Moe Casino, California 1960 from The Neon Series. 2014
Acrylic on panel, 48″ x 36″. INQUIRE
Currently at VERSO Gallery/INabstracto.
Moe Casino, The Neon Series
The Burt Bacharach Series
The Burt Bacharach Series,
Paintings by Kurt Swinghammer
Acrylic on canvas, 14×14″. $500/each.
VERSO Gallery/INabstracto
New Arrivals: Red Canoe Series
Kurt Swinghammer, The Red Canoe Series —
Just Arrived: Two new 48″ pieces and a 24″x24″ (above)
The Red Canoe Series is an ongoing body of work in which the
composition remains unchanged, but the colour relationships of
the water are unique each time. The initial inspiration was to find
an image that related to landscape painter Tom Thomson,
who was the subject of a song cycle that I wrote and recorded
called Turpentine Wind. One of my goals was to depict an iconic
Canadian subject matter in a contemporary manner.
—Kurt Swinghammer
Kurt Swinghammer is a Toronto-based musician/visual artist. He has established a diverse career as a singer/songwriter, film composer for CBC’s
The Nature Of Things, session guitarist for artists including Ani DiFranco, Serena Ryder, and Royal Wood, producer for Ron Sexsmith, co-writer with
x-Bahaus Goth icon Peter Murphy, art director of music videos for rapper Maestro Fresh Wes, illustrator of a children’s book by Stompin Tom Connors,
T-shirt designer/ artist for Barenaked Ladies, CD cover designer for The Art Of Time Ensemble, Stuart McLean, and The African Guitar Ensemble, and wardrobe designer for the jazz group The Shuffle Demons. He has been the cover story of NOW Magazine, Artist Of The Week on Bravo’s Arts & Minds, and is represented in the permanent collection of the Canada Council Art Bank. He has won Best Local Guitarist in the annual NOW Magazine Reader’s Poll. In 2012 he was the first Artist In Residence at The National Music Center in Calgary, and is currently an artist endorsed by the legendary synthesizer company Moog Music.
Works available: Red Canoe Series, 2014. Acrylic on canvas.
48” x 48” and 24” x 24”
Posted in Contemporary Art, Kurt Swinghammer
Red Canoe Series by Kurt Swinghammer
Kurt Swinghammer
July 2 – September 15
In the windows of INabstracto
In the windows of INabstracto
Red Canoe 2, Kurt Swinghammer, 2014
Acrylic on canvas, 48″ x 48″
Posted in Kurt Swinghammer
Ice Age Scotty Review by David Jager
Ice Age Scotty ReviewDavid Jager for NOW Magazine
May 22, 2014
“Her enigmatic, occasionally haunting images pay homage to the imagination and to unusual and beautiful toy design.” …David Jager read the full review —
Posted in Contemporary Art, Julie Jenkinson, Photography
VERSO Presents: Photographs by Julie Jenkinson
Ice Age Scotty
Photographs by Julie Jenkinson
May 1-June 1, 2014
CONTACT Photography Festival
Opening: Saturday, May 3 from 4-6 pm
Ice Age Scotty
In 1961 eleven miniature Japanese Celluloid toy dogs boarded a JAL flight from Tokyo to Moscow where they were to be featured at an international exhibition for rare toys.
Two hundred miles outside of Moscow, the aircraft’s engine malfunctioned and crashed into a glacier in the White Sea. Scotty, the pack leader, guides his fellow passenger canines through a dreamy adventure in the arctic.
Ice Age Scotty is Jenkinson’s playful homage to rare vintage Japanese Celluloid toys.
Scotty, 2014. Archival pigment print.
MAX LUPO Opening: Objects of Note
VERSO Gallery Presents
MAX LUPO: Objects of Note
April 5-27, 2014
Opening Reception & Performance
Saturday April 5 from 4-6 pm
Additional Performances
Saturday, April 12: 1-4
Sunday, April 27: 1-4
Max Lupo’s Objects of Note takes all of the things you never knew you wished you had, and puts them in one place. Are you your own worst enemy? Do you need a portable confidence booster? Or are you disturbingly lonely while sitting around the house? These, and many other essential human dilemmas, can all be solved by an Object of Note!
The devices on view present themselves as an object waiting to be touched, and it is through the user’s interaction that the limit of the device’s functionality is revealed. Together the viewer and artist will find that what the objects purport to do is both a very real reality, and an obvious sham.
Artist Statement
In my most recent work I become both inventor, and television infomercial host. The devices I create present themselves as an object waiting to be touched, and it is through the user’s interaction that the true character of each device is revealed. The power of the objects reside in their ability to engage with the viewers on both a tactile and conceptual level.
The objects may attempt to offer a concrete solution for some deleterious human ailment, or perhaps they are simply a lightning rod for irony. In either case, the objects are created to be reactive to the user, in a way that allows them to reveal truths about themselves, the user, and myself – all at once.
Max Lupo is an emerging artist/inventor who travels the world (not really) in order to bring the most exotic and fascinating inventions to life.
Image: Dial Me a Story. Modified vintage telephones, 2014
Posted in Contemporary Art, Max Lupo
VERSO Presents Rod Bergeron
Rod Bergeron: CUPVILLE
OCAD 2014 Sculpture/Installation Thesis Exhibitions Series
between zero and one
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 22 from 3 – 6 pm
March 20 – March 30, 2014
March 20 – March 30, 2014
Artist Statement
I have never really seen myself as an environmentalist but I see how that label can be attached to much of my work.
I am interested in creating assemblages by recycling and re-purposing materials. My current project involves using a common cultural cast off, the Tim Hortons’ cup. I have taken apart and reworked the cups into buildings and houses. It is my expectation that this project will inspire us all to do better with what we have. There is a finite amount of land and resources and we can and should make the most of them.
CUPVILLE, uses the best urban land use practices from around the world and incorporates them into one unified piece. The project represents six blocks of an urban community. I want to address our over use of natural resources, the constant disregard for our environment, both natural and built, and the restructuring of society. It is my expectation that we see ourselves in this piece; we examine our role in where we live and question how we engage in our environment.
Image: Rod Bergeron, CUPVILLE. 2014. Tim Hortons’ cups, wire, white tissue paper, black foamcore.
VERSO Presents Rachel Zinman
OCAD Sculpture/Installation Thesis Series
between zero and one
Rachel Zinman
Mounds
Exploring the Human-Termite Connection.
Mounds
Exploring the Human-Termite Connection.
March 6-16, 2014
Opening: Saturday, March 8 from 3-6 pm
Artist Statement
I have always been interested in natural systems. My work often reflects my interests in naturally occurring geometry and architecture created by insects.
Insects like bees, wasps, termites, and ants, particularly fascinate me. Their social functions and nest/hive building were what really caught my interest initially. I have often been surrounded by many of these insects in my time tending my vegetable garden. Being in contact with these interesting, complicated and necessary creatures is what made me start making sculptural work on organic architecture.
Image: Mounds, 2014, 64 x 45”. Chicken wire, plaster, wood chips, and internal lighting.
Family Dynamics: Show Extended to Feb. 23
Show EXTENDED until FEB. 23
Family Dynamics
New Sculpture by Libby Hague
A family of sculpture meets for an annual birthday party.
Images:
1. My back hurts (I hate dancing) (let me see those hands) (don’t make a spectacle of yourself), 2013.
Papier-mache, ball, beads, paper (fascinator), woodcut, upholstery nails, cord.
2. Queen for a day, 2013.
Wooden spine, woodcuts, rope, hooks, tiny copper nails, party apron.
Posted in Contemporary Art, Libby Hague, Verso Gallery