Daniel Hanequand 1938 – 2013

I was introduced to Daniel Hanequand by his wife Maria -Carla Carrera. She visited the gallery and brought three books of her late husband’s work for us to consider exhibiting. It took me some time to respond. I often find reproductions of artist’s works to be remote and difficult to get a real sense of. But there was something, especially in his pencil work, that intrigued me enough to arrange a visit.

Maria-Carla Carrera invited me into here home and shared stories with me of Daniel,
the joy he felt working, his sense of humour, his very particular and surprising way of perceiving the world, his love of music and language and of all the forms of expression humans engage in. She told me that as a citizen of France he served as a paratrooper for the French army in the Algerian war, surviving over 300 jumps into that difficult and remote region of north Africa. This when he was just 19 until he was 24. I try to imagine what a different beginning he had. Real threats and danger and loss. He did not just know life from sitting in the safety of his room. He took risks and saw aspects of humanity that many of us do not experience.

Working with my assistant Sae Kimura, opening up one portfolio after another of his drawings and looking at them exposed, not even under glass, we were struck by his incredible skill and patience. It is at first glance impossible to take in the fine and subtle layers of what emerges as incredible animated figures exhibiting particular human qualities or gestures. Actually it is the complexity of the characters he draws which is most striking and unusual. None are simply this or that. Rather each one embodies a whole range of human emotions as each of us do. But remarkably he does not seem to pass judgement on or favour one quality over another. Perhaps this is what enables us to look more closely and to inquire into his unique perception. And when we do look we see that his figures are moving, even when they appear to be still they are fluid. Often they are balanced very tentatively on balls or on the edge of stairs and this conveys a dynamic energy in the pieces, for the most part, speaking of his drawings, without the use of colour.

 

Meeting someone in their art is a very unusual opportunity. I have chosen not to read the descriptions written by other curators, even though I am sure that they are eloquent and insightful, because I want to challenge myself to know him through the very full body of work that he has left for us.

When Maria-Carla Carrera passed away in 2017 she bequethed much of Daniel’s work to the gallery in hope that we would find a way to share it with visitors. We have since
opened up a room on the third floor which has become ‘The Drawing Room’ and is a
a space in which Daniel’s drawing can be permanently on display.

deborah harris

marnigrossman.com                                                  From 2007:

One of Canada’s leading photographers in film and television, Toronto born Marni Grossman has spent a lifetime behind the lens. Her work has been published worldwide for use as cover and poster art as well as appearing in most film and tv magazines.

Driven to seeing beyond – both personally and photographically, Grossman has the remarkable ability to capture the essence of humanity and the infinite subtleties of nature. Her heart is tied to the elements which are reflective in the light, color, texture and depth of her artistry.

Through her life experience and extensive travel, Grossman has transitioned and developed as a fine art photographer. Her trip to west Africa in 2003 opened her heart and inspired her creatively. Through the lens, she began to document what she saw and felt. Her love of bears and passion for preserving our environment have inspired her to travel to some of the most remote areas of Canada.

Grossman has connected with the fine art community and environmental organizations selling and donating her works. Grossmans’ most recent travels took her to our Canadian North to document the magnificent and endangered Polar Bears.

Contributing Artist in These Exhibits

christophergriffin.ca                                                                   From 2003:

In my extensive travels, language barriers have kept me from completely understanding new and foreign cultures and landscapes. This barrier has forced me to rely on visual cues and impressions to form my perceptions. As a result, I am able to re-examine my own society, environment and culture.

My recent journey to West Papua, Indonesia on the island of Papua New Guinea has been the most inspiring. As one of the last pristine environments left on earth, the Papuans offer a glimpse of what it means to be human: self sufficient, independent and free from the pressures of modern life. Sadly, this celebration of early man will disappear in our lifetime, directly because of outside influence.

The Papuans do not live in fear of their natural world. They drink from the rivers, breathe the air and eat food from the soil with no trepidation. In contrast, we of the western world are living with increasing fear of these basic necessities of life as we ourselves are poisoning them. Air, water, earth. We disregard and disrespect these building blocks of life at our own peril.

