COCO GUZMAN:OPEN STUDIO / STUDIO SALE
November 16th, 2014 from 2-4pm
#101, 87 Wade Avenue, Toronto
Walking in an art studio is entering the space where it all takes place: pencils get sharpened, inspiration may struck/die and papers either become wonderful wrinkly balls in the recycling bin, or acclaimed framed drawings. The studio is the space of the process, and it breaths that magical quality of potentiality. Coco is opening the doors of the studio for you.
For the first ever Open Studio, Coco will be showing a selection of earliest works and most recent pieces that have never been exhibited before in Toronto. All these drawings are original, unique and for sale. If you enjoy playing, there will also be 5 surprise drawings that will be covered (you bid without knowing the drawing) and auctioned! You discover the drawings at the end, when the auction is over. This is your opportunity to play, have fun and take a masterpiece home.
If you like some of Coco's drawings from Los Fantasmas, there will be limited-edition signed prints of some of them.
If what you want is to commission Coco for a drawing, mural, installation, feel free to ask in person or make an appointment.
AND ALSO:
Documentary filmmaker Serene Husni will be launching her film on Coco Riot’s sculptural process The Making of The Demonstration. Serene is a documentary filmmaker based in Toronto who holds an MFA in Documentary Media from Ryerson University. Her directorial debut Zinco won the Audience Award for Best Documentary from the Franco-Arab Film Festival in 2013. She is one of the co-founders of Aramram.com, an Arabic speaking web television based in Amman. She is preoccupied with design, displacement and urban cultures.
Herbalist Salma will be concocting a special beverage using herbs from her garden. Salma is a Syrian feminist, residing in Canada. When she isn't studying Herbal Medicine or Bookkeeping, she enjoys creating beverages and sharing them with friends.
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As an artist using mainly drawing as a medium, Coco Riot work aims to tell stories, specially those that are not revealed to the eye but live within our everyday reality. These stories often reveal themselves in the words that are not pronounced or in the habits whose roots are unknown.
Coco explores secrecy, silence and how drawing may become a tool for revealing, and therefore, making the audience and the artist aware. Revealing, but without revealing too much… just enough to make it an interesting mysterious story where gaps are filled by each of us and secrecy remains at the heart of the piece.
Coco is committed to an art that is sensitive and critical, that plays with different layers of complexity, but remains accessible and open to all audiences. Coco's art pieces are playful and apparently simple, but they always contain different layers of meaning and references, which is a way for me to enable a multiplicity of readings and conversations with the audience.
Coco is the author of Llueven Queers, the first Spanish graphic novel on queer life. Genderpoo, one of Coco’s installations, has been shown and used by activist in South America, Europe, USA and Canada. Los Fantasmas, a 16m mural reflecting on contemporary Spanish silenced histories, will be showing soon in art galleries in Toronto and Montreal. Coco’s drawing have been published in activist magazines (Shameless, Bitch, Pikara) as well as in contemporary art magazines (HB, Art Actuel, .dpi). Coco’s murals and installations can be found in museums, community centres, schools, and events spaces. |
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