Amy Shackleton "REFLECTIONS OF THE FUTURE" January and February 2014

Elaine Fleck Gallery Represented artist Amy Shackleton has been SELLING OUT SHOWS at the Elaine Fleck Gallery for several years now and her trajectory for the New Year is straight up.

2014 starts out for Amy with a rare honour for an artist, a two month SOLO SHOW at the Elaine Fleck Gallery.

Exhibition Title: "REFLECTIONS OF THE FUTURE".

Artist Statement: “My new series of work is inspired by a recent trip along the coast of California. Throughout my travels I found myself gazing into water, admiring the movements, colours and reflections of the world around me. Reflections can be clear or distorted—transforming our view of the present. In this show I use reflections in pools, lakes and skyscrapers to manipulate my surroundings. I distort the present to reflect my vision of a sustainable future—a future where cities welcome the natural world.”Amy Shackleton

January and February 2014, showing at the Elaine Fleck Gallery, Wednesday to Sunday noon to 5:00pm and by appointment.

Thursday January 9^th, 2014, 6 - 9 pm. Opening Night!

Join us at the Elaine Fleck Gallery for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Elaine Fleck will introduce Amy Shackleton and Amy will present a twenty-minute talk on her newest work.

Tuesday January 14, 2014

Elaine Fleck and Amy Shackleton are conducting an Art Talk at SOHO HOUSE Toronto. Soho House has established itself in London, New York, Toronto, Berlin, LA & Miami as the preeminent private members club for those in the creative industries.

Thursday – Sunday January 23-26, 2014

Amy Shackleton is painting “LIVE” at the Interior Design Show! Home Hardware has commissioned the painting which will be placed in a DRAW! A very lucky winner at the Interior Design Show will take home the painting.

February 2014

Fashion Magazine is featuring a two-page spread on Amy Shackleton including photos and an interview discussing her very ambitious “Canadian LEED-scape project”; a 53-foot-long, 13 panel painting that explores the natural environment and the recent development of sustainable buildings across Canada.

December "Holiday Show"

For the month of December and the Christmas Season…we're presenting the Holiday Show! featuring work by Gallery Represented Artists - Kathy Kissik, Amy Shackleton, S.Vote, Michael Conway, Marcel Guldemond, Rhiana Sneyd, Susan Fisher and Gary Ray Rush and we're introducing you to the work of ten new talents discovered from the many submissions to Elaine Fleck’s Catalogue of Contemporary Fine Art, fall/winter 2013.

The Elaine Fleck Gallery Invites you to come out and see the masterfully stylistic photographs of S.Vote and the arty goodness of Marcel Guldemond's paintings all on display and avaiable for sale during the month of November! 

"Each and every day, Life gives us a new chance to see things a little different than what we saw the day before. When we open our eyes, our hearts and minds; the simple little events, everyday circumstances and 'chance' meetings with another, all perfectly converge and gently whisper to us of the Divine, help us to embrace the Beautiful and will, if we can yield, ultimately carve away all that is not Truth. My hope is that when people see my work they feel as I do; art & beauty are often in the most ordinary of things." S.Vote

S.Vote is an internationally recognized Australian photographer, twice-published author and filmmaker. A passionate and diligent artist; his bold, large scale, original pieces are now in collections in Europe and North America. His work has been featured in American Photo, PDN, Popular Photography, Applied Arts, Photography Masters Cup and singled out by Graphis Photo Annual for exceptional imagery. 

S.Vote looks to Elaine Fleck to curate his work into a featured show at the Elaine Fleck Gallery each year. 

With a busy career of more than twenty years in advertising and editorial photography behind him & working around the globe and living in Sydney, London, Paris and most recently, New York (his home for more than a decade); S.Vote now lives with his amazing wife, his dog and their three little blokes in a small town in Western Massachusetts. 

Marcel Guldemond is an Ottawa based painter and former comic book artist. In his younger days, he spent more than a few summers planting trees and busting his fingernails under the big skies and open clear cuts of northern Ontario. That time spent lost down the endless logging roads has firmly embedded the great emptiness of the Canadian landscape into his psyche and forms a backdrop for much of his art.

