The Drawers - exhibitions Contemporary Drawing, Sculpture and Works on Paper

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Headbones Gallery + The Drawers

The Drawers, specializes in drawing and contemporary works on paper with a small component of sculpture. If there is workmanship with integrity, evidence of the hand, and we respond to the impetus, we'll give the works a drawer.

The Drawers manages the storage, exhibition, and sales of drawings and works on paper of more than one-hundred visual artists in the gallery. Each artist is featured in a catalogue produced by Rich Fog Micro Publishing with a written commentary by Julie Oakes. Collectors have access to about one-thousand catalogued works in the gallery at any given time.

Headbones Gallery is moving forward with a group of artists under the aesthetic of NeoPriest, an acronym that stands for New Pop Realists Intellectually Engaged in Story Telling.

 The Headbones Awards   Headbones Anthologies   A Traditional Wiggly  

 
 

Breathing Room                                                   March 26 - May 8, 2011

The Picture Gallery -Donna Kriekle
Drawer's Gallery - Robert Farmer
Paper Gallery - Daniel Hanequand
 

Nothing but clear skies for our new exhibition titled Breathing Room on view until June 19th at Headbones Gallery.

From Regina, Donna Kriekle wisps eloquently with twenty-six sky paintings on canvas. Featured in The Picture Gallery, which is a long space, Kriekle’s sky paintings set the mood for springtime. With the optimism of the subject matter elevating the gamut of the skyway, lyrics come to mind that raise the spirits like the budding breath of a brand new day – “nothing but clear skies…”

Candy coated bunnies are falling from the sky in the Drawers Gallery with oil paintings by Winnipeg native Robert Farmer. Farmer’s tongue in cheek ‘splatstick’ resonates with the nostalgia of a less complicated era fallen prey to the havocs of chaos. His detailed renderings and technical virtuosity bring a world with a foot in childhood into the more complicated realms of gaming and advertising media.

With plenty of breathing room, nineteen individual miniature paintings by Toronto artist Daniel Hanequand are hung salon style in a three-foot-square space in The Paper Gallery. Their mini-counterparts form couplets, trios and rows of under-hand-sized, sci-fi, surreal and - sometimes - haunting little pictures.


From Venus to the Gods                                    March 26 - May 8, 2011
The Picture Gallery -Srdjan Segan
Drawer's Gallery - Dagmara Genda
Paper Gallery - Judy Chicago
Textile - Carolina Sanchez de Bustamante
 

Refresh - The Colour Experience                    February 10 - March 20, 2011

The Picture Gallery - Heidi Thompson
Drawer's Gallery - Scott McEwan
Paper Gallery - Robert Bigelow, Steve Rockwell, Katia Santibanez
Design -
Carl St Jean
 

Headbones BC Gala                                              December 10 - February 6, 2011

The Picture Gallery - Pass The Buddha
Drawer's Gallery - Scott P. Ellis
Paper Gallery - Erik Jerezano & Tony Taylor
 
Additional works on display by:
Doug Alcock, Ghada Amer, Daniel Anhorn, Damian Aquiles, Guy Boutin, Karl Heinz Boyke, Bill Bragg, Susan Brandoli, Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo, Briar Craig, Billy Copley, Franco DeFrancesca, Sophie DeFrancesca, Adrian Doura, Leonard Epp, Alessandra Exposito, Robert Farmer, Sergio Finamore, Ed Giordano Jr., Jim Hake, Steve Jackson, Reg Kienast, Donna Kriekle, Bob Kingsmill, Bodo Korsig, Ann Kipling, Donna Kriekle, Jeffery Thompson, Geert Maas, Tom Mackenzie, Jennifer MacKlem, ManDad, Jesse McCloskey, David Montpetit, Judith Page, Maurizio Pellegrin, David Constantino Salazar, Kenny Scharf, Reinhard Skoracki, Srdjan Segan, Christian Bernard Singer, Fred Tomaselli, Wing Yee Tong, Stanzie Tooth, Ruth Waldman, Deborah Wilson, Tom Wren and Z’otz* Collective

Robert Bigelow C-RBB 6x6                                          July 2 - August 1, 2010

Ashpa Naira Gallery and Headbones Gallery invite you to celebrate the automatic renewal of the moon with artist Robert Bigelow in attendance from 2-7pm for the opening reception of his exhibition Sunday, July 11, when the dawning of awareness is most potent.

