Happy New Year from your friends at Akin. We have so much amazing stuff coming up in 2017 including our next workshop: Forge Workshop Series: Glass Mosaic Workshop, the launch of our new studio in the East End Akin Sunrise, and plenty more! We wish you all the best and can't wait to see you in 2017.
Left: Erin Loree, Cosmic Handheld, 2016
Right: Oliver Pauk, Object #76, 2016
Angell Gallery invites you to join them in 2017 with new exhibitions by Erin Loree & Oliver Pauk! Opening Friday January 13th from 7-9pm. On view from January 13-28.
ERIN LOREE
The paintings in Erin Loree's The Good Glazier are complex abstracts inspired by the Zen concept of "beginner's mind" - an attitude that embraces openness and being in the present moment. The swirling rhythms, glowing colour and bold scale for which she is known are still present, but are further worked through a slow building and removing of paint, resulting in richly layered surfaces that reward extended looking.
The show's title, an inversion of the Baudelaire poem, The Bad Glazier, signals Loree's desire that the new works evoke windows into psychic spaces. To create these visionary portals, Loree begins with veils of transparent acrylic, over which oils are applied, scraped away, then re-applied, using a variety of tools including rags, squeegees, cardboard and brushes. In a process in which intention and intuition are equal partners, painterly instinct both drives decision and embraces accident.
"Each layer is critical because the colour of the layers, and the order in which they are applied, alter how each layer interacts with what exists beneath it," says Loree, who seeks to balance the delicate, carefully considered mark with the bold and spontaneous gesture. The works evolve over time and surfaces are continuously reworked and disrupted, leaving stains and traces of previous marks.
There is much here to occupy both eye and mind. Areas of high gloss jostle patches of velvety matte textures. Thick impasto punctuates broad, fluid strokes. Luminous tones of transparent acrylic contrast with scraped slabs of opaque oils, creating a palpable sense of depth. The darkness that is an inevitable part of the human journey is present, yet counterbalanced by a light that seems to emanate from within the paintings. A 21st century mystic, Loree as The Good Glazier offers viewers a channel into their own inner worlds.
OLIVER PAUK
The artwork of Oliver Pauk engages with the prime constant of our digital environment: entropy. At every stage of its lifespan, and even prior to its creation, a piece of digital media is subject to the tremendous forces of entropy. While the dream of the internet involves navigating a seamless convergence of total information, the actuality much more closely resembles a patchwork of contingent translations between networks and documents, databases and algorithms, filetypes and protocols. A file is selected, uploaded, formatted and compressed; it gets filtered, transmitted, curated, or sorted; it becomes recalled, downloaded, archived, or forgotten. But at each step, something is missed, garbled, or reversed. The seemingly endless, weightless transmission of information in the cloud is, in fact, fuelled by loss.
Beginning with the selection of particular objects with peculiar qualities-broken crystal, pieces of found rubber, plastic mesh, and other detritus-Pauk creates a place of potential through compositions so sensitively assembled as to appear incidental. From here, Pauk slowly and deliberately occludes these configurations, first by painting them in part or whole with a solid color, and then by photographing the results and transforming them digitally through various programs and processes, some automatic and scripted, others painstaking and arduous.
In this way, he excises the images of their most recognizable features while emphasizing what remains, re-enacting and reversing the entropic processes underlying the distribution of digital content. Pauk's doctoring recalls in some ways the artifacts and mispatterning typical of Tauba Auerbach or Wade Guyton, where the interfacing of the artist's hand and mechanical processes yield impromptu abstractions. Pauk does not seem to be interested in accidents, however. The work likewise bears traces of the procedurally-engineered compositions of pioneering digital artists like Frieder Nake and Manfred Mohr, though Pauk is not a process artist. Ultimately, his anti-images have much more in common with the work of Gerhard Richter, whose blurred photorealism and gestural abstraction were both products of careful de-emphasis of the core elements of a recognizable image, what he called the "excess of unimportant information."
The critical absence of this type of information yields another: a kind of metadata of image-making, through which the plainly human recedes and the aggregate characteristics of the work emerge. Unbeholden to the coherence of realism, this aggregate data is translated across dimensions, from space to flatness and back again. Fittingly, Pauk's recent work delves into 3D printing and hydrographics, bleeding-edge technologies that reiterate his transmutational practice, rendering the digital tangible while extruding flat imagery into real space. Thus what Pauk provides are images and objects that have the same physical relationship to reality as all those others that proliferate around us, but which have traversed the digital realm in a completely novel way. From entropy, Pauk finds new forms which could only have been realized through loss.
