Gerrard Art Space

ECLECTIC MIX  emerging student artists                     

July 18 - August 12, 2012                                

Opening Reception  July 21  7-10

Kesang Nanglu

Elycia Sarwer-Foner Androsoff

Gervais Nash

Ray von Sylvestre

Emily Boros-Rausch

Oliver Knight

Eric Ferguson

David Cyrenne

GAS is pleased to present this student show of recent art works.

The notion of “student” is an interesting one; it qualifies a time in one’s life.

I would like to suggest that the choice to pursue the creative arts in any serious way, is to surrender the notion of student as a state of mind and status for a mere compartment of time and instead as a lifetime achievement.

That being said, even us students, from time to time, need to test the waters and put our representations of the world out there. For some here, it is their first time. A brave act indeed. Whatever the outcome, whatever form it takes, may it not be their last.

As a long time student, it is exhilarating to say the least, to be surrounded by the thoughtful honesty and courageous statements of those just beginning. Perhaps because it is so easy to abandon or misplace, the tentativeness of those wonderful qualities, unhindered by self doubt and hesitation, makes this work that much more precious: something to savour and enjoy.

Joanne Filletti

director/GAS


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Read more about our artists

OLIVER KNIGHT

It was “career day” at school – a day when kids join their parents at work to experience the daily grind of adulthood. Luckily, Oliver’s dad owned an animation studio, and it was here that he first discovered his talent for drawing.

Several years and twenty sketchbooks later, Oliver compiled his favourite warped and whimsical characters and created a book. He called it “Little Demons”. A second self-published book quickly followed – this one photographic, taken in the streets of Kensington Market.

Oliver lives in Toronto. He is currently attending Rosedale Heights, School of the Arts

RAY VON SYLVESTRE

Ray Von Sylvestre is a film student studying at Ryerson. Ray uses a variety of mediums on his paintings, ranging from oil and acrylic paint to chalk, pastel and screen printing ink. Ray works almost exclusively on found pieces of scrap wood. Some say it is because of some foolish romantic notion of having to fight with the wood to take the paint and incorporate the physical qualities of the wood into the work’s composition, the reality is that he is too cheap to buy a canvas...

EMILY BOROS-RAUSCH

I have been painting ever since I was able to hold a paint brush and taking art classes as long as I can remember. I am a student at Ontario College of Art and Design University studying Material Art and Design and minoring in Photography. I am inspired by textures and colours that I come across in my travels; I love to explore the world and Toronto, the city I live in. I work mainly in oils and encaustic painting, but enjoy working with a large variety of medias from mixed media to tattooing  Another thing that  inspires me are people. I am fascinated by their stories and where they came from and how they have come about. I have been apprenticing in tattoo shops for 4 years and that is where a big part of my fascination in people comes from. My art represents the way I view the world in an abstract way.

GERVAIS NASH

This selection of photos is an introduction to a new subject of mine.  For several months I have been documenting graffiti artists in the city of Toronto.  I now have a large collection of in-action photos of these mischievous artists.  While trying not to glorify or condemn this activity, these pictures simply are meant to provide a glimpse of a small and elusive community.

With the assistance of Gerrard Art Space, I present you with a taste of Excursions: an Urban Art Study.

ELYCIA SARWER-FONER ANDROSOFF   

To me, art is everything. It is what starts my day, and ends it. I currently attend the Ontario College of Art and Design University for Material Art and Design: Fibers. With the rest of my time, I paint as much as possible. I love experimenting and layering different mediums to create interesting textures and effects in my pieces. I also enjoy combining the textures and layers with whimsical portraiture. The goal that I endlessly work towards is to simply create beautiful  art. 

KESANG NANGLU

My name is Kesang Nanglu and I am an eighteen-year-old visual arts student from Toronto. I primarily work in acrylic paints, as I have with both of the paintings in the gallery. Portraits have always fascinated me, and I find people the most natural subjects to depict.

My first painting, “Self-Portrait”, is a painting I began in the summer of 2011, as I had just begun experimenting with the acrylic medium. The background is inspired by my heritage. I am a second generation Tibetan, my parents having been refugees in the 70s. While I haven’t been the most devoted disciple of Buddhism or Tibetan tradition, I’ve been enchanted by Tibetan painting and embroidery since childhood. The clouds in Tanka paintings and tapestries in particular caught my imagination, and I painted my own abstraction from my memories.

My second painting, “Emily”, is a portrait of my best friend, which I also began working on during the same summer as my self-portrait. I’ve always though Emily had an ideal face for portraits, and her features to me resemble those in classic Renaissance paintings and sketches. However she has a very modern personality, which I sought to reflect in her portrait, with the use of a palette of greens, blues, purples and pinks. I also used clouds in her portrait, while considering a portrait series. The clouds in this painting are not those inspired by my memories of the Asian art in my home, but instead the clouds in my memories with Emily. We live just a block away and often see the sunset down the street, a sky of brilliant pink and purple clouds looming over the neighbourhood.

I hope that in years to come, I will have many more gallery showings. For a long time, I believed I could never make art that people would want to see, and it was through attending schools with supportive teachers that I learned there was nothing stopping me from trying. Although I want to make art throughout the rest of my life, I also hope to one day be an art teacher, and continue passing down a love of creativity and expression. .

ERIC FERGUSON

My name is Eric Ferguson. At the age of 4 I decided that real people were too much work to be friends with so I picked up a crayon and created my own. From then on I was hooked. I have spent 18 rather unremarkable years living in Toronto perfecting my craft. Although I suppose that it is difficult to gauge ones impact until a substantial amount of time has passed.

However, before my Artist statement dissolves into a narcissistic self-pity party thinly disguised as shallow observations in mediocrity I should explain; I am fascinated with the ordinary.  No matter how hard you try you’ll always reflect some median in a list of data, or be an unremarkable number in a system.  To me however this makes any type of spectacular achievement all the more extraordinary. To break free from repetition is a noteworthy moment in any creature’s life cycle. We can go through life and be completely oblivious of the impact we have on others. Hundreds of our insignificant decisions can culminate into a life changing moment. For me painting has become a way to mimic this miraculous pattern, every insignificant brushstroke or line guiding me towards the next. I am the creator molding my world from shades and colours. I doesn’t matter what I create for the simple fact that I created it is incredible enough for me.