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

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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