Opening
Saturday, September 15
Artist Present
2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

 

Crystal Liu takes her inspiration from conversation, observations and the events of everyday life. The colour of a sweater or an overheard phrase can suddenly inspire a personal narrative imbued with fairytale and sorrow, bringing to life a series of tantalizing and unpredictable drawings. In Crystal Liu’s private universe anything can happen. Everything is possible.

One morning on a day so calm I see a field of black flowers in the distance, hypnotically moving this way and that, surrendering to the breeze. Unexpectedly, darkness fills the sky, the calm vanishes…and spring turns to autumn.

When Crystal Liu first began to draw she used markers and ink on small rice paper pads. She was interested in the relationship between the drawing tool and the paper. The marker bled through to the page below, providing her with a starting point for the next drawing. Since then she has experimented with various types of paper and mediums including gouache, watercolour, and collage, which has led to changes in her choice of subject. By adopting expressive washes of color and carefully drawn lines, her work now includes more representational imagery and is comparable in its use of symbolism and poetry to traditional Chinese Landscape Painting.

Like a cloud of smoke; from the trees the birds are startled by loud noises. All at once they swoop up into the sky, violently, nearly destroying the house. Black Storm, come. Like a magic trick, she told me…and I told her relentlessly… flowers.

 

Opening
In Gallery 2
Saturday, September 15
Artist Present
2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

 

Chris Dorosz’s exhibition, The Painted Room, continues his previous series Stasis, taking it to a natural conclusion on a much larger scale. Differing slightly in technique, his splotches of paint cling to a forest of vertically strung monofilament, recreating a full-scale living room.

There are a few ‘what-ifs?’ in the work:

What if a pixel is no different from a paint drop?
What if everything is made from the same substance?
What if form exists as solid and transparent at the same time?

Dorosz plays in the realm between matter and its absence, leaving viewers to their own devices and expectations. Unlike the smaller works in his Stasis series, this larger piece invites them to become a significant element in the work. While walking around it they, too, are fragmented and look to be apparitions themselves.