Opening soon at Loop Gallery:

Rochelle Rubinstein: UNNATURAL DISASTERS CONT’D
Lanny Shereck: Artists and Beekeepers

May 4 – 26, 2019
Opening reception: Sunday, May 5, 2-5 PM

Rochelle Rubinstein
UNNATURAL DISASTERS CONT’D

In 2005, a body of my textile work, depicting WW2 extermination camps, September 11, and tsunami-devastated Sri Lanka, was exhibited at the McMaster Museum of Art, alongside works from its collection, by Goya, Kollwitz, and Dix, that explored historical moments of tragedy and upheaval.

The exhibition’s title was unNATURAL DISASTERS.

Fifteen years later…

UNNATURAL DISASTERS CONT’D is an exhibition of large-scale block- printed, painted and embroidered work, on silk and nylon, that includes the addition of recent unnatural environmental disasters.

The work on silk has been worked and re-worked through layering, piercing, de-contextualizing and obscuring images of soldiers, keening women, horses, knives, my Hungarian relatives in a refugee camp.

The newer work on nylon flag fabric includes some of this same imagery but focuses on environmental disasters such as extreme water extraction, aggressive land excavation, bee loss, replacement of natural grass with toxic turf, etc.

These works have the graphic, crisp look of banners; they are also more richly coloured than my usual work – in honour of the glorious natural world that we humans are destroying.

The durability and versatility of the flag material allows these works to easily be taken off gallery walls and used in parades, rallies and environmental and social protests.

Aesthetics and activism collude.

Nomi Drory, oil on wood, 2018, 8” x 10”.

Lanny Shereck
Artists and Beekeepers

My newest exhibition at Loop is called Artists and Beekeepers.

Artists is an ongoing series of large and small oil paintings, representing artists at work in their studios.

My goal is to invite viewers to be part of my studio visits, to observe artists moving and creating within their workspaces.

This is an authentic depiction of artists within their unique studios, capturing a moment of creative time, and what at first appears to be the exhilarating, mess of artistic engagement — a mess that belies the order and structure underlining the individualized arrangement and architecture of each artist’s studio space.

The Beekeepers series presents a documentary-style description of two beekeepers working at a farm in Wellington County. I have been painting them for a couple of years, throughout the different seasons. They are, unlike my Artists series, in exterior settings, with changing light and foliage color. They connect to the studio paintings in that they are depictions of people engaged in physical and emotional work in a designated space. The juxtaposition of the box hives and the suited beekeepers create a strange and evocative setting.

Loop Gallery

1273 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario M6J 1X8
Gallery Hours: Wed-Thu 12-5 PM, Fri-Sat 12-6 PM, and Sun 1-4PM.

Artist is in attendance on Sundays and for the reception.

The gallery is partially accessible – the front entrance is level, but doors are not automatic. The bathroom is level, but small and narrow.

For questions or more information, please contact:

Tim Welsh, Gallery Manager
(416) 516-2581
info@loopgallery.ca
loopgallery.ca

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Loop Members

John Abrams . Mark Adair . Elizabeth Babyn . Gareth Bate . Yael Brotman . Kelly Cade . J. Lynn Campbell . Tara Cooper . Tanya Cunnington . Elizabeth D’Agostino . Carolyn Dinsmore . Sheryl Dudley . Andrew Duff . Martha Eleen . Adrian Fish . Maria Gabankova . Candida Girling . Sandra Gregson . Libby Hague . Linda Heffernan . David Holt . John Ide . Eunha Kim . Sung Ja Kim . kipjones . Jenn Law . Jane LowBeer . Mary Catherine Newcomb . Thelma Rosner . Ava Roth . Rochelle Rubinstein . Richard Sewell . Lanny Shereck . P. Roch Smith . Sandra Smirle . Kim Stanford . Adrienne Trent . Marian Wihak . Mindy Yan Miller