Fleck Fine Art fall-winter 2015

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The Elaine Fleck Gallery presents "NEW WORKS" featuring KATHY KISSIK and KAREN COLANGELO for the month of July.

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KATHY KISSIK

The New York City series

“The NYC artwork never sleeps. When the lights go down the paintings change. I have used light reflective tape to highlight composition and lead the viewer’s eyes on a tour throughout each artwork. The result is a completely different painting depending upon the light in which it is viewed, calling to mind ideas about perspective and what meaning it gives to content. Tall skyscrapers, helicopter views, graffiti, and broken surfaces combine much like the city itself.  These pieces are a study of the dynamic world we live in; pulsating, changing, and polarizing.” 

- K.K.

KATHY KISSIK

Star series

“Stars at night have provided a source for contemplation and inspiration for millennia. It is our innate nature to seek a relationship to these distant lights that reflect down upon us to challenge our collective perceptions, experiences and beliefs and thus further strengthen our ties to our original source. The 13 stars I have created fold into pyramids and can be manipulated to bend into a multitude of positions. They can adapt to the space they are presented in highlighting that it is the limitless imagination that gives meaning and content to our existence.” – K.K.

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KAREN COLANGELO

The inspiration for my paintings comes from the vibrant colours of nature. I represent these colours in layers. To apply the paint, I rarely use a paintbrush; I'm attracted to objects that I use in every day life. I use large sheets of plexiglass to apply the layers of paint to the canvas and as a result of this un-conventional method; the paint when dragged across the canvas evokes a spectrum of colour and movement. It is through this process of layering that these vibrant and whimsical worlds of abstraction are created. - K.C.

"INTERCONNECTED" June 2015 at the Elaine Fleck Gallery

Featuring the work of Lloyd Arbour, Paulette Marie Sauvé and Julien Poublanc

LLOYD ARBOUR
Interconnected is a collection of new works based around isolated architectural landscapes. The artwork features collaged imagery of highway overpasses from various urban locations. The open road is a representation of the path we choose to take as individuals — the future, past and the present. Focused on moving forward these works evoke emotion and progress in every interconnected line.

These complex landscapes were created digitally by combining countless layers of collaged photographs. Inspired by brutalist architecture the imagery is made up of objects and textures found in urban environments including glass, metal beams, concrete, wood and building materials. Combining natural and man made objects together allows the viewer to experience an added sense of depth within the scenes. The goal is to create the feeling of serenity within fast paced urban environments.

PAULETTE MARIE SAUVE
These new works have evolved from the series called “River Cities”. The architectural shapes have tiny colourful windows, and reflections adorn the buildings, the sky, the streets and in some cases, the lake.

In these mixed media paintings, I have created a textured landscape by imbedding woven metal and fabric in a polymer paste. One finds silhouettes of buildings that are given more depth with collages of digital prints on cotton fabric.

On the representations of steel and concrete structures, the prism-like sketches provide a playful atmosphere.

JULIEN POUBLANC
The inspiration for my abstract paintings comes from my desire to experiment with new processes. Leaving room for improvisation, these are the processes that I want to reveal on the canvas. Using strong colours and textures, energetic and gestural lines, I attempt to evoke a spontaneous and playful feeling in the viewer

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The Elaine Fleck Gallery scotiabank Contact Photo Festival Show featuring Mark Brodkin and Jamie Day Fleck

Mark Brodkin shoots iconic locations from around the world in the way most photographers can only dream of! His boundless energy, thorough preparation, steadfastness and technical expertise is second to none. Elaine Fleck has culled through Mark's bountiful collections of photographs to curate "Reunification". Get reconnected with these natural wonders through Mark Brodkin's superb, elevating photographs.

Jamie Day Fleck's newest series of photographs titled "Earth and Sky", explores the landscapes of Ireland where historical sites blend with nature, creating a dialogue between the contemporary and the eternal. The images are at once of the present, due to the cloud formations and play of light, while being rooted in the past with ruins and timeless natural features. Using bold compositions and strong leading lines, these historic locations are refashioned to a statement of nowness showing that beauty and nature are always relevant. The images are in Black and White to further accentuate the compositional lines, symmetry and repetition creating graphic representations and reinterpretations of Irish vistas and locales.