During his 20s he bounced around from one institution to another before finally receiving a B.Sc. in Computer Science in 1999 from Dalhousie University. During that time he published several comic books, graphic novels and short stories, and won a Xeric Grant in 1999 for the graphic novel ‘Under a SlowlySpinning Sun’.

In 2003, he shifted his artistic focus from creating indie comic books back to making paintings, having been sucked back in by the messy joys of paint and colour. He has since expanded his subject matter from Canadian landscapes and Canadiana to include hot air balloons, fish, robots, and a host of other things. He is very happy to know that his paintings are out there in the world bringing their arty goodness into the lives of those who come in contact with them.

Marcel is represented in Toronto by the Elaine Fleck Gallery.

nuit blanche Toronto

Saturday October 5, 2013 at the Elaine Fleck Gallery.

Featured Artists:

Harrison Taylor
A native of Toronto, Harrison received his studio art undergraduate degree at Dartmouth college where he focused on photography and architecture. He also spent a year studying photography at the school of the Art institute of Chicago, and recently studied a summer program in architecture at Harvard University.

Harrison has combined his interest in photography, traditionally and technically the purest form of representational art, with his passion for abstraction, resulting in an art form which challenges the convential 'limitations' which photography imposes. His current project involves manipulating liquids (paint, melted wax) not by using his own hand but rather by imposing the forces of nature - gravity, pressure, dispersion, acceleration, wind - which results in the organic patterns of the natural world. It is a type of fractal patterning, in that the pattern unfolds in itself, creating infinite symmetry in degrees of size. The process itself is very significant, as the photographs are a moment in the overall journey of the process - what came before is just as important as what is, and what comes next. It speaks to the impermanence of art and of beauty itself.

"I seek out and make subjects that emulate patterns which can be taken out of their context of size and time. This creates a shift in scale that allows for a reinterpretation of preconceived visuals and ideas. As a result, my work suggests a constant struggle between nature and order; a play between what we know and what we are allowed to make up."

Harrison's most resent work will be available for sale at The Elaine Fleck Gallery. The show opens Saturday October 5th, 2013 the night of Nuit Blanche Toronto and runs until October 30th, 2013.

Harrison Taylor, Deconstruction II, photography, transparency, lightbox, 40"x60", 2013

Rhiana Sneyd

Rhiana Sneyd is a Toronto based artist and honours graduate of Queen's University with a major in Fine Art. Her large-scale oil paintings are inspired by her own photographs taken in moments of solitude, awe and enlightenment within the city at night. 

In a day and age of long zoom technology, where a few clicks on google maps can transport one from the view of their entire continent to the roof of their own home, Rhiana brings a personal and intimate perspective to the experience of urban life. Viewers find themselves in the centre of the composition, faced with the details of a transient moment in time.

Rhiana has always been captivated by the expansive beauty and energy ignited by the city at night. She believes that the transforming quality of light can change how we perceive places that are familiar to us. Suspended from the din of day, it is in these moments of contemplation and exploration, that the soul of the city reveals itself. Energy flows through cities like a biological system implying that we are all a network of connections belonging to a larger consciousness.

Rhiana is now represented by the Elaine Fleck Gallery and has produced her largest piece to date for display at Elaine Fleck Gallery. "Alignment", a 72 by 120 inch, oil on canvas, will be unveiled and for sale the night of nuit blanche.

Alignment, oil on canvas, 72"x120", 2013

Erin Rothstein is a Canadian artist, born in Montreal and currently living and working in Toronto. Her artistic career was launched with the 2004 exhibition Terra Tremante at the Museo Allaperto Darte Contemporanea in Casacalenda, Italy. From 2005 to present, Montreal has hosted ten exhibitions of Erin’s work. Most recently, Erin’s work has been exhibited at Engine Gallery and Art Interiors in Toronto, at The Art Gallery of Hamilton, and as part of The Colart Collection in Montreal, a major collection of contemporary Canadian art and a significant force in the careers of the country’s most provocative emerging artists. In March 2012, Erin received a Scotiabank People’s Choice Award for her series entitled “The Tasting Room,” which also won the support of The Ontario Arts Council.

