Akin Vitrine Galleries + Kyle Yip

We are delighted to introduce our current Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery artist, Akin Ossington artist Kyle Yip. Kyle's work will be on exhibit in our galleries beginning at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West for the month of February and then 1485 Dupont for the month of March.

“The following body of work are exact replicas of visual art conceived and produced during the rapid-eye movement dream state of the artist. While the purpose of dreams are not completely understood, psychoanalysts believe they are the manifestations of our deepest desires and fears. They are the direct expression of imagination and utilize the most efficient language of symbolism and mythological archetypes.” - Kyle Yip 

In Gestalt therapy, Fritz Perls describes dreams as projections of the parts of ourselves that have been neglected, rejected, or suppressed. Carl Jung added that every person in the dream may represent an aspect of the dreamer, which he called the existential approach to dreams. Perls went to far as to say that even inanimate objects in the dream may represent aspects of the dreamer. Through association, the dreamer would be asked to imagine being an object in the dream and describe its characteristics, bringing into awareness the more disaffected aspects of the dreamer's personality. 

Kyle Yip is an award-winning, internationally recognized, critically acclaimed visual artist based in Toronto. He is known not only for his Juno Award Nominated debut album for best 'Electronic Album of the Year’ from the 45th Annual Juno Awards in 2016, but also his international exhibitions in New York, Vancouver and South Korea.

Sewer
Mixed Media
30 x 22 1/2”
2019

Moonbeam
Mixed Media
30 x 22 1/2”
2019

Pepto-Abysmal
Mixed Media
48 x 36”
2016

To contact the artist:
Instagram: @kylepyip
#Akinvitrine
www.kyleyip.com

Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2020 programming in two Vitrine Galleries located at Akin St. Clair and Akin Dupont. These miniature galleries feature the diverse talent of our members with travelling installations rotating each month. Each artist will be featured for the first month at St. Clair and second month at Dupont. For more information about our artists and our programming, join us on Instagram @akinvitrine.

Kyle’s work will be on view for the month of February in our St. Clair Avenue West Akin Vitrine Gallery, 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin Dupont Vitrine Gallery where it will be on view for the month of March. Find Akin Studio 215 on the second floor and follow the sign into the hallway around the corner. The building is open from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday.

HOME – Group Exhibition

The Artists’ Network Gallery is starting the new year and warding off the post holiday blues with its HOME – Group Exhibition. Imagine walls of art emulating coziness, comfort and warm hues. Captured in the Danish word Hygge (to hug) to appreciate the small, calming pleasures of home.  The Gallery is exhibiting the work of Artists’ Network members or non-members, including Akin River member, Andrea Bailey, that cast a warm glow of quietness after the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

HOME Group Exhibition: January 15 to February 2, 2020.

Opening reception: Thursday, January 23, 2020, 6-9 pm.

Akin Artists Included in blog TO's list of Up and Coming Artists

This past weekend blogTO released their list of 10 up and coming Toronto artists and many are current Akin members. The list includes Kendra Yee of Akin Ossington, Joshua Advincula, Chason Yeboah, Liang Wang of Akin MOCA, Jill Smith of Akin Dupont, Amika Cooper, Charlotte Penabel, Raquel Da Silva of Akin MOCA, Alexander Robinson, and Allana Cooper. BlogTO compiled the list of up and coming artists based on suggestions from local arts institutions and organizations. The individuals who made it onto the list are all visual creatives who have emerged on the scene in the last couple of years with some exciting work. Some of them already have a few solo exhibits under their belt, while others' CVs consist solely of group exhibits. Regardless of how many past shows these artists have done, the future looks promising (blogTO, 2019).

Continue reading to learn more about the Akin artists who made it onto the list.

Diverting Cracks Found in the Cement, 2017 by Kendra Yee

Kendra Yee

Kendra Yee is a Toronto-based artist, designer, and curator. Her work consists of mixed-media paintings, ceramic sculptures, and panel-based illustrations. Yee pulls tales from her personal history, lived experiences and collective memory to form speculative worlds where fluid characters come to life through the conversations of interactive bodies.  

Yee is currently developing a program with Davenport-Perth Neighbourhood and Community Health Center that centers around alternative education. In fall 2018, selected women participants aged 13-19 in the west end area of Toronto will join together to create an independent comics anthology surrounding topics on personal identity.