The New Moon is a time of regeneration when the creative pulse is nascent, a seedling with a host of possibilities for growth. It is akin to our subconscious.

Robert Bigelow has called his work “abstract automatism”. The spark that lights the flame of creativity lies in the subconscious. By clearing the mind and erasing any vestige of association with physical representation, the abstract is made manifest.

 A ‘Bigelow’ is like a connection between the world of the spirit and virtual reality. It is a visual map of intuitively recorded energy emitted over time.

Michaele Jordana Berman                                                   April 8 - April 25, 2010
Cyborg: The Human Condition - Michaele Jordana Berman, a multiplatform artist, is a name that many know, perhaps from different contexts, for she has excelled in more than one discipline to memorable effect. You may remember her as the sylph-like actress in Stefan Czernecki’s film Green Veridian Green. Then she bowled the Toronto art scene over with her exhibition Oceans of Blood at the Isaacs Gallery in 1976. Her large-scale airbrushed photorealist paintings related to her stay in the Arctic, where she drifted on the ice floes with the Inuit and the narwhal. The National Gallery purchased her monumental painting from this period, I Cry Tears of Blood.. As the lyricist /singer Michaele Jordana in the new wave/punk band The Poles with Doug Pringle (originator of the “electronica” group, Syrinx) her fragile physicality, ethereal looks and riveting performance of songs such as CN Tower are graven into the musical archives of Toronto.

CYBORG, The Human Condition, like Michaele Jordana Berman’s previous acts of self re-invention, is as memorable as it is absolutely contemporary.

Pulled (A Print Show)                                                             March 19 - April 4, 2010

Headbones Gallery has Pulled together an exhibition of fine art prints by artists and printmakers featuring: 12 Midnite, Robert Bigelow, Don Carr and Steve Mennie.

This multi-person print show includes works by twenty-five different artists and printmakers. Varied techniques including lithography, serigraphy, etching, aquatint, drypoint, colograph, woodblock, lino-cut, embossed, rubber stamp, digital and hand colored prints prove that great printmaking is timeless with prints ranging from the sixties right up to today.

View additional print works by: Angus Bungay, Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo, Briar Craig, Franco DeFrancesca, Larry Eisenstein, Johann Feught, Elizabeth Forrest, Tyler Bright Hilton, Jeffrey Little, Bodo Korsig, Jesse McCloskey, ManWoman, Ortansa Moraru, Ed Pien, David Samila, Katia Santibanez, Dave Sheppard, Daryl Vocat & Nancy Watt.

NeoBeast - Beastly Explorations Aesthetically Stating Truisms    Feb 19 -  March 14, 2010

NEOPRIEST, an exhibition at Headbones Gallery in March, 2009, was based on an identified aesthetic that was expressed with an acronym to more succinctly impart the essence of thirteen artist’s work. From this original exhibition an over-riding identifiable subject has revealed itself. And in order to pin it down through language and to carry on the intellectual rigour, NeoBeast has been coined - Beastly Explorations Aesthetically Stating Truisms.

Man’s separation from the order of species due to modernisation and technology is a realised dilemma. That these artists chose ‘beast’ as the metaphor that encompasses feral, carnal and primitive as well as cute, whimsical, elegant or stylised: depicts the struggle that the contemporary atmosphere imposes upon our relationship to animals.

Man and beast - the story line of countless artworks, operatic to quietly penned - has occupied the attention of civilization since the otherness of the beast was first scraped on a cave wall in a Paleolithic attempt to depict the relationship. The works in NeoBeast show that the subject, far from having been exhausted, is still relevant today.

Cesar Forero - Home and Jungle                               January 29 - February 14, 2010

Gallery Installation and two dance performances featuring Cesar Forero with dancer Michelle Moylan, dancer Sandra Clarke, and soprano singer Pam Patel.

Cesar Forero’s exhibition is aptly titled Home and Jungle for his vivacious work encompasses a wide range of imagery embracing everything from the quotidian to the exotic. Forero’s work is truly multidisciplinary and accomplished across the disciplines. Originally from Colombia, Forero is an architect, figure skater, dancer, choreographer, costume designer, painter, sculptor and relational fabricator. He enthuses. His infectious creativity feeds from the normal humdrum to transform into spectacle as he stitches, pastes, welds, rehearses and details. It is difficult not to use superlatives in the face of his prodigious output and once seen, his productions are hard to forget.

