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