Liang Wang beside his painting The Colour of the Wheat, 2017, Oil on panel, 18” x 24”

Liang Wang

Liang Wang is a Toronto-based painter raised in various parts of Taiwan, China, Australia and Canada. He has exhibited work in numerous groups shows at locations including Northern Contemporary Gallery (Toronto); Federation Gallery, Turnbull Gallery (Vancouver); and Rutherford Galleria (Edmonton). His work is in private collections in Canada and New Zealand. One day I saw the sunset forty-four times is his first solo show. Wang currently teaches painting at the McCanny Secondary School.

Us by Jill Smith, performed at Forest City Gallery, 2018, part of in attendance

Jill Smith

Jill Smith is an interdisciplinary artist based in Toronto, Ontario (1995). Her most recent work explores everyday absurdity, as well as the connective possibilities of materiality. By re-contextualizing familiar motifs with organic, bodily forms, her work calls into question how one both exists and performs as a social body. While Smith’s work stimulates the imagination through whimsical and nonsensical colour and form, it is the relatable, yet ambiguous materiality that offers a platform to question the familiar, and escape to the alien and the uncanny.

Detail view of work by Raquel Da Silva

Raquel Da Silva

Finishing up her degree in Painting and Furniture Design at OCAD, Da Silva's super clean and colourful acrylic paintings have caught the attention from the likes of Nike (she designed a shoe for them in August). Plus her furniture is rad too (blogTO, 2019).

Akin Vitrine Galleries + 'Flitting' by Verity Griscti

We are excited to announce our latest exhibition into our Akin Vitrine Galleries, ‘Flitting’ by Akin King member Verity Griscti. This is Verity’s second exhibit with the galleries. flitting opens in March at 1485 Dupont St, and will move to 1747 St. Clair Avenue West for the month of April.

Separation, alignment and cohesion. Individual agents adhering to three simple rules can create something complex, elegant and beautiful. flitting is an analogue exploration of the popular artificial life computer algorithm boids. Originally developed in 1986 by computer programmer Craig Reynolds boids is everywhere you’ve never bothered to look. It’s been used to study the flocking behaviour of Starlings and create the computer-generated bat swarms in Batman Returns. It’s the algorithm behind swarm robotics, where groups of small robots or drones are programmed to work in cohesion and it’s automatically programming dozens of internet radio stations at once. But before the algorithm puts all the DJ’s out of work starts dropping bombs on humans let’s look at how pretty it can be.

Verity Griscti is an artist and jill-of-all digital trades based in Toronto. Her studio practice explores generative systems and seriality in both analogue and digital mediums. She’s built numerous websites including the award-winning Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada and has participated in various exhibitions including Maker Festival, The Toronto Outdoor Art Show, and EyeScream’s II & III, the visual arts component of the Scream Literary Festival. Verity received a BFA in Printmaking from OCADu in 2004.

www.veritygriscti.com
Instagram: @veritygriscti
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/verityfaithgriscti

flitting, 2019
acrylic paint on duralar polyester sheets
25” x 40”
Verity Griscti

Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2019 programming in two Vitrine Galleries located at Akin Dupont and Akin St. Clair. These miniature galleries feature the diverse talent of our members with travelling installations rotating each month. Each artist will be featured for the first month at Dupont and second month at St. Clair. For more information about our artists and our programming, join us on Instagram @akinvitrine.

‘flitting’ will be on view for the month of March in our Dupont Akin Vitrine Gallery, located in the Clock Factory Building at 1485 Dupont Street (entrance on Campbell Avenue). Find Akin Studio 215 on the second floor and follow the sign into the hallway around the corner. The building is open from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery and be on view for the month of April at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

For more information about Verity’s work, follow our Instagram account @akinvitrine.

'Fitting' by Verity Griscti - March/April 2019 - Akin Vitrine Gallery Installation.

'Fluid Streets' by Dalia Hassan on view now in the Vitrine Galleries!

We are delighted to introduce our February/March exhibition, Fluid Streets by Akin Lansdowne artist, Dalia Hassan!

Dalia Hassan is visual artist born and raised in Cairo, Egypt. Having grown up in a densely-populated
metropolis, her earlier work adopted the theme of urbanism and city life. Her paintings are often
dominated by the abnormalities of her urban environment with a fantasized setting.

