Essential Noise - Yorkville Music Scene: Toronto Screening May 4/23 Club Tranzac

With files by Steven Frank, photos by Mikki Simenuvich

Essential Noise - Yorkville Music Scene made its debut at a private screening at the Tranzac Club in Toronto May 4 2023. The film by director and producer Paul Koidis tells the story of the Yorkville music scene of the late 60s by way of first person accounts from the likes of Judy Collins, John Kay of Steppenwolf, and Robby Krieger of the Doors.

Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and of course the late Gordon Lightfoot, all got a start in the coffee houses of Yorkville, influencing nascent music scenes from Haight-Ashbury to Greenwich Village to Laurel Canyon.

The screening was followed by a panel featuring Dan Hill and Robbie Lane.

Paul Koidis and Robbie Lane

Dan Hill

Doors Open Oshawa Sat May 6

By Will McGuirk

Explore the architecture of Oshawa for free this weekend. Among the organisations opening their doors to the public for this annual event are the Islamic Centre of Oshawa, the H.O.P.A. Oshawa office, the City of Oshawa Greenhouse, the Oshawa Museum, the Ontario Regiment museum, the Colonel R.S. McLaughlin Armoury, the Biltmore Theatre, the Regent Theatre, Charles Hall, and Simcoe Street United Church.
More information on the website here ->

PineRidge Arts Juried Photography Exhibition opens Thurs May 4

By Will McGuirk

PineRidge Arts Council Annual Juried Photography Exhibition continues through to May 27 at the McLean Community Centre in Ajax. Awards will be handed out Thursday May 4 at a reception open to the public. Some of the nominees will be in attendence.

More information on their website here ->

Lake Scugog Studio Tour on Sat May 6, Sun May 7

By Will McGuirk

A self-guided tour featuring 36 artists at 15 sites across Scugog. Visit studios and explore the fantastic creations of artists of all types of mediums; painters, printmakers sculptors, jewellers, woodworkers, metalworkers, textile artists, and much more. Learn something new, meet your favourite artists, and maybe even take home a special piece of art that was made by hand, all while enjoying the scenic views in Scugog and historic downtown Port Perry.
More information on their website here ->

Alt image by Nancy R. Chalut

Sally Thurlow's Resonances (seeing it through. . . ) opens at the Red Head Gallery Oct 1

Sally Thurlow’s new exhibit ‘Resonances (seeing it through. . . )’ at the Red Head Gallery opens 1 - 5 p.m. Saturday Oct 1 2022. The Gallery is located at 115 - 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto.

Artists are inevitably drawn to repeat themselves, revisiting deeply embedded themes as if for the first time. In 1998 I painted an eerie field of hay bales, all in sepia tones. Recently I found myself painting this scene again, calling it Disappearing Farmlands II. This time, in familiar complementary colours, the bales have a surreal feeling in their transparency, and are rolling away, reflecting the uncanny nature around the world. So much disappearance in these works - farmlands disappearing in my paintings, bees disappearing in sculpture, butterflies. Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring celebrates a fifty year anniversary edition that had ushered in the era of the Anthropocene before it took on a dire name. How to stay with the trouble?

My varied approaches to painting, come about from how best to express the mood, and ideas behind it. My sculptures also have this playful use of assorted, expressive materials. I wish there to be a beauty that hovers over the brute horror of the daily serving of disaster news. Consider; the painting …What We Sow required an intense density of harvesting materials to mix with its phenomenal background. The suspension in Detached Foundations and Floating in Limbo embody mourning trees. Serving Up Dilemmas draws on materials from the shores of Lake Ontario beach near my home. What are zebra mussels doing in the Great Lakes? Just the tip of the toxic iceberg.

