Summer Salon: July 20th - September 9th, 2018

ANNUAL SUMMER SALON
FT. GALLERY ARTISTS
JULY 20TH - SEPTEMBER 9TH

Stunning photographic paper-cut works from Fiona Freemark, rich floral abstracts from Yangyang Pan, a Douglas Walker luminous 7' whale & more in our summer salon exhibiting now.

Jeffrey Harrison: All My Buttered Bagels

ALL MY BUTTERED BAGELS

JEFFREY HARRISON

JUNE 8TH - 30TH

OPENING RECEPTION: JUNE 8TH, 7-9PM

Parts Gallery is pleased to present ALL MY BUTTERED BAGELS, by Toronto artist Jeffrey Harrison. This will be Parts Gallery's fourth solo exhibition of Harrison's work.

Painting has a myriad of rules that it keeps under wraps, laboured on behind the scenes as to not disrupt the illusion of an effortless masterpiece. There are rules of perspective and composition, ratios, and colour theory. The result is familiar paintings that we’re used to looking at, that we can easily understand and classify. It can get a little boring after awhile.

Jeff Harrison shuns the notion that paintings should have rules. And his paintings are anything but boring. Instead, he lets the painting do what he feels it has to do, and bends the rules of the medium to somehow make it work. And it does: The result is chaotic, a departure from the safety we’ve come to know in paintings. Vibrant colours, flowers, and fluid shapes fill the paintings; as if the amorphous figures are begging to be included, squeezed into the canvas.

Harrison’s paintings are objects that we interact with: they make their physicality known through size, texture, and colour. The energy in them is palatable. ALL MY BUTTERED BAGELS deviates slightly from Harrison’s previous series, with the motif of nature and flowers at the forefront (flowers on acid, albeit). Harrison’s own relationship to nature and gardening influences this motif, with elements from his life incorporated into the paintings.

Looking at Harrison’s paintings, we realize that there’s pleasure in chaos. Our eyes flutter through the work, finding new sections and passageways with each glance. A psychedelic Rorschach Test, we can attribute what we want onto the paintings, and it tells us something about ourselves.

Please join us for an opening reception on Friday June 8th from 7-9PM.

First Light at FCP Gallery: June 4th - July 13th

FIRST LIGHT

OFF-SITE EXHIBITION AT FCP GALLERY

JUNE 4TH - JULY 13TH

Parts Gallery presents six artists’ visual representations of the FIRST LIGHT of summer depicted through vibrant colours, urban gardens, and surf scenes.

The first hint of summer light manifests itself in a feeling: a hopefulness for the cold to thaw, making way for sand tracked in to the house, the ethereal melody of the ice cream truck, the scent of fresh cut lilacs stealthily cut from a neighboring bush, light breaking through trees to cast shadows on the sidewalk.

The artworks exhibited in FIRST LIGHT are visual representations of the summer, but more so, they are representations of what summer feels like. The hopeful ideal of a passage of time without worries or commitments, days and weeks passed without a care in the world.

Despite the wide ranging mediums and subjects that the artists in the show utilise, each perfectly capture the first light of summer. Exhibiting artists include: Kim Atlin, Christine Flynn, Fiona Freemark, Erin McSavaney, Ric Santon and Douglas Walker.

Please join us for an opening reception on Friday June 13th from 7-9PM at the FCP Gallery.

The FCP Gallery

Hours: Monday - Friday 11AM - 3PM

100 King Street West

Toronto, ON  M5X 1A9

Christine Flynn: May 4th - 30th

CHRISTINE FLYNN
SURF
MAY 4TH - 30TH

We are pleased to present "SURF", a series of photographs from Christine Flynn.

By using mixed media techniques, Flynn creates images that are impossible to replicate. The goal of Flynn's work isn't to present a realistic portrayal of what a place looks like, but instead a utopian ideal of what a destination feels like; a kinetic image of a dreamlike setting that exists only in our imaginations.

Flynn blends photography with abstract elements of design - coats of paint and gold leaf are layered on top of an image - to create a photograph with the texture of a painting. Finished with a coat of high-gloss resin, the work is simultaneously contemporary and nostalgic.