Text by: Ben Bruneau
Patrick Mikhail Gallery in Montréal is pleased to present “Monument” a new exhibition by Toronto artist (And Akin Lansdowne studio member) Michael Vickers
January 7 to February 25, 2017
Artist reception:
Saturday, January 7, 2017
2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Sometimes watched though too often not, those beating hearts—those ticking clocks.
PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY in Montréal is pleased to present MONUMENT, an exhibition of new works by PMG artist MICHAEL VICKERS. The exhibition, the artist’s first solo presentation with the gallery, marks a continued investigation of the sculptural object, while incorporating elements and influences from industrial design, assemblage, and a renewed interest in poetry.
Waterjet-cut metal panels, engraved boulders, and new large-scale installations fill the gallery space, interjected by floral arrangements and tomographic imagery based on MEG and MRI scans created in collaboration with Dr. Karen Davis’ neurology lab at Toronto Western Hospital. In MONUMENT, we find not only a curiosity towards modes of presentation, materials, and differing relationships between objects, but also introspective reflections (both minute and macro- connections) and contemplations riddled through visual decisions and gestures.
Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present the Vitrine Gallery, a recent addition to our Dupont studios. This miniature gallery will feature the diverse talent of our members with a new installation each month.
Our current exhibition, The Braids, is running for the month of December. This new work from Akin member, Nicole Krstin is part of an ongoing series intended to foster dialogue, awareness and understanding about women’s health issues.
“The Braids is about navigating the seemingly otherworldly experience of trying to paint a clear picture of our medical profiles. It is about the need to be vigilant about understanding our bodies, our rights, and about asking questions in order to empower ourselves, rather than remaining in the dark about our health. Layers of paint are carefully cut by-hand to reveal imagery that represent healthy tissue, disease, information, misinformation — all of which is explored and or filtered-out in order to learn more about our bodies. The braids, which are interlaced and therefore stronger than the strands alone, represent the power of knowledge; revealing what is beneath the darkness.”
Nicole Krstin is a visual artist, currently focusing on film photography and painting. She is a “retired” graphic designer, holding a BA from the University of Toronto, with a Major in Anthropology and a Minor in English. Nicole describes herself as being known for incessant mouth breathing, an unrelenting admiration for cats, and saying weird things in-person and on social media. She is uni-coastal, splitting time between Toronto and Brooklyn.
The Braids, 2016
16 x 20 inches
Acrylic on wood, vinyl, fabric
The Akin Vitrine Gallery is located at 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 Friday, or to arrange a viewing outside of those hours please contact the artist: info@nicolekrstin.com
www.nicolekrstin.com
Instagram: @nicolekrstin
#AkinVitrine
Wed Dec 28 / 7-9pm / Akin Dupont - 1485 Dupont St - Room 204
*Free for all and open to the public*
On the last Wednesday of every month Akin host’s a relaxed and fun ‘Show and Tell for Artists’ at one of the Akin Collective studios. This is a time for Akin members and other Toronto artists to show completed works or works in progress and get friendly feedback and answers from their peers in a casual studio setting.
Feel free to bring art to share, bring a friend or two, bring snacks or drinks or just bring yourself! Come for the conversation or just to meet people and hang out.
This month we are meeting at Akin Dupont - 1485 Dupont St - Room 204 - entrance to the building is on Campbell Ave . If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch! See you there!
Come to the Akin Holiday Market this coming Saturday at the Lansdowne Brewery (303 Lansdowne Ave) next to the Holiday Zine + Maker Fair at Xpace Cultural Centre . Hot sales on Akin merchandise all day! All proceeds go to support Akin Projects not-for-profit arts programming.
Can't make it to the Holiday Market? All items on sale in our online shop until the end of December!
We are so excited for the Akin Holiday Market, happening on December 17 at Lansdowne Brewery (303 Lansdowne Ave) from 12pm-6pm. Here is the list of the amazing exhibitors who will be showing their work!
Empath School for Arts and Magic
HBphotoART
Lamb Textile by Johana Cordero
Thusnelda Florence Contemporary Jewellery & Design
That's not all! The annual Xpace Cultural Centre Holiday Zine & Maker Fair, with even more incredible artists and makers, will be happening next door! Two great events, one day, free and friendly! See you there!
The Akin Vitrine Gallery, a recent addition to our Dupont studios presents a new exhibition, The Braids, running for the month of December. This new work from Akin member, Nicole Krstin is part of an ongoing series intended to foster dialogue, awareness and understanding about women’s health issues.