Erin obtained a diplome d’études collegiales from Dawson College where she graduated with honours in Fine Arts. Upon graduation she specialized in Studio Arts and Art History at Concordia University where she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Erin developed her knowledge of the international art scene by studying drawing in Italy. She later obtained a Masters degree in Art History from The University of Western Ontario, where she studied in detail the evolution and role of décor in modern art. Alongside her academic

pursuits and career as an artist, Erin has worked with a leading art consulting firm toward designing art collections for luxury hotels worldwide. Erin’s interdisciplinary experience in the arts and fierce commitment to the realm of contemporary aesthetics lends itself to projects that are highly nuanced and refreshingly innovative.

Erin has two paintings in the nuit blanche exhibition from her “Tasting Room” series, “TOAST” a 48x48 inch acrylic on canvas and “ICE COFFEE” a 48x 36 inch acrylic on canvas.  Both will be on display and available for purchase at the Elaine Fleck Gallery during the month of October.

Toast, acrylic on canvas, hyperrealism, 48"x48", 2013

The Elaine Fleck Gallery 

Presents

C A P I T A L

Michael Conway

“In this century, it will be the city—not the state—that becomes the nexus of economic and political power. Already, the world’s most important cities generate their own wealth and shape national politics as much as the reverse.” Parag Khanna, When Cities Rule the World.

"Capital” is a large scale (36”x48”) photomontage series that re-imagines / re-constructs various global cities. By dissecting these cities through the physical cutting of photographs, the work explores emergent aspects of the nation in a time of increasing cultural hybridity and planetary interdependence. Michael Conway. 2013.

Michael Conway B.Arch, Dip-Arch Tech, OAA

Opening Thursday September 12, 2013 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm

Show runs the month of September.

August 2013 Show

Featured Artists:

 

LLOYD ARBOUR - Digital Illustrations and Mixed Media

A perfectionist and visionary—Arbour’s abstract works are a creative outlet for this well diversified artist, illustrator and graphic designer. His unique illustrations have a common blend of; originality, aesthetic appeal and thought provoking imagery that stirs question. His inspiration comes from urbanstreetscapes, graffiti, nature, society and pop culture. His goal is to spark the creativity of others, while building a connection with the viewer. 

His most recent work experiments with vintage maps, photography and collage. Most concepts start as digital illustrations created through Adobe Illustrator andPhotoshop. Mediums play off, challenge, or complement one another. His work includes several mediums including photography, printing, painting and sketching.

 

SUSAN FISHER - Encaustic and Mixed Media

Susan graduated from Concordia University, Montreal with an honours BFA and a post graduate diploma in Art Education. After experiencing the North while teaching, she continued her education and graduated from Trent University,Peterborough with a Master's Degree specializing in First Nations Art History.

From an early passion for printmaking and especially photography, she embraced the specialized techniques of encaustic painting, an ancient medium rediscovered and currently popular with a growing number of artists.

Susan Fisher enjoys creating in encaustic because of the way it allows her to create rich layers of translucence and color that come together as a whole in a work saturated with depth, emotion, and life. It allows her to build truly vibrant worlds with heartbeats, identities, and emerging life forces all their own, mirroring the actual fluidity and tactile nature of the medium itself. In addition to using traditional ancient encaustic techniques to create her pieces, she also incorporates elements of such media as printmaking, traditional drawing, and sculpture to create a result that is incredibly personal and truly one of a kind. Each piece of her incredible melting wax art represents a different moment – a fleeting emotion – frozen and preserved forever using one of the world’s oldest and most challenging media.

 

ROMAN ELINSON - Photography

 

Born in 1974, Roman Elinson currently lives and works in Toronto as both a physician and an artist. Roman’s photography career began in 2000 with the purchase of a used Pentax SLR at a San Francisco pawn shop during a medical school elective. As an artist, Roman is self-taught and continues to explore a range of styles including documentary, pop, nature, and surrealism. Roman’s work is influenced by Cartier-Bresson, Erwitt, Dali, and C.G. Jung, and is often inspired by the exotic milieus of his travels. His images have been variously described as uplifting, thought provoking, and dream-like. Roman’s work has been exhibited across Canada and internationally.