April 2015 at the Elaine Fleck Gallery "LIGHT SHOW" by Amy Shackleton - Gravity Painter - Sustainable Future Visionary!

SHOW STATEMENT:

This new series of work is inspired by colour and brightness—the visual sensation produced by light. Light Show could refer to a natural occurrence (like a sunset or colourful sky) or an artificial display (like festive or urban lights). Everyday, we rely on a balance of both—and as solar technologies continue to emerge the division is blurred. Sunlight is a key ingredient in sustainable building projects. Drawing inspiration from the visible light spectrum (all the colours of the rainbow) I explore the beauty and energy of both natural and artificial light in California, New York and Toronto.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

With my work I aim to stimulate dialogue and propose new possibilities for co-existence between man and the environment. My paintings are intended to portray urban life at its best, demonstrating ways that we can work with nature rather than against it. I explore continually evolving approaches to preserving our environment, living more efficiently and using fewer natural resources. My art suggests how we can implement innovative solutions for city planning and development with minimal impact on surrounding habitats. I developed a unique technique to complement my themes. I don’t use paintbrushes—I drip paint with squeeze bottles to build layers of organic lines (by spraying water and rapidly spinning each canvas) and straight lines (using a level). As in real life construction, the architectural aspects of my work are calculated, measured and controlled in order to assure precise locations of each line. As in nature, the environmental elements are more spontaneous, unpredictable and liquid.

"INNOVATION" New Work by Harrison Taylor and New Work by Jacqueline Veltri.

Harrison Taylor combines photography, traditionally the purest form of representational art, with his inventive processes of manipulating materials such as paints, wax and pigment in order to draw out organic patterns. His presentation on multi-layers of plexi adds yet another dimension. His newest work achieves an innovative abstraction that is as chaotic and organized as the universe itself. Harrison is continually challenging the conventional 'limitations' of art media. 

Jacqueline Veltri’s newest oil paintings of handsome antique timepieces immediately pull the viewer into experiencing a wonderful sense of drifting back and forth between hyper-realism and the imaginative composition of the artist. 

"Under-Texting"

Marcel Guldemond is a breath of fresh air; his use of traditional oil techniques combined with his illustration style makes his work a fun, unique, experience for all. His recent series is titled “Under-Texting” it depicts many storylines by contrasting brightly shaped comic book panels inside the golden glow of dusk, suggesting a larger narrative that the viewer can further explore.  

Marcel Guldemond lives in Ottawa, Ontario and is constantly inspired by the beautiful Canadian landscape. Marcel takes inspiration from Northern Ontario towns all the way to Parka Expeditions. His diverse work will be showcased in the month of February at the Elaine Fleck Gallery.  

Artist Statement 

Undertexting describes a new art making process I've developed, as well as the idea that we

as human beings use stories to understand everything in our lives; that the cultural context of

everything we've read and watched and listened to forms the underlying context of almost

every moment that we live.

One could also say that undertexting is about the relativity of meaning, that all meaning is only

ever understood within a cultural context, and how that cultural context is formed by the

stories we consume. [One could also say that it's about how the background context of how

we understand things is often a jumble, but that might just be a reflection of the disarray in my

own mind.]

As a art making process, Undertexting starts with a layer of torn photocopies of pages from

my favourite books, mostly novels, that I paste on to the panel over top of the original

drawings. I then paint on top of that with thin layers of paint (much thinner than I'd been using

in the past) allowing you to see some of the underlying text, making that cultural context more

explicit and part of the visual story.

Undertexting is a new art making process for me not only because of the underlying layers of

text, but also because I've completely changed how the paintings look: I've begun to explicitly

incorporate things from my background in comics. These include the use of inset panels,

which I'm using to show key scenes in the stories the paintings are describing, and the use of

more abstract line and flat colour based backgrounds, which set the emotional contexts and

the settings for the stories they tell.

When people would ask me what my paintings were about before Undertexting, I usually said

that they were scenes from imaginary novels, or what it felt and looked like to be in an

imaginary novel. These new paintings that make up Undertexting are, with their underlying

layers of text and their use of visual storytelling elements from the comics medium, even more

about scenes from, or being inside of, imaginary novels. I hope you enjoy them.

- Marcel Guldemond