Last Summer Dalia moved to Toronto, and her work has since been transforming into abstraction.
Navigating her way around initially depended on digital maps as she gradually familiarized herself with
the city. In Fluid Street, a series of small paintings, she records the transition from a virtual reference to
conscious imagery etched in memory.

Fluid Streets is on exhibit in the Akin Vitrine Galleries beginning at 1485 Dupont for the month of February and 1747 St. Clair Avenue West in March.

Fluid Streets
Acrylic on canvas board and yarn
Dimensions variable
2019

To contact the artist:
Instagram: @daliahassan.art
www.daliahassan.com
@akinvitrine
#Akinvitrine


Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2019 programming in two Vitrine Galleries located at Akin Dupont and Akin St. Clair. These miniature galleries feature the diverse talent of our members with travelling installations rotating each month. Each artist will be featured for the first month at Dupont and second month at St. Clair. For more information about our artists and our programming, join us on Instagram @akinvitrine.

Fluid Streets will be on view for the month of February in our Dupont Akin Vitrine Gallery, located in the Clock Factory Building at 1485 Dupont Street (entrance on Campbell Avenue). Find Akin Studio 215 on the second floor and follow the sign into the hallway around the corner. The building is open from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery and be on view for the month of March at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

For more information about Dalia and her work, follow our Instagram account @akinvitrine.

Converging Passages: An Exhibition by Curtia Wright and David Chinyama

Converging Passages is a visual art exhibit of history, migration and the experience of two artists who are part of the African and diaspora that features work by Akin King members Curtia Wright and David Chinyama. Their work for this exhibition is centre around different time frames of colonization and each personal story shapes a passage that redefines profounds aspects of their identities, beliefs and relevance towards their cultural traditions and takes them on a journey of self searching.

Join 918 Bathurst and Muse Arts as they celebrate the immense contributions of Black Canadian artists to Toronto ’s cultural and artistic scene beginning with the opening of Converging Passages on January 31st 2019. Black History Month is a time to learn more about these Canadian stories and the many other important contributions of Black Canadians to the settlement, growth and development of Canada, and about the diversity of Black communities in Canada and their importance to the history of this country.

Converging Passages

Date: January 31st to February 15th 2019

Opening: January 31st 2019, 7-9PM

Artist Talk: February 13th 2019, 7-9PM

Location: 918 Bathurst, Toronto

Curtia Wright was born in Scarborough, Ontario. Her art practice revolves around the idea that the human body is in constant collaboration with its surroundings; often in ways that exceed the boundaries of physical reality. She creates images that exist on both analog and digital planes through their production and execution; “I believe these alternating layers of production reference the discourse between the human body and environment.” She’s  interested in the way societies perceptions of bodies, specifically black bodies, have the ability to form and deform them while changing their narratives without consent.

David Chinyama is an award-winning Zimbabwean born multi-disciplinary  Artist based in Toronto, Canada, whose work is inspired by  form, movement  and color. His work  explores subject matters often centered upon aspects of identity, political, socio-economic and religious connotations.

As storyteller, his love for the arts dates back from his childhood days in Zimbabwe, the period in which he discovered his artistic interest to create stuff. Old Illustrated picture books and comic strips, often borrowed from friends at school would fascinate and inspire him to create his  own artworks using old scrap cardboard  paper, wood charcoal and self-made natural pigments as medium. 

Summer Art Shows Featuring Andrea Bailey →

Andrea Bailey of Akin Lansdowne uses colour to suggest mood, time, light and place.  Most of her paintings are acrylic on paper.  Recently, she has been working with oil paints on canvas using a palette knife.

Andrea Bailey will be at the Riverdale Art Walk on June 2nd and 3rd in booth 136 and the Rosedale Art Fair on June 9th and 10th. 

The Riverdale Art Walk is a two‐day, public fine art exhibition showcasing over 170 established and emerging artists in Jimmie Simpson Park in Toronto’s flourishing Queen East arts district.

The Rosedale Art Fair is two-day event that showcases the notable work of over 50 emerging to established artists from across the GTA, at participating Rosedale stores and restaurants.

Katrina Jurjans Solo Exhibition "in all forms love is reshaped" →

In All Forms Love is Reshaped Solo Exhibition

April 20-22, 2018.