July 2013 Show

Attend the opening night of CONSTRUCTIVISM featuring new work by World Renowned American Artist Kathy Kissik and introducing a new series by Emerging Canadian Artist Joan Andal Romano. Thursday July 4th 7-10pm Invitation attached.

Kathy Kissik- Statement:
My mixed media paintings are architectural. Trained primarily in photography and welding my materials are carefully chosen. I photograph my subject with a traditional medium format camera and occasionally digitally. I Shoot from varying vantage points and over a course of days. I allow myself to become intimate with my surroundings and form a relationship. Then I begin constructing sculptural collages utilizing my own prints. I seek out objects that lend themselves visually and conceptually to the subject I am dealing with. Metals, in general, have an unspoken vocabulary that is a useful tool for subtly transmitting information to the viewer. For instance, copper, by nature, conducts energy and therefore I use it symbolically for its lively aspects. On the other end of the spectrum there is the dead toxic dullness of lead, which is useful as a counterpoint to the copper. Sometimes found objects from the site inform the direction and work themselves into the artwork My vision has always been to evoke how a place feels. The interpretation of time, space, and subtle nuances associated with the experience of the subject. Texture and tonal shifts round out visual impact.
---------------------------------------------------
Joan Andal Romano was born in Legazpi City, Philippines, and immigrated to Canada at the age of three. She grew up in Toronto against a backdrop of a multi-cultural community. She grew up in an environment of diversity and acceptance.

At a young age, Joan realized one of her strongest subject was mathematics. She ultimately became a professional engineer and so far, her career spans over fourteen years. Then there was her other strong subject – art. She recalls a class where she created a full-sized large mural depicting her impression of the novel ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ by John Steinbeck. The teacher extremely impressed, stated, “Joan, you were born with a gift, I hope you use your artistic talent in the future, it would be a waste otherwise”. Her high school teacher’s advice would echo in her mind for years. Then in September 2010, she began to paint and experiment with mixed media art. She joined a studio group of artists in Campbellville where she continues to learn mixed media techniques.

Fast forward, three years later, Joan is a member of the Fine Arts Society of Milton, Artists Toronto, Artists’ Network of Riverdale and Gallery 1313. She has participated in several juried art exhibitions across Toronto and continues to sell artwork in galleries located in the hub of Toronto’s art scene. The Hangman Art Gallery, located on Queen Street East, was the gallery she chose to hold her very first solo art exhibition. The exhibition ran from August 28 - September 16, 2012 and was a defining moment in Joan's art career. Her solo show resulted in several media release coverage. She titled her show 50/50 due to her use of both her left and right brain. Most of her mixed media artwork sold during opening week. 

Joan is very excited by the opportunity to show at The Elaine Fleck Gallery this July and has been encouraged and challenged by Elaine Fleck to produced three of her largest pieces to-date for this show.

Art Exhibition And Sale: Gallery Represented Artists Maggie Broda, James Swartz, and Katerina Podolak

Toronto Based Artist Maggie Broda: "The actions of people fascinate me, not their faces, clothes or bodies so much but their disciplines. People have auras which I reproduce with colour. Their inclinations are determined in my work by the lines they carve spatially. The texture develops with the layering of the medium."

Toronto Based Artist James C. Swartz: Urban, rural and industrial landscapes have long been a subject of intrigue for James. His imagery explores the intricate link between society and nature, combining the raw elements of growth, development, desertion and decay into eloquent, highly expressive visions that find beauty and humanity in the most unlikely of places.

Toronto Based Artist Katerina Podolak, originally from Prague, Czech Republic. Through her paintings, she is currently exploring the power struggle between the natural world and the constructed world. Katerina’s paintings reflect a dynamic relationship without resolution: sometimes rigid structures are disrupted by organic forms; other times the relationship is harmonious. Katerina’s treatment of this shifting relationship invites contemplation. Each piece carefully balances unity and tension using a system of interlocking, interaction power relations. A hybrid of untamed gesture and mathematical tension captures both the architectonic stasis and the kinetic furor of the moment.

