Akin Vitrine Galleries featuring 'Forest & Lakes' by Jen Pilles

We are very pleased to welcome in the New Year with new work from Akin King member, Jen Pilles! Forests & Lakes is an exhibition of plein air studies; each work created in nature using a combination of gouache, pencil, watercolour, and ink.

Jen Pilles has been developing her plein-air practice for many years, finding inspiration in the Ontario countryside, and joy in the act of studying the landscape. These works on wood and paper were created in the following locations between 2014 - 2018: Algonquin Park, Bobcaygeon, Bracebridge, Brechin, Dwight, Huntsville, Oastler Lake Provincial Park, Tamworth, Toronto Island, and Warsaw Caves Conservation Area.

Forests & Lakes begins its journey in the Akin Vitrine Galleries beginning at 1485 Dupont for the month of January and 1747 St. Clair Avenue West in February.

Jen Pilles is a freelance illustrator and plein-air artist from Welland, Ontario. She creates charming drawings and colourful illustrations using a combination of mediums including ink, gouache, watercolour and coloured pencil. She creates work for a variety of clients including publishers, public institutions, not-for-profit organizations, small businesses, and private clients. Jen holds a Bachelor of Applied Arts with Honours in Illustration from Sheridan College.

Jen has been practicing plein-air painting for over a decade and derives much of her inspiration from travelling and exploring the landscape. The work she creates out in nature informs and inspires her illustration practice. Feeling most at home out in the woods or floating in a lake, Jen is always on the lookout for new locations to draw and paint in the open air.

Forests & Lakes
Media: gouache, watercolour, pencil, ink
Dimensions variable
Dates: 2014 - 2018

To contact the artist:
Instagram: @jenpillestration
#Akinvitrine
www.jenpilles.com

Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2019 programming in two Vitrine Galleries located at Akin Dupont and Akin St. Clair. These miniature galleries feature the diverse talent of our members with travelling installations rotating each month. Each artist will be featured for the first month at Dupont and second month at St. Clair. For more information about our artists and our programming, join us on Instagram @akinvitrine.

Forests & Lakes will be on view for the month of January in our Dupont Akin Vitrine Gallery, located in the Clock Factory Building at 1485 Dupont Street (entrance on Campbell Avenue). Find Akin Studio 215 on the second floor and follow the sign into the hallway around the corner. The building is open from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery and be on view for the month of February at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

For more information about Jen and her work, follow our Instagram account @akinvitrine.

Jen will also be taking over the @akinprojects Instagram account on January 28-30th. Stay tuned for more of her beautiful work and some behind the scenes.

Akin in the Country: Painting Landscape in the Anthropocene

Akin Projects is thrilled to announce our new partnership with Salmon River Studios. Join us for our first collaborative event! Details below. Click here to buy your ticket now. 

Plein Air Painting & Printmaking Weekend Workshop at Salmon River Studios in Tamworth, Ontario

October 1 - 2, 2016 / $50  per person - some materials and meals provided / Participation is limited. To reserve your spot, please purchase a ticket here: www.universe.com/akininthecountry

Plein air landscape painting is an enjoyable, relaxing and increasingly important way to create artworks in this time of widespread disconnect from the natural environment and climate change increasingly referred to as the Anthropocene. During this two day workshop you are invited to immerse yourself in the great outdoors and use your senses to become more attuned to and visually interpret the complex, interconnected and beautiful ecosystem of the Salmon River Watershed. Participants will be introduced to some basic painting as well as monotype printmaking techniques and then will explore the 52 acres of rolling hills, forest, 100 year old timber barn and river banks while creating studies from direct observation. In the evening we will share a meal and take time to discuss our works, experiences and how/why landscape painting is re-emerging as a critical methodology in contemporary practices. Participants are invited to camp out on the Salmon River Studios acreage for the night.

The workshop will be hosted by Gabriel Deerman - a painter, printmaker, art educator and co-owner operator of Salmon River Studios and feature an introduction to the term Anthropocene by special guest Simon Pope.

Printing plates and paper will be provided for printmaking. Participants are encouraged to bring water colour paints, paper, canvas, brushes, travel easel or drawing board or any other drawing and painting supplies they wish to use.

This workshop is suitable for all skill levels.  

Salmon River Studios is located a few minutes walk from the town of Tamworth where an ATM, LCBO, grocery store and restaurants are located. For those not wishing to camp, there is a hotel and airbnb options a short distance from the farm. Participants will have access to the barn which has electricity and lighting as well as an outhouse. While dinner is provided (vegetarian friendly/ pls inform us of any food allergies) plan on supplying your own lunches and snacks (no fridge or kitchen access) or walk to Tamworth http://tamworth.ca/  for local culinary delights! And don’t miss the amazing Tamworth Book Shop- full of excellent finds! http://www.tamworthbookshop.com/

About Salmon River Studios:
Salmon River Studios is based on a 52 acre farm nestled on the banks of the Salmon River - just across from the town of Tamworth. Over the next several years they will be introducing arts and educational programming including art lessons and workshops in all media, arts integration workshops for educators, artist residency programs and other community centred cultural activities. Visit the website at www.salmonriverstudios.com

About Gabriel Deerman: 
Gabriel Deerman is a visual artist and Ontario College of Teachers and International Baccalaureate certified educator with expertise in media including painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture and mixed media. Gabriel holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design (Vancouver), a Masters of Fine Art from Transart Institute (Berlin/New York) and a Bachelors of Education from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Gabriel has exhibited in Canada and internationally- have a look at his art work at www.gabrieldeerman.com

About Simon Pope:
Artist Simon Pope (b. 1966, England) is preoccupied with the social dimension of human relationships – to nature, technology, and to each other. Spanning some twenty-five years, this work has taken the form of software, walking, conversation and writing, and often involves participants from other disciplines and cultures. His latest projects grapple with how participatory art can engage with new materialist philosophy, and the concept of the ‘more-than-human’. – themes which inform his current solo-exhibition at Danielle Arnaud in London, England (Sept 16-Oct 23 2016).

Formerly a member of the net.art group I/O/D, he represented Wales at their first exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2003. Pope was a NESTA Fellowship awardee (2002-05), a Reader (Professor) in Fine Art (2005-10) and is currently an Artist Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London (2014-). He was awarded a doctorate in Fine Art from the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford (2012-15) and supervises MFA and PhD students for Transart Institute in Berlin and New York. He currently lives in Toronto where he convenes a course on posthumanism and the arts for OCADU. More information at: www.tinyurl.com/simonpope

Click here to read more about the Anthropocene