“The Braids is about navigating the seemingly otherworldly experience of trying to paint a clear picture of our medical profiles. It is about the need to be vigilant about understanding our bodies, our rights, and about asking questions in order to empower ourselves, rather than remaining in the dark about our health. Layers of paint are carefully cut by-hand to reveal imagery that represent healthy tissue, disease, information, misinformation — all of which is explored and or filtered-out in order to learn more about our bodies. The braids, which are interlaced and therefore stronger than the strands alone, represent the power of knowledge; revealing what is beneath the darkness.”
Nicole Krstin is a visual artist, currently focusing on film photography and painting. She is a “retired” graphic designer, holding a BA from the University of Toronto, with a Major in Anthropology and a Minor in English. Nicole describes herself as being known for incessant mouth breathing, an unrelenting admiration for cats, and saying weird things in-person and on social media. She is uni-coastal, splitting time between Toronto and Brooklyn.
The Akin Vitrine Gallery is located at 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 Friday, or to arrange a viewing outside of those hours please contact the artist: info@nicolekrstin.com
#AkinVitrine
Short hand-drawn animation by former Akin Collective member, Coco Guzman.
Created during a residency at Toronto Animated Image Society offered by Collective Toronto with the support of Canada Council for the Arts.
Salmon River Studios is a 52 acre farm in Tamworth, Ontario that offers art classes, artist residency programs, community events and more. This October they collaborated with Akin Projects to host Akin in the Country, a 2 day workshop/camping weekend. Here they are featured on the cover of the December/January issue of The SCOOP. We look forward to more fun collaborations with them in the future!
The SCOOP is an independent community news magazine. Since 2005, we have been covering rural life in the Ontario.
Alison Snowball of Akin Dupont is pleased to invite you to the opening reception for Interconsequential - an upcoming installation at QueenSpecific on Thursday Dec 8, 6-7p, 787Queen Street West.
Runs through January 15 if you can't make it to the opening.
Application deadline: January 6, 2017
Residency period: May 1 to June 15, 2017
Art Metropole and Fogo Island Arts are seeking applications for The Islands, a two-part residency that aims to encourage arts writing and criticism in contemporary art. Open to Canadian and international applicants, The Islands will take place on Fogo Island and at Artscape Gibraltar Point on Toronto Island, from May 1 to June 15, 2017.
The Islands invites emerging and established arts writers and artists with a writing practice to propose a project to be executed across two unique locations. The successful candidate will spend a month on Fogo Island as part of Fogo Island Arts’ residency program, followed by two weeks on Toronto Island at Artscape Gibraltar Point. The project will culminate in a small publication funded, published, and distributed by Art Metropole.
The Islands is a residency partnership conceived and organized by Art Metropole and Fogo Island Arts, with support from Artscape.
Application Criteria
Arts writing practices may range in structure, content, and medium, addressing various forms and disciplines that may include poetry, art criticism, and experimental writing, and periodical production (journals, art books, magazines).
Applications should directly consider the role of writing and criticism in contemporary art, and take into consideration the unique circumstances of the residencies.
To be eligible for consideration, candidates must:
The successful candidate will be required to give a public presentation on Fogo Island and at Artscape Gibraltar Point, and to present their work at Art Metropole, Toronto.
How to apply
The application form and program guidelines are available on online. Please click here to review and apply.
Accommodation, Travel and Workspace
The successful candidate will be provided with private accommodation and studio space on both Fogo and Toronto islands, as well as a weekly stipend to offset the costs of materials and day-to-day living expenses. Travel expenses are also covered.
Applicants should keep in mind that this residency takes place in two locations, and requires significant travel.
Fogo Island is a remote island with limited amenities. A vehicle will be provided for the duration of the residency.
Toronto Island is North America’s largest urban car-free community. Bicycles will be provided as well as a Ferry Pass for the duration of the residency. Toronto Island is a 20-minute ferry ride from Toronto’s harbour.
Selection Process
The successful candidate will be selected by a jury which includes Los Angeles-based artist Silke Otto-Knapp; Toronto-based artist Lili Huston Herterich; Nicolaus Schafhausen, Director of Kunsthalle Wien and Strategic Director, Fogo Island Arts; and Danielle St-Amour, Director of Art Metropole.
Visual artists working in all mediums, and makers in craft & design are invited to submit applications to the 56th Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition.
Early Deadline: March 1, 2017
Late Deadline: March 14, 2017 (Late fees apply)
APPLY NOW
The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition is Toronto’s first and Canada's largest, longest running juried outdoor contemporary art fair since 1961. Attracting an audience of over 100,000 people annually, and showcasing the work of over 320 artists, the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition prides itself on creating an environment that gives artists the chance to interact directly with the public in an informal and accessible setting.
