Featuring works by Ella Gonzales, Meg Ross, and Meichen Waxer; a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end, curated by Avalon Mott, aims to encourage a positioning of exhibitionary affect. This curatorial methodology places the viewer at the center of the exhibition, and fosters the space of potential for contemplation and curiosity between the artwork on display and the viewer.
Through a heightened relationship to site specificity, the works exhibited encourage the viewer to approach them intuitively. This fosters an emotional relationship to the pieces that is highly individual, while providing a bridge of understanding to the larger concepts explored by each artist. Themes of nostalgia, reflection and desire are omni-present throughout the works.
Xpace Cultural Centre
2-303 Lansdowne Ave, Toronto
March 10 - April 22
Wednesday - Saturday, 1pm - 5pm
Opening reception Friday, March 10 7pm - 10pm
Exhibition Essay - http://www.xpace.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Avalon-Mott_Essay.pdf
Reflection of a doorway is a large scale painting, featuring the architecture of Gonzales's previous family homes. Installed, it creates its own architecture—a form of soft architecture where the original creases from being mailed are still subtly apparent. Uninstalled, it can be folded down and easily moved. This format is displayed as part of this installation, along with small scale studies.
The jusi and piña silk fabrics were sent from the Philippines by Gonzales's family and are often used to make Filipiniana wear. They are thin and semi-transparent, with a refined weave that allows for a sheer coat of paint. Light travels through while the image remains semi-opaque.
Ella Gonzales is a Filipina-Canadian artist working between painting and Computer-Aided Design programs, as led by her interest in space making. Gonzales holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Studio Art from the University of Guelph and was the recipient of the 2021 Nancy Petry Award in painting.
*Reflection of a doorway is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Images by Alison Postma.
light capture on blank pages
transparency exposed
scanned, printed, and mounted –made permanent
on wooden book blocks.
Teetering between object, image and archive, BLUE READ presents a photo book series that delves into the intricacies of light. The work is a result of an ongoing exploration of conceptual photo books, where the act of reading plays a crucial role in finding meaning in affect, no matter how mortal or fleeting it may be. The project invites readers to engage with the limitations of the photographic medium and encourages a critical examination of how images are captured and the extent to which they can accurately or inaccurately represent light.
Through a series of fragmented actions, Ross weaves together photography, installation, and conceptual musings to create deeply affecting and multi-layered environments. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at the Art Gallery of Guelph. She completed an MFA at the University of Guelph (2022) and a BFA at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (2015).
Meg Ross lives and works in Guelph Ontario.
Images by Alison Postma.
In previous installations of Horus the mirror slowly revealed through the melting of the work. …and the sky positioned the candle sculpture in relation to the single and prominent architectural feature of the otherwise white walled gallery space. Highlighting this column by hanging the mirror vinyl as wallpaper would be, between crown rail and chair rail on all four sides invites a sense of western domesticity through familiar treatments of space. Directly across from each side of the mirrored column, the same vinyl is placed, physically and metaphorically dividing up the space into 'rooms'. In each of these rooms, the other works and viewer are reflected back onto themselves, generating a moving "wallpaper". This destabilizing of the wall space echoes the destabilization of the wax form as it melts. A tertiary element is created by having fragments of Horus wax sculpture, alongside the other artworks, reflected into these 'domestic quadrants'. This calls us to think of the conventions of applied colonial ornamentation, and its reliance on fragmented forms and figures which eroded meaning, place, and time to instead signifty 'tradition', class and relationships to whiteness.
Meichen Waxer is a queer visual artist, curator and arts worker living in Toronto. She holds a MFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, as well as a BFA from the Ontario College of Art and Design University. Recent exhibitions include The Plumb, Toronto, Ministry of Casual Living, Victoria, Canada; CSA Space, Vancouver, Canada, Mr. Lee’s Shed, Vancouver Canada; #3 Gallery, Vancouver Canada; halka sanat projesi, Istanbul, Turkey; and Open Studio, Toronto. Artist residencies have included Treignac Projet, France; Anvil Centre, New Westminster and Halka Sanat, Istanbul, Turkey as well as Turkish Cultural Foundation Fellow.
Meichen is a Vice President of the Board of Directors at Art Metropole, Toronto, Canada. Meichen is Co-Director and Co-Founder of Arts Assembly. Arts Assembly is a community-focused arts organization that emphasizes artistic collaboration, discursive research and reciprocal exchange.
Images by Alison Postma.