THE SPIRIT OF SUMMER
ARTISTS ANDREW OOI AND TYLER MATHESON EXHIBIT AT LONSDALE GALLERY, TORONTO
Between the cottage weekends and canned cocktails to toast the season, there’s much happening this summer, including my two-person show, a matter of perspective, with artist Tyler Matheson, curated by Simone Rojas-Pick exhibiting Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto, June 29 to August 13, 2022. Reception for the exhibit is Saturday July 9, 2-5pm, so I’m hoping sometime during the Algonquin and the aperol, you’ll have a moment to enjoy some art too.
In Rojas-Pick’s own words, the exhibition “explores questions of identity, transformation, and perception” as interpreted from art critic and novelist, John Berger’s “The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.” Berger literally wrote THE book on “Ways of Seeing,” which Rojas-Pick takes further by encouraging us to consider on how viewing art, specifically Matheson’s concrete forms and my paper sculptures, (possibly) affects the ways we’re used to seeing the world, and thus, ways of seeing ourselves.
For me, artistically, this collection is a major shift in my development. The papers I used are different, which altered my approach. I learned to say more with less, which I realized is the core of conceptual art (and maybe why so much of Canadian Art is conceptual art; a thought for later.) I also revisited old work, I had made, subconsciously, from the perspective of East looking West; this time, reimagining it from the perspective of West looking East.
And would you believe this is my first time showing in Toronto? I know, right?! Though I’m not made for the wilderness or wine, it would still be great to celebrate with you that which lifts our spirits, all seasons’ long. Cheers!
Thanks to the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario, for their assistance in making this work possible.