This summer I shared a happy artists’ retreat in Quebec called DRAW - Dumoine River Art for Wilderness. I was one of 18 artists who gathered to make art and share their stories. My tree rubbings for Three Sisters came about from the enchanting experience of being up close and personal with these magnificent ancient trees. We drank water from a fresh, clean local spring, still unavailable to some Indigenous communities, dwelling downstream from industrial effluences. Why are there still contaminated waters?

This exhibition was painted on wood panels from crates I had made for my first large travelling exhibition of sculptures called Canoe Dreamings in 2006. Once the sculptures were dispersed, the empty crates were re-purposed into the surfaces for painting, the different wood grains giving a stability to the landscape motifs. Staying with the Trouble, a book by Donna J. Haraway has resonances for me. Seeing it through, and seeing it through art. Is Art still a saving power?

- Sally Thurlow

Art exhibit 'The Sire of Sires' opens at the RMG Oct 1

By Will McGuirk

Happy to be getting back to in-person exhibit, and this one in particular will be on the list. Oshawa raised Jordan Elliot Prosser has a residency at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, he’s been working on a project involving Sports Hall of Fame inductee Northern Dancer, known as the ‘Sire of Sires.’ The prolific stud was stabled at E.P. Taylor’s enterprise at Windfields Farm, which is no longer, and of course the horse died in 1990. The exhibit was curated by Hannah Keating. The PR says “The Sire of Sires reflects on the theme of reproduction, as it relates to artistic inheritance and Prosser’s sprawling record of this place called Oshawa.”, so yeah, totally checking this out.

Drawing For Art - Station Gallery hosts annual art auction Sept 22

By Will McGuirk

Of course its been sometime since we have all gathered in an art gallery. And while you can experience the art online the artists themselves have been saying for sometime there is much value in the immersive experience. Art is not flat, art is 360, its also 365, 24/7. Art will be the future. So if you want to get a piece of the future mosey your good self to the Station Gallery in Whitby Thursday Sept 22, 2022, for their annual fundraiser.

The good folks at the gallery have produced for your convenience this online tour here ->

And you can also browse the exhibitions here ->

Celebrate Culture Days in Durham Region with this Guide

By Will McGuirk

Culture Days is the time to look local, go slow, think small, and explore the stories within your own vicinity. In every community there are reasons to be there. The Culture Days website is a very fine resource to get your starting point but once out and about take the time to wander off on a cultural tangent.

There are two guides for Durham Region, one North, one South., offering a weekend tour of the areas. All I would recommend but keep in mind while events are limited businesses and culture institutions are for the most part open year round. Think of this as the beginning of a very long adventure around your own neighbourhood.

DURHAM REGION SOUTH - GUIDE

Includes Visual Arts Centre of Clarington, Tyrone Mills, URBN | MKT Oshawa, Oshawa Museums, Lynde House Museum, Station Gallery, Ajax, Pickering Nautical Village, St. Francis Centre, and Herongate Barn Theatre.

DURHAM REGION NORTH - GUIDE

Includes Scugog Shores Museum, Port Perry, Palmer Park, Ocala Winery & Orchard, Town Hall Theatre, Uxbridge Self-Guided Art Tour, Thomas Foster Memorial, Leaksdale Manse, Sunderland, Cannington, Beaverton, and Beaverton Town Hall Players

Image from Culture Days courtesy of Ocala Winery & Orchards

Culture Days in Scugog Sept 23, 24

By Will McGuirk

Although virtual activities continue there is a return to in-person events for Scugog’s celebratory Cuiture Days, which take place Friday Sept 23 and Saturday Sept 24 2022. Several activities are planned for Port Perry’s Queen Street including a street party with live performances, self-guided walking tours of historic Port Perry, and all ages art classes. There are also pop-up shows from Theatre on the Ridge, an Indigenous Food pop-up, and a Farmer’s Market . Other locations involved include the Old Flame Brewery and Scugog Memorial Library.

Nor are activities confined to the town’s core. The marvellous Lavender Blu farm is offering workshops and info-sessions.

Link here for more details on events and locations.

