Exhibition Openings – April 12th, 2012

Dates: April 12, 2012 to April 12, 2012
Location: Open Studio

Thursday, April 12th, 6:30-8:30 PM Please join us for the opening reception of our next exhibitions: Open Studio Gallery Mark Franchino: Proof Open Studio is pleased to present Proof, an exhibition by Clarion, PA-based artist, Mark Franchino from April 12 – May 19, 2012. The exhibition is accompanied by a text by Pittsburgh, PA-based writer Kurt Shaw. Franchino’s work explores our constructions of everyday environments and events, and the nature of human dynamics that evolve within, around, and through them. His work addresses seemingly mundane spaces and activities as physical constructions that reinforce and perpetuate implicit value systems. What are the rules? What purpose do they serve? In the Proof series, cloud images were generated from of an organization of randomized patterns created by a computer program. Those images were then rendered in 3D software and moved through time. As in the youthful game of finding images in clouds, Franchino selected the ones in which he could "see" something and then printed the images in subtle shades of white and iridescent ink through halftone patterns. The clouds are at once present and absent. The images alluded to in their titles are fictions, as is the notion that they are anything more than random. In addition to prints on paper, Proof also includes a site-specific installation screenprinted directly on the walls of the gallery. George Gilmour Members’ Gallery Kurt Pammer: Lakeland Drive: A tribute to family, time and place A television drama set in the 1960s was the original inspiration for this series of prints. Such an era! The fashion, the furniture, the smoking and drinking, the automobiles… Family photos from 1970 and 1971 were dug up and eight were selected that would transfer well to screenprinting. After a while, the concept evolved into something less superficial, it became more about family and where we lived. Young immigrants to Canada in the 1960’s, were married in Toronto and had two children. In 1970, they decided to buy their first home on Lakeland Drive, in Rexdale, Ontario, where we grew up. Our street was very special, as it backed onto the Humber River. There were a lot of children on Lakeland Drive, where playing down the ravine was simple and meant everything to us kids… birthday parties, a drive to the lakeshore, a walk in High Park …it was like a Paradise. Print Sales Gallery Brenda Joy Lem: longing and belonging Brenda Joy Lem works in a variety of media including collage, installation, film, writing, printmaking, taiko drumming, jazz and improvisational music. What links this diverse body of work is her sensibility to certain recurring and overlapping themes. These themes include history, memory, language and desire. longing and belonging combines work from the traveling exhibition Homage to the Heart with new pieces. Homage to the Heart used family stories from the old hand laundry to consider the heart’s capacity to endure and transform pain and sadness. The new works, which are tied to Lem’s music making in many ways, look at other expressions of "longing and belonging," both physical and spiritual. Showing Concurrently Varied Editions: Open Studio Members’ Online Gallery Featured Artist: Dana Tosic An initiative of Open Studio’s Membership Committee, this online art gallery showcases the work of Open Studio members on a rotating basis. Visit Varied Editions at www.openstudiomembers.wordpress.com. Focusing on fleeting yet intimate moments that occur throughout the day, Tosic’s Elegy for Every Moment is a print-based installation which explores notions of time and memory, and the body’s potential to imply narrative through movement. Thoughts and emotions experienced at the time necessarily affect the way that the movement is executed; small, intimate measures of movement tell a story in silence. For further information about any of these exhibitions, please visit www.openstudio.on.ca. All exhibitions will be open until Saturday, May 19, 2012. If you can’t join us for the opening, please stop by when you can. Open Studio 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 104 Toronto, ON M5V 3A8 T/F: 416-504-8238 E: office@openstudio.on.ca W: www.openstudio.on.ca Gallery hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. Open Studio gratefully acknowledges the support of The Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and The City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council. Open Studio also acknowledges the generous support of its members and numerous foundations, corporations and individuals.