Flirting with Bling is a delightful and thought-provoking exhibition that explores representations of culture, beauty and fashion through contemporary and historical artworks. It provides an opportunity for viewers to question how we create and celebrate culture through photography, painting, and installation.
Flirting with Bling offers an array of accomplished and provocative artists, some of whom are widely known here, and others who may be new to Toronto audiences. The inspiration for the show was Set of Calabashes, by contemporary Brazilian artist Marepe. This 24-piece installation of abstract calabashes made of aluminum exercises a magnetic pull on the viewer, as does Iain Baxter&'s inflatable signature Ampersand, rising and falling in the centre of the Gallery.
Other fascinating works include Ramón Serrano's Horizonte drawings, which evoke the skyline of utopia as seen from his native Cuba; paintings by automatist Françoise Sullivan and Natalie Munk; text and pixel-art video work by Sharon Switzer, photography artists such as Frank Mädler, Lori Newdick, Grit Schwerdtfeger, Roxanne Lowit, Barbara Astman, Sarah Moon, Erwin Blumenfeld, George Platt Lynes, Edmund Kesting, Horst P. Horst and Irving Penn.

EXHIBITIONS –

Caroline Marshall: Now.
Caroline works with palette knives to apply oil paint mixed with cold wax giving her work a sculptural look. Her recent move to a small island near Kingston has affected her art: "It's barren in winter. January's cold, gray, white and black forms, cracking ice floes on the St. Lawrence, hard-packed snow on paths, the stillness... areas of intensity beside space. Life changes dramatically in May and June. Movement creeps onto the island. It is amazing and constant. Air currents control the many moods of the St. Lawrence, its forested shore and living things."
Her recent work has been influenced more by nature than architecture. The end result implies something familiar, but undefined.

Nava Waxman: New Work.

Tadeusz Biernot.

GALLERY ARTISTS' NEWS –
Congratulations to Engine artist Shaun Downey whose entries into the ARC Salon (http://bit.ly/beEVC5) have been selected as finalists for the annual prize which Shaun has won twice.
Shaun also has work featured in the BP Portrait Award 2010 at the National Portrait Gallery, London UK (http://bit.ly/4tF5FF).

Annual Summer Group Show of Contemporary Art from Israel. Contact the Gallery or see website for list of participating artists.

Ram Samocha: The Restless Line.
Accompanying The Restless Line is a critical essay by emerging curator Robin Selk, and an artist's catalogue authored by Ram Samocha.
The opening with live performance painting on Sat 2 Oct coincides with Scotiabank Nuit Blanche.
Peace Talks will be a test of endurance as Samocha tackles multiple canvases with exhilarating purpose and speed, stretching the limits of his anthropomorphic, gestural style.
In 1999 Samocha spearheaded the germinal group show Explosive Drawing at the Hamumheh Gallery in Tel Aviv, Israel, blurring the line between artist and curator. His curatorial essay for this collection of contemporary Israeli drawings is intrinsic to the comprehension of Samocha's performative art practice today.
"Drawing," Samocha wrote, is "that which transpires between two points." This statement is deceiving in its simplicity, for the two points to which he refers manifest in rich plurality.
Samocha simultaneously addresses two literal points, which are gathered into dialogue by the drawn line, as well as the polarities of creator and receiver, the artist's studio and the gallery, immediacy and permanence, autonomous action and performance, etc.
Since pinpointing both what drawing is and the many realms it balloons to encompass, Samocha has crafted an artistic practice that preys upon the fractal tensions between his "points". In the physically taxing public performance of drawing, Samocha grabs a hold of each point and attempts to muscle the two ever closer together. In spite of inherent tensions, he gathers these compressed energies into a coiled spring that finds release on black unstretched canvas.
As the performance develops, what began as a tabula rasa explodes into a myriad accumulation of terse, waxy pigmented lines that scintillate with the dynamism of fireworks. Samocha's staccato gestures layer rapidly, sedimenting into rhythms of colour and bold imagistic compositions. University of Waterloo Professor Doug Kirton writes, "The images burst from their dark grounds and emit a shimmering ineffably quality of light that draws the viewer closer, into intimate contact with the surface". (from Foreword to No Peace, 2009).

Carnaval by Nicolas Ruel, runs at the Thompson Landry Gallery Stone Distillery space.
Nicolas Ruel's honed artistic vision marries the vibrancy of the Venetian landscape with the allure of the anonymous masked reveller in his latest series, Carnaval. Each photograph, printed on stainless steel, captures a momentary encounter between artist and costumed Carnaval-goer, set against the architectural delights of Venice. Ruel's cinematographic process, and complete immersion in this ancient masquerade, has produced works of startling beauty and mystery. This exhibition, which should not be missed, is his most alluring and captivating series yet. Carnaval will be presented as part of Nuit Blanche on October 2nd.

The Thompson Landry Galleries specialize in the very best of contemporary Quebec art. With two locations in the Distillery District, you can find even more internationally acclaimed artists and sculptors from Quebec, as well as the "Masters" of Quebec.

Contemporary artists include: Bélanger, Bernier, Besner, Case-Fox, Chenier, Corno, Dalceggio, Durocher, Fortin, Gélinas, Lafrance, Nerbonne, Ruel, Rohrer, Roy, Rivière, Taillefer, Tremblay, Zekoff and Zen.

Arthur Shilling. Self-Portrait: The Most Important Signature of an Artist.
Significant numbers of works by Arthur Shilling will be on display at upcoming exhibitions in Toronto and Ottawa. Please contact us to receive an invitation.
We are looking for art loans for our Arthur Shilling exhibition.
We also buy art by Arthur Shilling and other Canadian masters.

Armand Tatossian.
Please contact Varasmus® at 613 247 9373 or visit www.varasmus.com to receive the complete catalogue.