Flynn composes images that hinge on nostalgia to ground the viewer. With the advent of Instagram, we have become inundated with travel photographs that are aspirational. Flynn's art pushes against the genre of travel photography whose purpose is to create envy and instead allows us, the viewer, to access a feeling of recognition or belonging in a place we've never been.

"SURF" brings together a collection of photographs from various places that Flynn has traveled to, with the ocean as the defining element. Walking through the show each geographic place becomes indistinguishable from one another, and a feeling of being next to the ocean emerges.

Since her first solo show at Pulse Contemporary Art Far in New York, Flynn's work has been widely exhibited in North America and Europe. Christine exhibits at Parts Gallery in Toronto, as well as galleries in Paris, London, San Francisco, New York, and Boston. 

JJ Jasperson: April 12th - 29th

JJ JASPERSON
LONG SHADOWS
APRIL 12TH - 29TH
OPENING RECEPTION: APRIL 12TH, 6-9PM

We are pleased to present JJ Jasperson's first solo exhibition at Parts Gallery.

Jasperson's intention is to recapture the fleeting moments of a late afternoon when the sun is low and the shadows are long. Though seemingly spontaneous, her application of paint and colour is purposeful with her intent to evoke the joy she derives from her memories, and her desire to prolong the feeling of time spent with those she loves, in surroundings she cherishes.

JJ Jasperson was born in Toronto. She received her BA (Honours English) from Bishops University, and her Communication and Design Degree from OCAD. She worked for 10 years as a graphic designer, textile designer, and illustrator in both the corporate and retail sector. She then took a hiatus to raise her triplet daughters who have brought her much joy and subject matter to explore. It is with much enthusiasm that we welcome her triumphant return with an exciting series of new paintings.

Anna Valdez & Ric Santon: Garden of Good Intentions

ANNA VALDEZ & RIC SANTON

GARDEN OF GOOD INTENTIONS

MARCH 23 - APRIL 8

Parts Gallery presents new paintings from Anna Valdez and Ric Santon.
Valdez's vibrant studio still lifes explore her personal history and identity through the environment surrounding her. Relying on photographs, tradition, horticulture and stories, Valdez builds her own narratives in a way that reflects both a personal and collective experience. Arranging and re-arranging her studio to suit the needs of her creative interests (painting, gardening, etc), allows Valdez to draw on relationships between spaces and objects.

We are excited to share that Anna will be participating in The Beyond: Georgia O'Keeffe & Contemporary Art at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The exhibition runs May 26 - September 3 and features dozens of important works from Georgia O'Keeffe, along with a select group of contemporary artists that evoke her legacy.
Crystal Bridges, The Beyond: Georgia O'Keeffe & Contemporary Art

Mixing traditional painting techniques with spray paint, tape, stencils and other “low” materials, Santon navigates the space between abstraction and representation. 

“I’m inspired by the search for balance. It seems like we are confronted with so many things coming at us from everywhere that quiet moments of contemplation and reflection are rare.”

This latest body of work distills a stylistic amalgam of references that employs the vast scope of art history to find these ‘moments’.

Anna Valdez, Golden Pothos

Anna Valdez, Hanging Plants

Anna Valdez, Jungalow

Anna Valdez, Owl Taxidermy

Anna Valdez, Parrot Taxidermy

Anna Valdez, Plants on Pink

Anna Valdez, Pond

Anna Valdez, Sunshine on Houseplants

Ric Santon, 1985

Ric Santon, I Though You Might Like This, I Might Be Wrong

Ric Santon, Whale Watching

Introducing: Kristy Blackwell

INTRODUCING KRISTY BLACKWELL

We are happy to introduce Toronto artist Kristy Blackwell to the gallery. Kristy studied fine art at the University of Guelph and computer animation at the University of Toronto. Kristy has been the recipient of numerous Best in Show awards, most recently at the OSA 144th Juried Exhibition. She has been featured by Create Magazine, The Jealous Curator, Art.Upon and more.

Kristy uses figurative realism to depict her perception of the human condition. Her figures are often rendered in duplicate, suggesting strength alongside vulnerability. The use of gold leaf in some of her oil paintings creates a psychological barrier between the inner mind and the infinite unknown. There is common understanding in these personal images: beauty in sadness and in strength, beauty in vulnerability, and in protection.