MARTINA EDMONDSON tells stories through nature

>MARTINA EDMONDSON: Transfigurations

Opens November 5th 2010 7-9pm
At Fleishman Gallery November 5th to December 10th 2010


“A person suffers most by imagining their greatest fears that never eventuate. You lose yourself and then after great struggles, you find yourself again. This does not happen overnight, it takes a long time of looking at things in nature, objects, relationships, what is said and what is left unsaid – it all adds up and hopefully, in the end, it all comes together. Sometimes you have to keep turning that stone or twirling that twig or marvel at that just perfect feather and then you want to take all that to repair what is wrong in your world”.


Martina Edmondson is an emerging, multi-disciplinary artist based in Toronto and is a member of *new* gallery. She has exhibited at Latcham Gallery, The Textile Museum, Neilson Park Creative Centre, Propeller Gallery, OCAD Gallery, and is participating in a group exhibition with the W Collective, opening on November 26th at the Gladstone Hotel.

MONICA BODIRSKY explores histories and stories

>MONICA BODIRSKY: The stories we tell ourselves ...

Opens October 1 2010 7 – 9pm
At Fleishman Gallery from October 1st to 31st 2010



The stories we tell ourselves… is an exhibition of mixed media works inspired by Victorian curiosities and Gothic storytelling. Bodirsky's work explores the process of how narrative enables the collection, destruction and resurrection of memories, experience and identity. By combining encaustic, fibre, pigment, objects, illustrations and photos, in unusual and sometimes spontaneous ways, the stories that unfold are cryptic yet familiar. The layered surfaces provide an archaeology of meaning through purely textural passages intermingled with written text; a marker of language and storytelling. Just as the Gothic novel explores the shadow side of human experience and emotion, so do these visceral combinations offer up the murky complexity of memory, meaning and personal histories.



Monica Bodirsksy is an emerging, multi-disciplinary artist and arts educator based in Toronto. A member of the *new* gallery collective, her works have also been exhibited at The Textile Museum, The Oakville Museum, OCAD Gallery, and the Spadina Public Library.

LEZLI RUBIN-KUNDA performs books

>LEZLI RUBIN-KUNDA: Performing Books

Exhibited at the Fleishman Gallery September 14 to 29 2010


Lezli Rubin-Kunda, a multi-disciplinary artist currently based in Israel presents a group of videos that document book-based performances. In each work, she sets up a dialogue between the written text, and the realities of place and lived experience, intervening through drawing, materials and direct action. Along with the video works, ‘performed’ and ‘altered’ books are displayed in the gallery.

The exhibition takes place in connection with a book-based performance titled Realms of Knowing, taking place at the Hart House Reading Rooms at the University of Toronto on September 25th, and the accompanying exhibition for WIAprojects, at the Centre for Women’s Studies in Education (CWSE) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) U of T (Sept 27th).

Video Programme:

Topographical Readings, 2007, Drawing over the pages of historical books on Jerusalem, the artist accesses the more primary landscape underlying the conflicted history and myth that cover the land.

The Consolation of Philosophy, 2008, The artist explores the relation between the disembodied truths of philosophical texts to the material world. Spices and foodstuff are rubbed or licked onto the pages, merging the two paradigms of knowledge.

Petal Preservation, 2010, In the artist’s backyard, petals are plucked and pressed between pages of an encyclopedia.

Erase and Dissolve,2010, Truths in texts are accessed only in fragments, over time. Obscured texts are exposed through erasure, or dissolved through rubbing.



Lezli Rubin-Kunda is a multidisciplinary Canadian/Israeli artist, whose site-specific performance work in Israel, Canada and Europe explores intimate connections to spaces and materials. Her performance videos have been widely shown at festivals and symposiums, including Toronto’s 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art www.lezlirubinkunda.com