TVO just released a beautiful new short film by 8 String Media of Akin Lansdowne. It was shot in Polar Bear Provincial Park on Hudson Bay.
Calling all Toronto-based and Canadian-based artists!
Nuit Blanche Toronto is now accepting submissions to the Open Call Project program for the event's 12th edition, happening on September 30, 2017 from sunset to sunrise.
Open Call Projects
The Open Call Projects program is an opportunity for artists to be guided and mentored by a Nuit Blanche Toronto curator and have a project produced and funded by the City of Toronto.
The impressive caliber and diversity of Open Call Projects featured at the event over the years includes artists such as: Ame Henderson, Brandy Leary/Anandam Dancetheatre, Eleanor King, Faith La Rocque, Kelly Mark, Labspace Studio, Rhonda Weppler & Trevor Mahovsky, VSVSVS and Workparty.
To mark Canada's 150th anniversary of confederation, Nuit Blanche Toronto has created an overarching theme for the entire 2017 event focusing on this major milestone in Canada's history as a nation, entitled Nuit Blanche 2017: Many Possible Futures. All participating Nuit Blanche Toronto 2017 curators have been encouraged to look forward to the many possible futures of Canada in their curatorial visions, working with artists to address notions of Identity and Nationhood. Possible perspectives include Migration, Displacement, Colonialism, Power and Privilege, Settlement, the Natural Landscape, Distance, Exploration, Adaptation, and Reconciliation.
This year the Open Call Projects will give up to four artists the opportunity to be part of two City-produced exhibitions.
The two exhibitions accepting Open Call submissions for 2017 are:
Taking to the Streets – For a Possible Future
Curator: Barbara Fischer
Streets are complex sites where pedestrian life meets car culture, where public and private intermingle, and where commerce and consumption, ostentation and privation are in daily exchange, if not confrontation. Taking to the Streets – For a Possible Future looks at the ways in which the 'street' as a medium has served the manifestation of social action and interrogation by artists, from graffiti to protest, conceptual interventions to public disruptions.
Barbara Fischer is the executive director/chief curator of the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at Hart House and interim director of the University of Toronto Art Centre. She is also senior lecturer of Curatorial Studies in the Department of Art at the University of Toronto. She has curated numerous major exhibitions of contemporary art and its histories in galleries and museums across Canada and internationally. She was awarded the 2008 Hnatyshyn Award for Curatorial Excellence and was the commissioner of the Canadian Pavilion for the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009.
Dream Time: We All Have Stories
Curator: Karen Alexander
Dream Time: We All Have Stories focuses on the challenges and consequences of individuals and communities sharing urban spaces and places, together. Exploring themes of migration, memory, hybridity and transformation, the exhibition looks forward not toward a future which throws everything together into a magical multicultural melting pot, but rather one that sharply focuses on progressive ideas of nationality and inclusion through a series of interventions, investigations and explorations.
Karen Alexander is an independent film and moving image curator, advisor and researcher and has worked with and for the Royal College of Art, and the British Film Institute. She has acted as a consultant and programmer for a wide range of festivals institutions and galleries, including Film London, the Watershed Bristol, Tate, Birkbeck, Iniva, the Serpentine Gallery, The British Library and the ICA London. Her areas of expertise are UK artists’ film and video, feminist and post-colonial politics of representation, gender and sexuality. Karen was appointed Associate Fellow at Warwick University in the Film and Television Studies department in 2015 and has been a trustee of the London-based arts commissioning body Artangel since 2004.
Each curator will select one or two Open Call Projects for their exhibition in consultation with the City of Toronto. Funding and production support is provided by the City of Toronto.
The Open Call submission deadline by email is 11:59 p.m. on Monday, December 19, 2016.
Applications are now being accepted. Further details, guidelines and the Open Call application form can be found at http://www.toronto.ca/nuitblanche.
Contact for Open Call Project Submissions: ocs@toronto.ca.
Independent Projects
Each year Nuit Blanche Toronto features self-funded installations under the Independent Projects program. These are created by galleries, schools, neighbourhoods, community organizations and individual artists.
The Independent Projects submission deadline by email is 11:59 p.m. on Monday, February 6, 2017.
Applications and guidelines for Independent Projects will be available beginning Monday, November 14 at http://www.toronto.ca/nuitblanche.
Contact for Independent Project Submissions: ips@toronto.ca.