This exposure to a spiritual, fundamental existence has caused me to re-examine my own work. I have become more involved in the actual process of creating. I am allowing the accidental and unconscious to guide my work. I am having fun. Although, warning signals of impending environmental and cultural loss are hinted at or fully exposed in my paintings, this does not clash with the joy of creating and the joy of living. My intent is not to jump on a soap box, nor to ignore our grave global dilemmas, but to be able to communicate to the viewer just enough to allow them to come to their own similar interpretations.

Contributing Artist in These Exhibits

No biography is available at this time for Scott Griffin.

http://www.diggiemoon.com/the_griffin_bros/scott_griffin/index.htm

Contributing Artist in These Exhibits

Jeremy was born in Ontario and grew up in Victoria, BC. As the son of Canadian painter James Gordaneer, RCA, he was surrounded by art and began taking an interest in painting at an early age. He attended the Camosun College Fine Arts program in the early ‘90s and has traveled extensively throughout Europe,Africa and America in order to study art and hone his craft. He spent a decade as a member of the Chapman Group in Victoria, a loose collective of artists and writers, who met weekly to study art, philosophy, physics and theology, as well as to provide a rigorous critique of each other’s work. He studied Theatre at the University of Victoria and continues to support himself through scenic art and design for theatre and dance. Jeremy continues to paint, sculpt and draw on a regular basis.

For many years the central focus in Gordaneer’s art has been exploring different ways to ground into being the idea of a continuum. He takes the traditional dichotomies of painting and sculpture, figure/ground, background/foreground, and subverts them in order to create an interesting new pictorial space more in keeping with the contemporary world. Beginning with painting, then often moving towards a more three dimensional sculptoral approach, Gordaneer now often combines the two mediums. The inclusion of found objects in the sculptures gives the viewer an entry point to the work as well as calling into question scale and meaning.

https://jeremygordaneer.wordpress.com/

Contributing Artist in These Exhibits

E.J. Gold is a master artist.  His proficiency extends into many artistic media, including painting and sculpting as well as professional video and music recording, computer game writing, and virtual reality wizardry.  Gold has created a diversified and monumental oeuvre in the course of the forty years of his career as an artist.  All his work speaks of breathtaking vision, technical expertise, uncompromising discipline, and engaging humor.

E.J. Gold was born in New York City in 1941.  As the son of H.L. Gold, the editor of Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, he grew up surrounded by artists and intellectuals, the Who’s Who in the Arts in America of the 40’s and 50’s: Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Charles Laughton, Orson Welles, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Pete Seeger…

The New York School, Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, Rico Lebrun and Fritz Schwaderer are among his early influences.  A member of the infamous California Nine, a guerilla artist group of the sixties, he was widely recognized for his invention of soft and breathing sculptures.

Gold is a perceptual scientist who uses art as his primary investigative tool.  He is the principal author of the Manifesto on Reductionism published jointly with the Grass Valley Graphics Group, an artistic enclave at the cutting edge of experimentation in objective art where visual elaboration is reduced to a minimum.  In keeping with the tenets of reductionism, instead of drawing on personal elements of past experience, the artist directs his attention to the world of stillness and silence that lies just on the other side of the veil.

Gold’s work often violates scale, at once denying dimension and perspective.  By making use of color, form, texture, negative space, forced perspective, compressions, color field and figure-ground relationships, Gold depicts the world beyond the boundaries of space and time, portraying timeless eternity.

Some of Gold’s more well-known series of paintings include the Faces of War, PlanarContiguities, Odalisques, Guides, Moonbeam, White House Series, Expressionist Landscapes, Sanitarium Series, Angels, Monumentals, Haunted Corridors, and City in the Sky.

These powerful paintings by this remarkable shamanic artist are gateways to sublime mystical experiences.  They are profoundly experiential and impenetrable by the mind but have the ability to awaken higher centers.  Therein lies their key.

http://www.hei-art.com/

SCHOOL OF REDUCTIONISM

Conceived in 1987 by E.J. Gold, a prominent American artist, and other members of the Grass Valley Graphics Group, an artist’s community in northern California.  The School consists of more than 20 American and Canadian painters and sculptors who have worked with Gold to reformulate the aims and principles of contemporary visual art.

Reductionism embodies both a philosophy of art and certain practical principles which infuse its works with recognizable qualities.

The philosophy of Reductionism places utmost value on the creative act which originates as an aesthetic perception and a corresponding state or condition of being.  It is then the artist’s task to capture or express this perception in a work of art which enables the viewer to have the same experience.  Reductionist art is therefore objective in nature and not an exploration of the subjective states of the artist.