How to Succeed in the Art World Seminar

Join us Sunday May 19th from 2-5pm for our Seminar "How to Succeed in the Art World." With over 20 years experience as a Curator and Art Dealer, Elaine Fleck has designed this seminar that explains the pit-falls in the Art World, how to navigate around them and promote your work successfully.  Suitable for artist, photographer and art dealers, the seminar explains what to expect when dealing with buyers and galleries, how to promote your work and made it in the Art World.

With only a few seats left, confirm your attendance today!  

Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival 2013: Featuring Photography by Inger Whist and Jamie Day Fleck

 For the month of May, The Elaine Fleck Gallery is featuring photography collections by Inger Whist and Jamie Day Fleck as part of Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

Inger's work is based on a succession of photographs pieced together making up a panoramic still-point. The viewer revisits this still-point with a curved piece framed in plexiglas titled "The Wave" taken near Cape Town, South Africa. Her collection also features waterfront panoramic photographs taken in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Jamie's collection appropriately named "Night Portraits" is cinematically inspired scenes with people placed as lone characters in implied drama. Using the cities as stages, the environment, pools of light and neon lighting become almost a character itself through connotation and imposing a sense of place. The collection captures mundane moments in city settings highlighting the beauty yet isolation. "As the project progressed it became apparent this this was not just about the city but about urban living. It was about what it was like to live in a big, formidable city like New York: the beauty and isolation. While one can be surrounded by people, one can simultaneously feel alone."

Both collections are inspiring and unique. All work are for sale and will be exhibited until May 30th. Commission are also available upon request.

Interview with Art Dealer Elaine Fleck and Artist Amy Shackleton on her new Solo Show

Elaine: Tell us about your new Solo Show?

Amy: This April I am revealing a new series of paintings at The Elaine Fleck Gallery. I titled the show Things Are Looking Up. I think it will be my most colourful show yet (if that's possible).

Elaine: What is the driving force for it?

Amy: The work explores a new and exciting direction. I targeted and exposed specific energy efficient buildings that are popping up all across Canada. By shifting the vanishing point from low to high in space, I force the viewer to keep their chin up and be optimistic about the future of cities. 

Elaine: What has inspired you for this Solo Show?

Amy: The entire series is inspired by a feeling that came over me when I looked straight up in a forest. The surrounding trees curved in from all directions creating an abstract sense of space. Oddly enough, I've experienced this same feeling in the city, but instead of trees, high-rise buildings towered in from all directions. When I made this connection, I just had to illustrate my vision on canvas! 

Elaine: Are you working on any other “New” Painting Techniques? 

Amy: I'm always developing new techniques in my studio. With each piece I create, I discover more and more ways to manipulate paint with gravity. I just finished a 120" x 45" diptych that displays one of my newest discoveries. I can now achieve smooth colour gradients by spinning the canvas at high speeds!

The Elaine Fleck Gallery Presents Amy Shackleton's New Solo Show 'Things Are Looking Up'

Amy’s paintings offer an alternative view to all the inconvenient truths about environmental degradation. Using natural forms as examples for sustainable design, she suggests innovative solutions for urban planning and development. 

“This new series of paintings began with a vision I had while looking up in a forest. The trees towered in from all directions much like high-rise buildings in city centres. When i made this connection, I had to bring the two worlds together on canvas. I juxtaposed vertical tree panoramas from Banff National Park and the Halliburton Highlands with buildings from Toronto, Calgary and Cincinnati. A few energy efficient buildings emerge in the works to remind us of the progress being made all around us. By shifting the vanishing point from low to high in space, I force the viewer to keep their chin up and be optimistic about the future of cities. “ ~Amy Shackleton

Amy also introduces her new, ambitious series: The Canada Project

THE GREAT CANADIAN LEED-SCAPE 

The Great Canadian LEED-scape project is a 53-foot-long, 13 panel painting that explores the natural environment and the recent development of sustainable buildings across Canada. With this project, she reveals the progress that is being made with the design, construction and operation of energy efficient buildings. More and more developments are making changes by incorporating green roofs, rain gardens, solar energy, geothermal heating/cooling, and urban agriculture. An internationally recognized rating system, called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), is in effect to classify and encourage these innovations. Using Canada’s LEED certification program as a guide, she pairs Canadian landscapes with brilliant examples of sustainable development across the great Canadian LEED-scape. 

