to glimpse a lost vision of the past, as well as a potential future where human life is absent. Their combination of time, nature and vandalism imbues each image with a chaotic beauty, effectively transforming the familiar into the surreal, the every-day into the extraordinary.

Art Show Reception: Haunted & Healing by Foot to Face of Akin Lansdowne

Haunted and Healing is a collection of ghost paintings and collage poems by Foot-to-Face of Akin Lansdowne at Queen's Shop Hair Salon (near Dufferin Station). The show runs now until April 28. You are invited to the reception on Thursday April 12 from 7-9pm.

Foot-to-Face (Julianne Ess) is a multimedia artist and storyteller who uses her art practice to document processes of transformation and cycles of apocalypse. Her art is about doing the visceral, imaginative and embodied work of exploring and healing our fears around change, the unknown, and our capacity for intimacy. She makes zines, collages, mixtapes, and stop-motion animations, and she draws with ink, watercolours, and acrylic paint pens. Originally from Winnipeg, she’s currently based in Toronto and has done a few stints creating and exhibiting in Edinburgh. www.instagram.com/foottoface

Luis Jacob 'Habitat' at Gallery TPW until June 10

Less than a week left to check out 'Habitat' by Luis Jacob, a part of CONTACT Photography Festival at Gallery TPW. Join the artist on June 10 in conversation with Jorge Ribalta, artist, researcher, editor and independent curator from 2-4pm for a reading and discussion as Jorge Ribalta reflects on his recent curatorial work on historical photography exhibitions and the construction of the poetic, epistemic, and political meanings of a public photographic sphere.

'Habitat' presents new work by artist Luis Jacob, who is known for his practice that destabilizes conventions of looking to highlight the socio-political dimensions of the visual world. Anchoring the exhibition is Album XIV, constructed of hundreds of images cut from books and magazines and displayed as an extended sequence without identifying captions or context. The work features images of city planning, abstract art, and references to forms of spectatorship, including the work of various Toronto artists and particular moments in the city’s development. 

More than a chronicle of Toronto’s visual history, Habitat queries the relationship of the city’s culture to its economic life and its forms of self-identity (both projected and submerged). The exhibition continues Jacob’s role as a renegade semiotician—an artist whose reordering of images exerts conscious and unconscious pressure on the ways that people assign, experience, and reconfigure meaning.

Surrealist Collage Workshop - Tickets still available!

Tickets are still available for our Surrealist Collage Workshop with renowned collage artist Danielle Cole.

What will we cover?

• We will begin with collage based on the Surrealist activity Corpse Bizarre
• Techniques for seamlessly cutting material to be used in collage
• Going beyond the glue stick – techniques for gluing fine and large pieces of collage without causing the material to bubble or tear
• How to source and combine collage materials in order to create a unique piece of art

What’s it all about?

Michelangelo said of his art ‘every block of stone has a statue inside and it is the task of the sculpture to discover it.’ This quote holds true for the construction of the collages. Sorting through hundreds of images, from magazines and books both new and old, until the magical moment when all the pieces come together to create a perfect piece of art. Collage is the perfect medium for creative thinkers, artists and crafty people. This is a hands-on workshop where you will be shown strategies for creating collages that are seamlessly built and helped towards creating a unique piece of art to take home at the end of the evening. All materials will be provided.

Back by popular demand! Surrealist Collage Workshop with Danielle Cole

Tickets will sell out quickly for this one! Reserve your spot at www.universe.com/collage

Thursday May 11 / 6:30pm-9:00pm / Akin Lansdowne, 87 Wade Ave, Toronto
All materials provided, $30 per person


What will we cover?

• We will begin with collage based on the Surrealist activity Corpse Bizarre
• Techniques for seamlessly cutting material to be used in collage
• Going beyond the glue stick – techniques for gluing fine and large pieces of collage without causing the material to bubble or tear
• How to source and combine collage materials in order to create a unique piece of art
   

What’s it all about?

Michelangelo said of his art ‘every block of stone has a statue inside and it is the task of the sculpture to discover it.’ This quote holds true for the construction of the collages. Sorting through hundreds of images, from magazines and books both new and old, until the magical moment when all the pieces come together to create a perfect piece of art. Collage is the perfect medium for creative thinkers, artists and crafty people. This is a hands-on workshop where you will be shown strategies for creating collages that are seamlessly built and helped towards creating a unique piece of art to take home at the end of the evening. All materials will be provided.

Who will be teaching?

The collage workshop will be taught by Danielle Cole, a Toronto-based collage artist and teacher. Her college work has most recently been featured at the Timeraiser show at the Powerplant and can currently be found in several restaurant bathrooms in Toronto and across Canada thanks to winning a New Ad competition back in March. She believes that everyone is capable of making a truly great collage but few people are capable of spending years gathering the materials and know how to make it happen. You can view her work at: www.daniellecole.ca Danielle has her BFA from York University, a degree in Advertising and Graphic Design from George Brown, and 13 years experience teaching art to high school students in the TDSB.

FORGE: Surrealist Collage Workshop with Danielle Cole

October 13 from 6:30-9:00pm at Akin Lansdowne: 87 Wade Avenue
$25 (includes materials). Limited tickets available, get yours at www.universe.com/collageworkshop

What will we cover?

• We will begin with collage based on the Surrealist activity Corpse Bizarre

• Techniques for seamlessly cutting material to be used in collage

• Going beyond the glue stick – techniques for gluing fine and large pieces of collage without causing the material to bubble or tear

• How to source and combine collage materials in order to create a unique piece of art

What’s it all about?
Michelangelo said of his art ‘every block of stone has a statue inside and it is the task of the sculpture to discover it.’ This quote holds true for the construction of the collages. Sorting through hundreds of images, from magazines and books both new and old, until the magical moment when all the pieces come together to create a perfect piece of art. Collage is the perfect medium for creative thinkers, artists and crafty people. This is a hands-on workshop where you will be shown strategies for creating collages that are seamlessly built and helped towards creating a unique piece of art to take home at the end of the evening. All materials will be provided.

Who will be teaching?
The collage workshop will be taught by Danielle Cole, a Toronto-based collage artist and teacher. Her college work has most recently been featured at the Timeraiser show at the Powerplant and can currently be found in several restaurant bathrooms in Toronto and across Canada thanks to winning a New Ad competition back in March. She believes that everyone is capable of making a truly great collage but few people are capable of spending years gathering the materials and know how to make it happen. You can view her work at: www.daniellecole.ca Danielle has her BFA from York University, a degree in Advertising and Graphic Design from George Brown, and 13 years experience teaching art to high school students in the TDSB.

KEIICHI TANAAMI

KEIICHI TANAAMI

SEE MORE HERE AT OUR PALS CONTEMPORARY ART DAILY