Opening Reception: April 20th 7-11PM

Location: Vuco Artspace, 1444 Dupont Street #31, Toronto, ON.

Katrina graduated from Concordia University in 2014 with a BFA in Studio Art and Art History. In her last year of studies, she became increasingly fascinated with spatial theory and in particular spaces of transition and notions of ephemerality, memory, transformation and emotionality. Working out of Akin's Lansdowne studio, her work has manifested in various forms, these ideas have been brought to the conceptual forefront of her painting practice, where they have been solidified into the visual language of pattern, layering, colour and spatial tension. 

Framing each painting with peripheral spaces along the canvas’ edge, her work ruminates on the transformations that take place when moving from one space into another, capturing the fleeting feelings of intimate relationships and the transient sharing of space.

Call for Submission: 2018 RBC Canadian Painting Competition →

2018 RBC Canadian Painting Competition

Deadline: May 1, 2018. Finalists announced on June 27, 2018.

Celebrating Canadian talent and diversity, the 2018 RBC Canadian Painting Competition has just announced its call for submissions for it's 20th anniversary year. This year the competition is awarding an additional grand prize: a residency a the renowned Banff Centre for the Arts.

Former Akin member, Ambera Hellmann took home the grand prize for the 2017 competition. Currently based in Berlin, Hellmann's work continues to explore both formal and thematic elements, creating their own fragmented timeline.

SUNNY DAZE - Jan Ollner - Exhibition at Will Kucey Gallery

SUNNY DAZE - Reception - December 9th 2016, 6-9pm / Will Kucey Gallery

Jan Ollner’s new series of paintings, “Sunny Daze,” both triggers and resists nostalgia. Drawing from his own photographs and those posted on social media, Ollner uncovers a common narrative thread. The banality of Western vacation culture is revealed through images of sandy beaches, palm trees and pools. Ollner manipulates trendy compositions, forcing the viewer to question the pervasiveness of unoriginal online content. He explores today’s visual rhetoric – images that are repeatedly produced, shared and “liked” – so as to reveal our symbols of cultural homogeny and digital escapism.

Social media has allowed highly distorted personal narratives to thrive, as people curate their visual identities to reflect an unachievable ideal. These images are then organized and consumed in such a way that appeals to one's narrow aesthetic sensibilities. Ollner addresses this duality of fact and fiction by creating uncanny personas and places, using the medium of painting, one that acknowledges the manipulations inherent to image production.

This series thus challenges the idea of documentary truth. Each painting reflects a collage of events, places and people, creating a surreal universe of icons, lost in painterly abstraction and devoid of singular meaning. Achieving a balance between the application of paint and narrative is a significant aspect of Ollner’s artistic process. Pushing the boundaries of conventional representation, Ollner uses painting as a means to escape past influences. Stencils, hardware tools, and loose brushwork are used to disrupt the image making process in order to create a dialogue between abstraction and figuration. Ollner’s work reveals our collective landscape of dreams, where flora and fauna stand like monuments of a shared utopia.

Jan Ollner was born in Vancouver, British Colombia. He moved to Montreal, Quebec where he completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2008. This is Jan's first solo exhibition with Wil Kucey Gallery and his second of 2016. Ollner lives and works in Toronto, Ontario.

Penelope Smart Zachary Cummings | MIND THE GAP There is awareness in these paintings that a great gulf exists between renderings of ancient structures as they once appeared, and their ruins that exist in the present. The expanse of time that elapses between original construction and eventual ruin is formless and empty; time constitutes a negative space.

Zachary Cummings, Double Ruins, 30" x 28", oil on glass in wood frame, 2014.

Zachary Cummings Mind The Gap  new glass paintings NO FOUNDATION 1082 Queen Street West Toronto, ON Opening reception: Friday June 5, 6-9 PM Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday 12-6 PM Sunday 1-5 PM or by appointment June 5 - June 28 2015 *** To see more works in the show please click here A co-presentation by Penelope Smart & Katharine Mulherin Exhibition text by Tony Iantosca.

For all inquiries and to book an appointment please contact Penelope Smart penelope.smart@gmail.com 647.459.5880 [Toronto] Katharine Mulherin info@katharinemulherin.com 416.993.6510 [Toronto] 347.406.3690 [New York]