Eight Canadian Ukrainian artist exhibit 'Hold Fast' at the SG closes Sat Apr 30

By Will McGuirk

HOLD FAST | Тримай Стрій - 8 CANADIAN-UKRAINIAN ARTISTS​ | 8 Kанадсько-Yкраїнських Xудожників

This group exhibition celebrating the vitality and resilience of the Ukrainian cultural character in Canada closes Saturday, April 30, with a reception and artist talk 1pm to 4pm.

The exhibit features “eight artists who have travelled different routes, yet share the same root. This root is Ukraine. Their ancestors built a free national spirit. A war not seen in over eighty years is once again attempting to extinguish that life-force. With their all-out assault, Russians are deliberately killing civilians and targeting or plundering Ukraine’s rich cultural heritage.

​It is time to re-evaluate and survey the contributions of Canadian artists of Ukrainian descent. This experience has been formed and shaped by successive waves of immigration to Canada. Here is the acquisition of that experience. Drawing on more than one cultural repertoire, all eight artist in this exhibition engage in a cross-cultural dialogue filled with delicacy, grace and astonishing beauty. This exhibition is many things: it is a site of dialogue, a prompt to remember or perhaps to cry. Most of all this is a prayer for Ukraine’s swift triumph and recovery in peace.” - Station Gallery PR

The exhibition in the Coppa Gallery and Jill Dyall Community Gallery features works by Robert Achtemichuk, Edward Burtynsky, Natalka Husar, William Kurelek, Natalia Laluq, Olia Mishchenko, Varvara Nedilska, and Nadiya Svirsky.

DETAILS HERE

'Fossilized Sunshine' opens Visual Arts Centre in Bowmanville July 30 2021

By Will McGuirk

As Ontario moves along into the third stage of reopening its heartening to see galleries are now able to welcome people inside. The VAC kicks open its doors July 30 with Fossilized Sunshine featuring Wally Dion, Lisa Jackson, Camille Turner and Camal Pirbhai, Larissa Sansour, Saheer Zazai, and Timothy Yannick Hunter.

“Employing Afro, Indigenous, Palestinian, and Afghan-Futurisms, the 7 artists within Fossilized Sunshine use the vernacular of these counterfuturisms to explain how both traditional and contemporary artifacts can drive the imagining of culturally empowered, non-Eurocentric potential realities. While also including conventional futuristic tropes such as of visionary technology, space travel, and science-fictive elements, each included project focuses on ethnoarchaeology to determine empowered futures -- contextualizing current and recent historical objects through the observation of respective cultures. Conflating past, present, and future, the artists include a range of archaeological materials as catalysts to (re)invent diverging future realities severed from Western hegemony.”

Thats from the PR, and yeah, no idea but it is intriguing. Although small the VAC does present big ideas in a way no other gallery seems too, and this one fits that bill.

The exhibition will run July 30 - Sept 23, 2021, within the VAC’s main two downstairs galleries, curated by Matthew Kyba. The upstairs loft space will also open Public Space featuring Nicolas Fleming, Sahar Te, Petrina Ng, and Josh Vettivelu.

Osha Wall Jam 2020 - Graffiti artist Chad Tyson's work is on a Mission.

By Will McGuirk

Graffiti artist Chad Tyson’s work can be seen across Oshawa and Durham Region on construction hoardings, indoor murals, as well as tucked away in overlooked and neglected corners.  What to some is mischief to destroy is for Tyson instead a mission to beautify. 

Recently his mission met a Mission!

Tyson was given permission to create a mural which extends around the joined back parking lot area of  the Mission Thrift Store on the south west corner of Simcoe and Taunton. 

He organised some artist pals from Toronto, Hamilton, Kingston, Ottawa and Halifax, and on Saturday Sep 12 the Osha Wall Jam of 2020 was uncapped.

