CHRISTINA BATTLE investigates the changing natural environment

>CHRISTINA BATTLE: as storms take shape in the distance...
Opening: Friday, July 6th, 7-9pm
Exhibition runs to August 4th, 2007

Combining works on paper, film and video, as storms take shape in the distance… investigates the changing natural environment by imagining moments
when major storms strike.

Pulling from footage gathered by storm researchers and chasers, imagery is re-worked to consider the impacts of major weather patterns. The artworks re-create, collect and preserve existing ecological systems while imagining the impacts such events could have on the overall natural balance. Setting aside the effects of specific severe weather events which were an inspiration to the work, such as Hurricane Katrina (USA, 2005) and the South Asian Tsunami (Bandeh Aceh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka & others, 2004), as storms take shape in the distance…instead concentrates on the systems themselves and the precise moments when such storms hit. Reflecting on the global effects of natural disasters, the presented works seek to remind us how forceful the natural environment can be and how easily it can render us powerless.

Biography: With a B.Sc. in Environmental Biology from the University of Alberta and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, Christina currently lives and works in Toronto. Her artworks have been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT), the National Film Board of Canada and the Toronto Arts Council. She has screened her films internationally in festivals and galleries including: The Images Festival (Toronto), The London Film Festival (London, England); The International Film Festival Rotterdam (Netherlands); White Box (New York City); The Foreman Art Gallery at Bishops University (Sherbrooke, QB); The City of Toronto’s Nuit Blanche 2006 and in the 2006 Whitney Biennial: “Day for Night” (New York City).

For more info visit: www.cbattle.com

LESLIE PETERS shares beautifully intricate and ornate talismans

> LESLIE PETERS: talismans for the home

Opens March 28th 6-9pm

At Fleishman Gallery from March 28th - May 1st

Talismans For The Home is a series of small sculptural objects, created from items found and collect

ed within nature and the domestic environment. Each talisman is formed from sacred objects: domestic items imbued with meaning. For example, the artist’s great aunt’s spoon collection, her paternal grandmother’s silverware, relics collected from her maternal grandmother’s abandoned home, objects discarded or lost, found on beaches, in the streets, at the local goodwill and garage sales, gifted items, bits of glass and stones. These contemporary artifacts are combined with other cherished items found within nature; sticks, feathers, bones, seeds, shells and are ultimately bound together using twine, wire, leather and thread. Essentially these small sculptures are woven curios that contain the combined recollections and emotions of the individual artifact and the “charge” and intention generated by the artist through the creation process.

Toronto based artist Leslie Peters has been actively working in video, multi-channel installation, as well as curating exhibitions and coordinating cultural events for the past 12 years. Alongside her video practice she has been producing sculptural works that have rarely been exhibited.

Leslie was the featured Spotlight Canadian Artist at the 2004 Images Festival in Toronto where a retrospective of her work was shown and her installation becoming was premiered at the WARC gallery (Womens’ Art Resource Centre). The retrospective then toured to Peru where she presented her work in Lima and Cusco at the VAE8 Festival and in the fall of 2006 the retrospective was presented at Anthology Film Archives, New York.

ADRIENNE REYNOLDS takes us through sci-fi landscapes in her drawing series

> ADRIENNE REYNOLDS: Cyborg Journeys

A drawing series presented at Fleishman Gallery

November 28th to January 10th, Opening Reception November 28th 7-9pm

In the drawing series, Cyborg Journeys, industrial and organic imagery morph into urban and sci-fi landscapes. Ink and gouache lines move in energetic patterns representing physical and mental travel, fragmentation and regeneration. Bolder marks give way to tenuous structures that are both conversely makeshift and impenetrable, jumbling references to the natural and manufactured. In the words of Donna Haraway “A cyborg . . . is a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction. . . Cyborgs are not reverent; they do not re-member the cosmos. They are wary of holism, but needy for connection. . .” These drawings explore a kind of searching for connection in a disjointed, fragmented space.

Adrienne Reynolds is a cross-disciplinary artist, who splits her time between New York City and Toronto. Drawing is a main part of her practice, along with work in sculpture, video, painting, and site specific installation. Thematically, her work deals with ideas around connection and disconnection through exploring psychological, emotional, and physical spaces. Questions around a nature/technology dialectic also inform much of the work, including how we navigate dualisms in an increasingly cyborgian world.

Born in Minnesota in 1966, Adrienne has shown in Chile, Mexico, Serbia, Brazil, Toronto and most recently at the Kitchen in New York City. She served on the Board of Directors for A Space gallery in Toronto for two terms. She has a Masters from Parsons (2008) and is an Associate of the Ontario College of Art (1991). Grants/scholarships include Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, the Parsons Deans Graduate Scholarship and the LCU Foundation grant.