I recently attended the opening of the “The Hours of Silence” show at Gallery House in Toronto! It was an incredible exhibition and I had the honor of snapping some photos of the launch and of the artists present for the venue. I thought I’d share a few here since the artwork is very inspiring! This isn’t meant to be a formal review or critique of the launch or show at all, more just “holy, look at how amazing these all are”! 🙂
(Ray Caesar with his contribution to the show)
The show was curated by local artist Ray Caesar, he selected the participating artists and their pieces himself. He said:
““I chose the artists for the show based on the art I have found myself responding to over many years. When I dive into the ocean of their work I am forever influenced by feelings and emotions that I find difficult to assimilate at once … their work evokes a complex form of inspiration that sometimes is a vague indescribable feeling. I love the idea of bringing [many of] these artists to Toronto to Gallery House. Toronto has such a large and growing art community but it can also be a very rigid market that tends to show one flavour of work. I want there to be a doorway for artists outside of this city to have access as I think Torontonians as collectors and art enthusiasts would just love to see these works. Sometimes I find their pieces similar to my own direction if not in content but in nature or emotional response, and other times I find them so different that it’s refreshing to view their sense of image in contrast to my own. I have always made art on the assumption that if I love what I do …a few others will love it too. I want to curate shows on what I love to see …and I am sure there will be others who will love to see it too.”
(Aron Wiesenfeld’s “Fog”)
Aron Wiesenfeld’s pieces in the show felt like staring into someone else’s story, almost as if I was intruding simply by looking at them. I kept losing myself (and forgetting I was supposed to be playing photographer) in front of these pieces. Such gorgeous, detailed worlds!
(Aron Wisenfeld’s “Witness”)
Jessica Joslin’s sculptures were so intricate and eerie! Ornate metalwork built around skulls and glistening eyeballs, her creatures looked as those they’d spring to life and start tormenting the visitors at any moment (they neglected to do so).
I am quite sure my heart stopped a little when I saw Elif Varol Ergen’s 3 pieces. Holy. The blend of Japanese guro themes twisted through with her own unique symbolism and aesthetic is just incredible. Also anything with gore-y artful themes is going to delight me! I went home and pored over her website for ages after the show.
From her site:
“Her art mainly focused on parent-child relationship, sex discrimination, morbid psychology and narcissism.The characters in her works can be outlined as uncanny, spooky and strange existence with pale faces, sharp teeth and shadows. The heavy dose, grotesque in the images, severe form deformations, sagging and melting forms merge and blend with intensive contrasts in red and black. While the fragility and the repressiveness of the content could ease the audiences empathy, memories of the viewers maintain their dialogues with the works even after this experience. She usually combines digital and traditional media, uses techniques such as acrylic, ink, silkscreening, digital imaging and CNC-machined productions for installations. “
Her website.
There were more beautiful pieces and photos from the event, if you’re curious the Gallery House facebook will be posting some of those- and some taken by others present. Otherwise this article is going to end up 20 pages long with photos of paintings and strangers looking at paintings! 😉
-Taeden
Gloomth & the Cult of Melancholy 