"The wall up at Taunton was just an underground pop up event with no press or media. It came about simple by calling my friends to paint a parking lot that I got the permission from the owners,” Tyson told Slowcity.ca. 

Steven Frank of Blum Media was standing by the wall and chatted with Tyson about his project.

Meta4 Gallery - "Making art has always been an important form of self expression"

PRESS RELEASE

Dear friends,

As most of you know, META4 Gallery in Port Perry and Peterborough have been closed since March 16th.  Like you, we've been watching the news and taking seriously the impact of Covid-19.  Our staff are at home and we are working behind the scenes (while keeping a distance!)  to make sure that when we re-open, you'll still find a unique, exceptional and original shopping experience.

Take a Virtual Tour here ->

Making art has always been an important form of self expression. To celebrate good times, to articulate raw emotions, to soothe the soul, to inspire a response. No doubt our artists are busy in their studios, making art and craft as an extension of themselves.

We encourage you to take part in this therapeutic activity!   META4 offers a variety of art supplies for people who like to draw or paint with oils, watercolours and acrylics. We have tools and products for mixed media.  Until we can re-open our doors, you can order online and we will either ship or deliver free to you door. If you have registered for a class or workshop that has been cancelled or postponed, please stay tuned. We will be re-scheduling and adapting our studios and programs to allow more physical distancing for the time when we can gather in person again.

If you know someone who could use a bit of brightness in their day, consider ordering something from our online shop. We're adding new items and, as always, shipping is free.

To order art supplies for shipment or delivery, please email us at info@meta4gallery.ca or studio@meta4gallery.ca.  Or call us at 905-985-1534.  We'll prepare your order and you can pay over the phone. The first delivery day for Port Perry and Uxbridge will the Thursday, March 26.  We'll be posting updates to the delivery schedule on our website.

Shop online with confidence. Our online payment portal is secure and reliable. If you have any problems with online orders, please call or email us.

We are so very fortunate at META4 to be part of such a wonderful, supportive and engaging community. We look forward to the time when we can meet again in person.

Until then, don't forget to share!  Send us your project pics via facebook, Instagram or email.  Let's stay connected.

With warmest regards,

Bonnie, Birgitta & Jen

Renewal, solo show by Sally Turlow opens at Red Head Gallery Mar 25

Some peoples’ trash is other peoples’ treasure, its an old trope but as more and more waste piles up one does have to wonder what to do with all this seemingly worthless volume. Artist Sally Turlow sees value in what some people toss away and the thoughts are not just those of a thrifty mind but a mind which sees a multiplicity of options in objects. Its not just recycling or repurposing but a reimagining and a renewing of a relationship with the world we reap.

Sally’s latest exhibition, ‘Renewal’, employs filmstrips, mesh bags, scraps of antique fabrics which she has collected over decades and the many and varied objects which wash up on the shores of Lake Ontario which her home oversees. Her work is based in collage and found objects but there is also within it the idea of contemplation, a slow observation of the thing. The seeing adds value, it renews, its expresses the idea nothing is what it seems and the summary glance gathers no knowledge of what is seen.

‘Renewal’ is the product of the pause, and more and more we see the artist as the gatekeeper of time. Even as we are encouraged to click, click, click, scroll our way through life, it is the artist who is taking the time we have no time for, the artist who is saying there is more than meets the eye.

We have collectively stepped through the looking glass we hold in our palms and here on the other side it is the artist who is the navigator, who sees the possibilities in things in this topsy-turvy time we are in and Sally sees it too.

‘Renewal’ is on until April 18 2020. The opening reception is Mar 28 at 1 to 4 p.m.

Clarington VAC announces new curator

By Will McGuirk

The Visual Arts Centre in Bowmanville has let it be known Matthew Kyba is the new curator. Kyba will begin March 31 2020.

Because Kyba has most recently been the Director of Forest City Gallery Artist-Run Centre in London, ON. we at slowcity.ca thought this is a good time to play our faves, the Forest City Lovers.