Artists of the School include: E.J. Gold, Della Heywood, Kelly Rivera, Heather Valencia, Stephanie Boyd, Menlo Macfarlane, Robbert Trice, Tom X., Claude Needham, Zoe Alowan, Richard Hart, Mark Einert, Douglass-Truth, Yanesh, Lidy Nova, Joe Alowan, Tim Elston, David Christie and more.

Although Reductionism in practice is broadly inclusive, experimental and evolving, its art is nonetheless often characterized by three basic qualities:

Essentialism

Reductionism uses recognizable objects and is therefore representational.  However, objects are important for their effect, not important in themselves.  The artist attempts to achieve an effect with the fewest possible lines and details, removing extraneous elements which may deviate or obscure the effect…thus the name Reductionism.  Objects are reduced to their essentials in a move toward the abstract.  Similarly, colour is used unambiguously and powerfully to enhance its effect.  Colours are few, vibrant, sharply contrasting.

Timelessness

Reductionism typically explores another dimension of time, a dimension which is not sequential or “horizontal” but eternal or “vertical”…the same dimension of  time which contains the creative act itself.  There is little or no explicit movement in Reductionist art.  Nothing is happening in the usual sense and time, therefore, does not pass.  The result is an enhanced awareness of posture, positioning of visual elements and their inter-relationships.  Freezing the frame, rendering objects static, also has the effect of freeing other forms of movement such as feeling…motion through emotion.

Space

Perhaps the outstanding feature of Reductionist art is that, despite a limited use of the techniques of  perspective to create three dimensional effects within the picture, the art nonetheless establishes a sense of space.  The reason is the primary place assigned to the viewer.  Because the Reductionist artist strives for communication, scenes are composed for a viewer who is not a voyeur outside the scene but rather a participant who is the reason for the work and necessarily a part of it.  Everything in the scene is oriented first and foremost to the viewer so as to bring the viewer into a relationship with it.  Depth of field is therefore not bounded by the frame but includes the viewer in a truly three dimensional experience of space.  Thus, the art is only completed by viewing.

From Luke Gilliam:

My earliest pieces involved drawing abstract shapes onto cardboard and then cutting the cardboard into strips and then collaging the strips on yet more pieces of cardboard with different colour formats.

As time progressed I began adding in abstract symbols using gouache and acrylic. Many of these early drawings later served as subjects to be painted direct onto canvas with variations and then the use of gluing small found objects usually made of metal onto these paintings. During my first four years of painting I gradually progressed to full sculpture paintings which would involve attaching nails and metal objects onto wooden panels and drilling into the panel to make room for string to be wound through and around the panel — then the nails to form obscure stringed instruments. I found it very useful to start off with an odd shaped piece of wood as it could be glued into the finished piece at the end and then the whole piece would be painted with emulsion from the hardware store. These pieces were made exclusively with contact cement as it proved very robust. I would like to eventually return to this type of sculpture painting.

All of my work since 2012 involves extensive one- to four-day drawings onto coloured cardboard to achieve a full profile of a figure or figures. Then I use a variety of techniques including brushes and disused match boxes to apply the paint. The figure or figures come alive in a hybrid painting that usually blends impressionistic and expressionist — and occasionally surrealist — ways of rendering the figure into one cohesive ‘fusion’ oriented painting. I feel painting with only one technique becomes very tiresome so I am now devoted the practice that I call hybrid painting, which other people have done and discussed but which has never taken off as a mainstream art movement.

Luke Gilliam’s work on Tumblr

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From 2014:

Luke Gilliam lives and works in Bath, United Kingdom.

