Artist Series

Systems, 2018

mixed media
Variable dimensions

Systems

The Lounge has a series of new artworks, bringing a fresh, youthful vibe to the space. These works by six contemporary artists from Canada and the US, come together to loosely explore systems - organizing, categorizing, ideas and objects - through these works we’re making sense of it all.

Nando Alvarez-Perez
Post Industrial Living Situation V (the Dizziness of Freedom), 2018
Mixed media installation with digital photographs, aluminum frame and cut plexi
Variable dimensions

Here the artist uses Kirkegaard’s statement to inspire an installation looking at the order and chaos of creative practice - note the paint smears on marble in the background, the photos seen taped to a wood background and books of slides and notebook - all tools of the creative trade. Alvarez-Perez is an American artist who studied at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Eric Mistretta
A Bookcase, 2018
Mixed media installation with painted wood, plaster casts and cut plexi
Variable dimensions

Mistretta’s densely detailed sculpture plays on the idea of a library with carefully sculpted books, featuring
absurd titles and doodles that appear to be scientific diagrams. The piece is full of sassy one liners, clever plays on words and hilarious observations. These are renaissance ideals for the post internet age, where one quip leads to another - a rabbit hole of playful innuendo. Mistretta is a NYC based artist who shown across the US and Italy.

Luke Siemans
Untitled Windows, 2018
Digital print
Variable dimensions

Based on his recent Frames series, Siemans created a site specific image for the front of the DJ stand. The digital composition presents a bit of a puzzle with cartoon hands gesturing to drawn lines and oranges bouncing around, like an elegant Rube Goldberg machine, frozen in time. Siemans is a Toronto based artist who has shown across Canada. His works are in the collection of York University and earlier this year he took part in a residency at Banff.

Steven Beckly
Untitled, 
Materials
Dims

Steven Beckly installed photos⁣ of the colour spectrum casting warm tones into⁣ the lounge. The images call to mind prisms and⁣ Newton’s groundbreaking work to study the⁣ effect of light + lenses, becoming the basis for our⁣ understanding of light and colour today. This work sets the stage for the current show in the lounge, illustrating various ways artists represent the organization of ideas through their work.⁣⠀

Luke Painter
Modern Art Sculpture Garden with Tiffany Stained Glass windows, 2015
Digital print
Variable dimensions

Painter’s piece isn’t new to the Lounge, but with the new context, it has a bit of a fresh perspective. Continuing the exploration of collections, Painter presents images of iconic 20th Century sculptures (works by Barbara Hepworth, Brancusi etc) set against Tiffany’s stained glass windows in a setting that is evocative of a ruin, overgrown with greenery. As a result it appears to be both of the past and the future. Painter is a Toronto based artist who has exhibited extensively across Canada, the US and France.

Alicia Nauta
You Enter Through an Unexpected Door, Year
Cyanotype on textile

Toronto-based artist Alicia Nauta creates dreamy compositions comprised of collages from old books and delicately screen-printed colours and textures, resulting in both a surrealist textbook + a science fiction dreamscape.⁣⠀