About Nuit Blanche Toronto
Nuit Blanche Toronto is the city's annual all-night celebration of contemporary art, produced by the City of Toronto in collaboration with Toronto’s arts community. The event brings together the exceptional talents of artists, curators, galleries, museums, cultural and educational institutions, and neighbourhoods in a collaborative undertaking to transform the city.
Nuit Blanche Toronto 2017 is the event's 12th edition, and will be held in Toronto from Saturday, September 30 to Sunday, October 1, 2017 (sunset to sunrise). The arts community will come together to offer both uninitiated and devoted art lovers an accessible and exciting night of contemporary art. This is an opportunity to celebrate and showcase Toronto’s arts community and the City’s commitment to contemporary art, bringing this experience to both Torontonians and out-of-town visitors.
It is always sad to see someone leave the Akin Collective studios, but we are always thrilled to see their new work even after they have left. Here we have beautiful images from Laura Krick who left Akin to study at Emily Carr University in Vancouver. We can't wait to see more!
About FieldTrips003
To celebrate the annual International Day for Persons with Disabilities on December 3, OCADSU and Access Ryerson will visit Mad Room by Gloria Swain with an exclusive artist talk and gallery tour. Please arrive at Student Union Office (6th floor, 230 Richmond St.) at 2:30 and we will walk together to be at the show for 3pm.
ACCESSIBILITY:
(Please message us if you have additional accessibility needs)
- The gallery is wheelchair accessible and all work is hung at an accessible level
- All visual work includes audio description
- Service animals are welcome at the gallery
- All exhibits include touchable art
In case we miss you, our exclusive trip is from 3-4pm at:
401 Richmond St. W S-122
Toronto, Ontario M5V 3A8
Contact: equity@ocadsu.org
INFO:
Mad Room is an exhibition on the theme of mental health to raise awareness, open conversation, and promote effective coping strategies and self-care through art. It features images and installations that symbolize institutionalization, forced medication, domestic abuse, sexual abuse and the stigmas that come with depression.
ARTIST BIO:
Gloria Swain is a multidisciplinary artist (painting, photography, poetry, installations) whose work stimulates an understanding of mental illness. She is currently completing her Masters in Environmental Studies.
Gloria holds a Certificate in Community Arts Practice and is a recipient of the York University Robert J. Tiffin Student Leadership Award. Her work has shown at the Toronto Gladstone Hotel and various other venues. She is recipient of the Canadian International Black Women’s 100 Black Women to Watch.
Gloria’s practice includes work as a community arts facilitator and she coordinates art making spaces. Using art to explore mental health and (intergenerational) trauma, her art is an opportunity to share her own stories of mental health and create dialogue to remove the stigma. As a Black woman artist, she recognizes the lack of economic resources for marginalized people living with mental health issues and hopes to reduce the stigma of mental illness. Website:
About FieldTrips00
“FieldTrips00” is the first of the OCADSU's series of outings. The idea behind FieldTrips00 is this offers an opportunity for you to attend great events around the city with a friendly crew. This way, you don’t have to show up at events alone if you don’t want to, you can meet other OCADers across disciplines, and you have people to find the location with you - so if you get lost, we all get lost together.
Giving Tuesday is just around the corner – November 29. It’s a global day of giving, and a chance for us to think about the causes we care about.
All donations and contributions made to Akin Projects between now and November 29 will be split equally with another local arts organization near and dear to our heart - Project Creative Users.
Project Creative Users is an arts collective that brings together artists with disabilities to creatively examine social, cultural, and individual understandings of disability and accessibility through a process of exploring what it means to be a “user” in the environments we inhabit. We play with the word “user”, a term used in inclusive design practices wherein disabled people are commonly referred to as “extreme users.”
With your help, we can continue to have a significant positive impact on our city through the arts.
Click here to donate now and support both organisations
ps. Be sure to visit our online shop! Proceeds from all sales go to directly to supporting our initiatives.
#GivingTuesday
Inspirations Studio is a project of Sistering, an organization that provides practical and emotional support to vulnerable women. The Studio is a social enterprise which gives women a chance to gain supplemental income, ceramics training, and life skills.
Friday December 2: 12-6pm
Saturday December 3: 12-5pm
Sunday December 4: 12-4pm
Inspirations Studio is in the Junction Triangle at 2480 Dundas Street West, Suite 101
The Artists' Health Alliance was formed, with a vision of creating a centre for holistic treatment and comprehensive health education and outreach for artists, students and art educators. They offer a range of resources and services for artists including reduced cost for health care, access to workshops and programming, and access to the Artists Health Centre at Toronto Western Hospital. The Centre is the only clinic of its kind in Canada that specializes in serving the entire artistic community.
Visit the website to learn more: http://artistshealth.com
