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International Art Treasures Web Magazine June 2005 |
Galerie BertossiniCurrent Exhibit
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"The world of reality has its limits. The world of imagination is boundless." Jean Jacques Rousseau's immortal quote is prominently displayed at Toronto's newest art gallery. It recently opened with an exciting exhibit of innovative artists and their works. Don Frost, Camilla Geary-Martin, Martin Ouellette, Melissa M. O'Reilly and Geza Kokai are among the 20 artists honored to be included in the premiere show! |
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The Grand-Opening Vernissage was held on May 12th and many of the artists attended and discussed their works. In their own words:
Camilla Geary-Martin
Title: Kelly (Reclining Figure)
Artist: Camilla Geary-Martin
Medium: Bronze
Image Courtesy: Camilla Geary-Martin
"Kelly is a reclining nude. She is sculpted in clay and cast in bronze. I have been doing a loose way of sculpting, less detailed than my earlier works but she is still representational. I created her coming out of the surface of the table. The entire figure is not visible, she melts into the surface, and we lose her legs at the end."
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"I have four works in this exhibition, the other three Twist (torso); Having Two Legs, He Preferred to Sit, and Unarmed Man are more abstract than Kelly."
"Unarmed Man is an abstractive figure without arms and with only one leg. I did that piece in California when I was at Pasadena City College and it represents the victims of land mines or war. People who happen to be in the way without having any interest in the wars that are around them. They are the innocent that fall into harm's way. When I say he is unarmed it is to mean he doesn't carry weapons."
"I started sculpting in a one-day workshop and fell in love with clay and felt like I had to do this. I than began to take classes at the Toronto School of Art in 1999 and added one course after another, eventually becoming a full-time student in the diploma program. After graduation, about one year ago, I have been in the independent studio program where one has an advisor and take one course and work intensely with other artists. It's wonderful".
Don Frost
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"Elantra is an interesting fiberglass piece that began free form in structure and unintentionally turned into a human figure. I just let the shape take on its own being. I like the smoothness of the refined shape which requires a great deal of work but is my preference." |
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"Hiplay is extremely similar in structure to Elantra because I started with a human figure. They are constructed with urethane foam carved out of the foam first and when the shape is finished they are covered with composite material. At first I began with a human figure and it didn't work well given it broke in half, so I reversed it. The sculpture Hiplay is in actuality a human figured turned upside down. The waist is at the bottom while the legs are at the top. I added some humanistic qualities to it and made it non-human at the same time." |
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Title: Two Way Piece #1
Artist: Don Frost
Image Courtesy: Don Frost
"Skystream" and "Two Way Piece #1" are very typical of my sculptural style. I have given some thought to this concept and came to the belief that self-expression incorporates a grand family of individuals who essentially think the same way but express their feelings in a diverse variety of mediums: music, film, literature, design, painting, sculptures, etc., etc., the overall demand is for drama through contrasting elements. The greater the drama the greater the emotional response towards the individual expression. Fine dining is not the experience of one single flavor, their are five flavors to be played with, plus color, plus texture, plus temperature and a great chef knows this potential and creates a work of "taste" art.
Title: Two Way Piece
#1
Artist: Don Frost
Image Courtesy: Don Frost
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Sculpture as I have learned to understand it in accordance with this overall demand is equally a display of dramatic contrasts which compliment and enhance their opposite structural mate. Thick/thin, sharp/round, negative/positive, long/short, square/round, concave/convex all in harmony, all in perfect proportion to each other and in proportion to the overall mass of the sculpture. |
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When an individual views one of my sculptures they should feel excited and comfortable with the variations of shape and proportion. It should seem contrasting yet balanced so that the overall piece of art leaves the person with a memory, and a comfortable memory preferably, or at that as if something visually wonderful has happened to them and they want to return to it for yet another experience. I would like to add that four decades of searching for the same continuous goal of perfect beauty is not exactly simple; so if a picture is worth a thousand words then a sculpture incorporates third and perhaps fourth dimensions to cause it to equate to ten thousand or forty thousand words |
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"I think I was born a sculptor. I won my first award in Grade One, aged six, at a Peterborough City Wide Public School Art Show where I took first place and my prize was one dollar." |
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"In 1983 I made the largest sculpture in Canada. It is fifty feet high and is at the Ministry of Revenue Building in Oshawa. I choose to be a professional artist rather than a teacher. I have been an artist all my life having been attracted to the physical given I am color-blind. Sculpture fits right into that. I am more attracted to the shape and after I'm finished with the shape I will discuss which color should be added to the finished product." |
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Martin Ouellette
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Martin has four works at the exhibition inspired by India Khajuraho I and II prints. He explains, "I was in India for three months and went crazy taking pictures with my digital camera. I bought paper that I understood was government deeds or permits dating back four decades that are signed and stamped." |
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After I returned to Canada I put the two together, my pictures and the papers I had purchased. It is a memory of India. I was inspired by the children who are so innocent and yet so mature." Martin was the subject of a previous IATWM article here: |
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Geza Kokai
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"The first piece is Brother's Kitchen. I am interested in objects or surfaces and surroundings. This work was inspired by my brother's tea kettle. I call it the fourth dimension because one is always present in their environment, though they may not be aware of it, and inside the painting the kettle is a smooth reflective surface that reflects my brother's kitchen. It is not only a functional object, a tea kettle, but entry into another person's space." |
Geza is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) and the University of Guelph with Honors Fine Art and minor in geography. He adds, "These two pieces are the first I have painted in two years", given his studies.
Title: Money Drains
Artist: Geza Kokai
Image Courtesy: Geza Kokai
"Money Drains deals with money. It's hard to come by and when you do have funds it pretty much drains away. I was playing with the idea and I went into depth with the coins, accentuating certain pieces, carrying a focal point throughout the painting. It's not merely the tap but a look inside the faucet to another world because of the surface. Look closely and you'll see an image of me leaning forward in an abstract manner with my hand reaching out to turn the tap on or off. I deal with manufactured material surfaces such as water soluble oil to avoid chemicals and I find it easier to clean but it does take longer to dry."
Melissa O'Reilly
Melissa has two works in this exhibit. Both are untitled. "I have always been attracted to the layers of paint and going in and taking out and putting back. It is built up on many layers of paint on rice paper. I use tar and go back over the tar with paint. I come up with a nickname for pieces given that I have intentionally for some time avoided titling pieces because I don't want to direct people. I don't want someone to look and say 'oh I see where this comes from', I wanted the painting to affect the viewer more so than the title."
Untitled, 2005
Artist: Melissa M. O'Reilly
Medium: Rice Paper, Tar, Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 36 x 36 in.
Image Courtesy: Melissa M. O'Reilly
"The [second untitled] piece goes back to the rice paper. I love the material and am trying to marry two ideas. When I work on wood I work with drywall compound. I love texture. I work differently and more subtly on canvas through the rice paper. I'm building up layers. There is a negative idea, that of Auschwitz and adoption and re-adoption of history are still there, whether consciously or subconsciously they seem to come out in my work. In the right side it veers off into another horizon. I want to subtly hint a play back of the spaces."
Galerie Bertossini
Located in Toronto's east end at 783 Queen Street East, if the first show is an indication of future success Galerie Bertossini and the artists lucky enough to grace the premises will be around for a long time, bringing their boundless imagination to art aficionados!