Solo Exhibitions

SIMPLETON, ST JAMES WINE VAULTS, Bath 2008

Group Exhibitions

SENTINELS EXHIBITION, GALLERY ARCTURUS, Toronto Sep 2009

GROUP EXHIBITION, SMITH’S CAFE, Bath June 2009

COMMISSION, CAFE PARISIEN, Bath April 2009

GUEST CURATOR, BRITISH ART ACADEMY, Bath April 2009

GUEST CURATOR, BRITISH ART ACADEMY, Bath March 2009

GROUP EXHIBITION, BRITISH ART ACADEMY, Bath Feb 2009

GROUP EXHIBITION, BRITISH ART ACADEMY, Bath Jan 2009

MIXED MEDIA EXHIBITION, ST JAMES, Bath Nov 2008

BATH OPEN ART FAIR, Bath 2008

NUIT BLANCHE, Toronto 2007

ZENPHYREMOS, AUTRE COTE DU PONT, Lyon 2006

ANIMOTS, Lyon 2006

NEW DAY VOLUME I, Lyon 2006

MR J FOR ALEX BELLEGARDE, Distillery , Toronto 2003

QUINSIN NACHOFF LIVE VOL II, Distillery, Toronto 2003

QUINSIN NACHOFF LIVE VOL I Distillery, Toronto 2003

MUSIC THAT LIVE FOR PEOPLE, Toronto 1998

SONG FOR CAITLIN, Toronto 1998

DOGMA, Directed by Kevin Smith, Toronto 1998

EARLY HUNGER, Maze Gallery , Toronto 1994

Projects

Ottawa Off Jazz Festival, Ottawa, 2005

Collections

Lotus Commission, Bath UK

Cosmic Connection With The World, British Art Academy, Bath UK

Bibliography

“Discover the British Soul”, Luke Gilliam Studios, 38p Softcover, (September 2009)

http://www.lukegilliamproject.co.nf/

Camie Geary-Martin was born in Kingston, Ontario in 1954 and during her childhood she lived in many cities in Canada, England and Germany. After studying theatre arts in her twenties, Camie worked in theatre and sewed costumes for The National Ballet of Canada.

In 1999 she began studies at the Toronto School of Art and afterwards Pasadena City College. In 2000 she sculpted a bust of Dr. Ursula Franklin which was cast in bronze for the Toronto District School Board. The following year she received a commission to create a bronze bust for St. Mary’s Church in Toronto.

Camie’s sculptures are now enjoyed in many private and public collections throughout North America.

http://camie.ca/

Psalms of Renaissance

Neil Fox

Neil Fox has more than 30 years of experience in the photographic arts and has been recognized internationally for his innovation in the field.  He has been teaching photography for 20 years and has owned and operated a professional photography studio and laboratory for more than 12 years.

He is known as a pioneer and master of the technical aspects of photography and image reproduction.  Neil designed the world’s first microprocessor for the lighting equipment used by professional photographers.  He also acted as a consultant for the development of screenless printing which is now more commonly known as Stochastic printing.

Neil continues to shoot as a professional photographer with a very diverse base of clients.  The outstanding feature of his work is his dedication to quality.  His concern for achieving the highest possible standards of reproduction and permanence led him to the renowned Dye Transfer process in 1972.  Through many years of painstaking effort, he mastered this difficult and rarely used technique and in the process has become a gifted colourist.

In 1984, feeling a change was needed in his career, he and his family packed up the business and moved to Jerusalem where they lived and he photographed for the next three years.  Neil and his wife Barb were attracted to this timeless land by the radical transformations that were taking place.  They were drawn to support these transformations in his photography and the message of hope and rebirth that could be communicated through these images.  Psalms of Renaissance came from this period.

For the past twelve years Neil has been a faculty member in the Creative Photography Program at Humber College in Toronto.  During this time he has written six manuals on photography, co-ordinated the development of the Humber program and completed Psalms of Renaissance.

http://www.neilfoximages.com/tag/photography-2/</u

Vivian Felsen has been exhibiting her paintings for over 30 years. During that time she has participated in numerous group shows and juried exhibitions including the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, the Ontario Society of Artists, and the Society of Canadian Artists. Her work has been shown in private and public galleries, including the Palacio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, Brasil, and since 2007 at the Gallery Arcturus.

Vivian has taught drawing and painting through the Toronto Board of Education (Adult and Continuing Education), and for many years at Max the Mutt College of Animation, Art and Design.
 About the Artists’ Workshops at Gallery Arcturus:

“The gallery for me is a magical space – calm and peaceful yet charged with energy and excitement. Unusual objects, mysterious collages and exotic music all serve to heighten the senses and stir the imagination, as does the presence of other artists and what they produce. Although none of the participating artists the same way, or sees the same way, and despite the fact that we are each totally absorbed in our own work, I am somehow influenced by others. The painting on my canvas is unlike any I have done before. Strange, satisfying, unexpected. Magic!”

Some images at Art Dialogue here

A book created for the exhibit Stories from the Ancestors available here at Blurb