April 2013 Show

March 2013 Panorama

The Panorama of our Current Show Click and Drag the Panorama to view.
 Hold Shift to Zoom In and Control to Zoom Out.

March 2013 Show Second Flyer

The Elaine Fleck Gallery Presents New Work by Tania Guzmán and Laura Heaney

The Elaine Fleck Gallery is excited to introduce two new young artists to our repertoire, Tania Guzmán and Laura Heaney. These two artists came to us through by submitting to our bi-annual catalogue and were very well received. The abstract art of Tania Guzmán and the modern classical illustrations of Laura Heaney are both wonderful examples of what the Toronto Art Scene has to offer.

Tania Guzmán

It begins with the interplay of raw emotion and the free flow of colour. As she mixes the colours, she cultivates an open-hearted, open-minded state so that lines, forms, images and narrative can emerge naturally.

She builds the paintings in fine, almost transparent layers so that the image evolves but the initial interplay remains. Some elements or features become veiled while others emerge.

This process results in layers of emotion, memory, and sensory experience, with a range of energy, from elegant sensuality to aggressive tension.

Laura Heaney

Social Media is an ever-present topic of conflicted discussion. Since the introduction of the World Wide Web, societal norms have been changing at an ever-increasing rate. People are suddenly connected on a global scale and information happens in “instant” time. 

With the world in such a state of flux, people are scrambling to define what is happening. Is a “Social Renaissance” of expansion, exploration and deeper connectivity currently evolving for humanity through software phenomenon such as Facebook, Google and Twitter, or is this the beginnings of an anti-social future, one characterized by the loneliness of the isolated person in the connected crowd?

Laura Heaney brings focus to these speculations by fusing traditional techniques like chiaroscuro (a dramatic light source commonly found in Renaissance portraiture), with the modern day subject matter of social media devices – smart phones, computers, tablets, etc. Using these digital gadgets as the solitary light source for her “plugged in” subjects, Heaney is able to establish the potential for a “Social Renaissance,” while simultaneously creating a void-like and possibly isolating environment. 

March 2013 Show

February 2013 Panorama

The Panorama of our Current Show Click and Drag the Panorama to view.

February 2013 Invite

Art Exhibition: Still Photography and Video Installation

Abstract expressionism has a rich history that spans over a century. From its beginnings in Kandinsky and Kupka, to its evolution in Mondrian, Pollock, and Rothko, the movement has stirred the art world’s imagination and ignited debate about the power and meaning of art. The magic of non-figurative art is rooted in its ability to bypass our circuitry of preconceived mental representations and penetrate into something primordial. The pure colours and forms of a compelling abstract can invoke a deep emotional state, not unlike a piece of instrumental music.  

  

Featured Artist: Harrison Taylor

"I seek and make subjects that emulate patterns which can be taken out of their context of size and time. This creates a shift in scale that allows for a reinterpretation of preconceived visuals and ideas. As a result, my work suggests a constant struggle between nature and order; a play between what we know and what we are allowed to make up."

Featured Photographer: Roman Elinson

With abstract expressionist photography, the work becomes a collaboration between the artist and the forces of nature. In this series building facades are warped and transmogrified by the swells of lake Ontario, Parisian street lights are transformed into a ghostly fire in the ripples of the Seine, Turkish kiosks dissolve into diaphanous strands and splashes of colour in the waters of the Bosporus, and Christmas tree lights are detonated into an electrical tempest by the zoom and shake of the camera’s lens. I hope that in viewing these images you can share in my surprise and delight at the sublime creations of chaos at play.