Opening Reception: Friday, September 10th 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Artists Sandra Brewster, Stephen Fakiyesi and Camille Turner challenge notions of “blackness” and representation. Sandra Brewster’s series of mixed media silk screens juxtapose portraits and silhouettes of young men in “bad boy” poses with imagery of toys and objects typically associated with little boys. Stephen Fakiyesi’s prints of oversize playing cards feature images of black kings and queens while Camille Turner’s digital photographs of Miss Canadiana in and around Hamilton’s challenge assumptions about Canadian identity and normative beauty. As part of the popular James St. North Art Crawl, Miss Canadiana will mark her return to her hometown of Hamilton. In their respective works each artist creates a multilayered space wherein blackness is positioned as a marker of normality.

* Miss Canadiana’s appearance is co-presented by Outerregion

Opening Reception: Friday, September 10th 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Along with the idea of working subconsciously is the scientific process. In this way, a highly structured step-by-step process of creating is then contrasted with randomly interchangeable variables. These variables are distinguished before the process endures itself - however, they are interchangeable from edition to edition. This in itself creates a contradiction of thought, yet visually is fluid as an abstract work of art.

Studio 12
Four Corners
July 9th to August 14th 2010

*This show is taking place in both galleries.

Opening Reception: Friday, July 9th 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm

Four Corners represents the four corners of a room, wall, picture frame, image, and the view finder which enables the artist to take images from the four corners of the world.

Studio 12 is a photographic artists’ collective founded in 2009. The collective is best described as a participatory group of artist individuals who share in the common objective of developing and sharing their artistic skills through the confluence of differing conceptual and formal approaches that each member brings to the group.

Featuring the works of:

Sol Agranti, Eric Bosch, Shirley Dennis, Mary Gilmour, Todd Murray, John Overmeyer, Martin Renters, Ruth Renters, and Paul Roth

“Core Images 2” is the culminating exhibition from The Print Studio’s two Art Education Programs: Artists in the Schools & Schools in the Studio and ECO Art. These programs bring artists into the schools and bring schools into the studio to create and produce age/stage appropriate print media. The chosen print media practices complement and enhance the social studies, math and science curricula. As well, students learn about local and provincial environmental issues. From an early age, children create images that express their understanding of the world. We build on these experiences, providing opportunities for students to perceive, respond, create and communicate through art. Please visit and view the work of the next generation of creative thinkers.

The Open
Brad Isaacs and Peter Karuna
April 16th to June 5 2010

Curated by Ola Wlusek
In the Main Gallery

Opening Reception: Friday, May 14th 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm
Members' Reception: Friday, May 14th 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm


The Open is an investigation into the natural and conquered worlds by two Hamilton-based artists, Brad Isaacs and Peter Karuna. Focusing on their personal ethics and individual modes of production, the artists explore psychological and physical notions of human, animal, and time through their black and white photo-based practices. Isaacs points to a rupture between ‘domesticated’ and ‘the wild’
while questioning the concealed and unexpected resonance between animals and human domain. Karuna investigates photography’s concern with time as he visually borrows that moment from a particular time and place for subsequent contemplation. The Open is an attempt to uncover the element of the symbolic and the magical in the menacingly candid relationships, which stylistically combine the staged aesthetic and perfect timing.

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I try to portray in my artwork the things we take for granted day to day. I like to show the natural, untouched, undisturbed beauty of our landscapes and the environment surrounding them. I want to show the spontaneous formations that our landscapes create, whether in the land and water, the atmosphere, the flora, or all three. Even though nature seems very simple at times, it is to me, far more complex than you realize.

I try to capture the motion of emotions and convey the concept of “the joy of being in the continual present” and “living in the moment” in my work. I use abstract geometry as well, which is a structure of mind as much as it is a physical entity that evokes a heightened awareness of our own being.

www.fatimagarzan.com

GHOSTS
Julio Ferrer
March 12th to April 3rd 2010

In the Members' Gallery

Opening Reception: Friday, March 12th 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm
Pre-crawl Members’ Reception: Friday, March 12th 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm


These are not only portraits; they are my ghosts, my inspiration.

They are not only the faces of these artists but they represent all the people from whom I have learned.

This is my tribute to all the teachers and artists that have been involved in some way in the development of my career as a visual artist since I was a child.

www.julioferrer.ca

Border Prints
Ingrid Mayrhofer
March 12th to April 3rd 2010

In the Second Floor Gallery

Opening Reception: Friday, March 12th 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm
Pre-crawl Members’ Reception: Friday, March 12th 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm

Last summer, my sisters and I went hiking in the Mühlviertel in Upper Austria, north of the Danube. Halfway into a day of wandering through woodlots and along fields and streams, we suddenly came upon the border between Austria and the Czech Republic. Remnants of historical differences cast an eerie shadow on the sunny meadow. Having stepped over barbed wire into the former Czechoslovakia to eat our lunch, we noticed a watchtower at the edge of the forest, next to a farmhouse. The tower does not show up on any of our snap shots.

Life Models
Toni Hafkenscheid
January 8th to February 20th 2010

Opening Reception: Friday, January 8th 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm
Members' Reception: January 8th 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm

Life Models showcases the strange and toy-like images of Toni Hafkenschied. Employing a tilt-shift lens and film that saturates colour, the artist transforms real-life, unedited landscapes into vibrant miniatures that recall the model train sets that fascinated him as a child. The staged quality of the resulting images effectively proposes that human life is a game. At the same time, it demonstrates the power we assert over the natural landscape, and indeed constructing these images makes Hafkenscheid "feel like God, with power over the world."



The Print Studio gratefully acknowledges the support of Birch Libralato Gallery

Vistas: Real or Imagined
Deb Dema
December 11th to January 2nd 2010

In the Members' Gallery

Opening Reception: Friday, December 11th 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm
Members' Reception: December 11th 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm

"The main body of my work is created through the process of waterless lithography. This form of printmaking allows for the exploration of line and shadow in realistic abstract subjects. I invite you to view my works."

Bling!
Hitoko Okada
November 7th to December 5th, 2009

In the Members' Gallery

Opening Reception: Friday November 13th 7:30 to 11:00 pm
Members Reception: November 13th 6:30 to 7:30 pm

Bling! is a humourous response to our economic downturn and is a satirical questioning of our consumerist social values. The candy colored gems are a playful irony of our culture of excess and acquisitions of status and luxury. Each piece in the collection is one of a kind, handmade and screen printed on 100% cotton jersey. Bling! is a product of our current economic recession.

Clothing
The mini collection is made from 100% cotton jersey. The gems are screen printed in bright celebratory colors which is in direct contrast to our current economic mood. Asymmetrical hems and lines are repeated throughout the collection which is a reference towards imbalance, and contrasts the full shapes in billowed hem lines, gathered pockets and stuffed gems suggesting excess and fullness. A bauble necklace is screen printed in the front with a bateau neckline, and an open back showcases strung up double-sided gems.

Accessories
The cluster neckpiece is a collage of inflated and deflated gems mounted on a felt backing and suspended by Mokuba ribbons, aluminum chains, resin rings and tagua nut beads. The bouquet brooch is made with a cluster of stuffed gems with a ribboned tassel.