Having presented the performance and exhibition The Box in 2008, Headbones Gallery anticipates with pleasure the presentation of Home and Jungle.

Jim Hake - HARDERFASTER                                     January 8 - January 27, 2010

Jim Hake, a sculptor whose work is well known in Italy where he spent eleven years, will present his work for the first time in Toronto at Headbones Gallery, January 8 to 27.

It’s more than manipulating the space and it’s also more than repetition that ties together the overall oeuvre of Jim Hake’s work - although both of these components are ties that bind the diverse imagery together. Multiple meanings from multiple objects are illustrated perceptively.

The exhibition will occupy the gallery space with a large personality. Hake within all of the pieces has inserted another powerful lifeline – that of the lightness of being, humour, play and a joy derived from the bounty of existence.

Harder and Faster.  Hake is working in Canada now and his work is working. We get it and it spurs us to spur him on – harder, faster! This is exciting work.

Paper Salon with new Collages by Scott P. Ellis    December 11 - January 4, 2010

Celebrate the holiday season at Headbones Gallery and get a ten dollar drawing?! Headbones Gallery is hosting a paper salon from December 11 to January 3 and in order to stimulate the holiday festivities with good old fashioned seasonal commercialism, there will be a slasher sale with prices slashed on the spot! Why wait for Boxing Day? Items in the paper salon can be found at the website beginning Dec 9 where offers can be made for the works before the slasher even comes on board!

Yes folks, at the Grand Opening December 11 from 6PM until 9PM and on Saturday from 12 until 6,
celebrity slasher salesman
Jay Ould
(Dec.11 only) will rip through the regular value of works on paper from your favourite artists! December 13, the prices go back to normal so dash on over to 260 Carlaw Avenue and somewhere in the midst of the helter skelter, a ten dollar drawing will be revealed! Which is the ten dollar drawing!? Only the slasher knows, but before 6 PM on December 12, a lucky collector will walk out of Headbones with a ten dollar purchase (worth far far more…)!

In tandem, Headbones will be showing the works of the great collage fabricator and visual statesman, Scott P. Ellis in conjunction with the social/political audio/video shorts by RX (the party party) whose works buzz the circuits of youtube popularity..

Spunky Rooms - Aleks Bartosik and Robin Tewes   November 13 - December 7, 2009

 
On November 13, Friday, Headbones Gallery opened an exhibition of works by two women artists; Robin Tewes, a mature New York artist who deals in images derived from domestic environments and Aleks Bartosik, who’s autobiographically based, narrative drawings were introduced at the opening reception with a drawing performance.

Spunky women - Tewes’ quiet resignation breaking out with military fierceness and Bartosik’s seemingly virginal demeanour kicking her heels with spirited naughtiness, ready to be frisked. Unseemly women, their work is not in keeping with standard norms of taste and form. Each is rebellious. Neither is ladylike.

Tewes brews on her boundaries, hysteria lying just below the surface of her placid rooms – a figment of her imagination or the visual documentation of her particular prison? Are the walls, corners, furniture, a private picture of a woman’s castle or an artist’s confinement? Tewes acknowledges the solitary confinement of easel painting in a living room while the child plays on the rug. Tewes is painting camouflage. There is a perverse insinuation lurking in the ordered sameness – a quiet ‘fuck you’ whispered with a sly smile of victory. Leo Tolstoy wrote War and Peace, first published in 1869 because men went to war - a grand theme. Virginia Woolf in 1929 delivered a series of essays to two women’s colleges at Cambridge University titled A Room of One’s Own wherein she questioned whether women could write a great work for they were denied the same opportunities as men to experience the world - women stayed at home. Tewes works from home and is effective.

Bartosik is the younger generation. Messing about. Her women do all the unseemly acts that lie beneath the surface of Tewes’ brew. Rubrical acts with reddish smears as lipstick blotches. Bartosik’s bad little girl is not about to give in to a ladylike resignation. She too is caught in the examination of women’s world, the psychological range openly acknowledged - narcissist to nymphomaniac. She dons her war paint, saddles her horse, kisses her girlfriends and shows what she has been told to keep private.

Minutial Matters                                                       October 16 - November 9, 2009

We are exhorted to “pay attention to details” and by doing so the larger endeavours will fall into place. We have been counselled to acknowledge “the power of one” and to focus on the importance of the individual, no matter how small or inconsequential. Conversely, we have also been advised “not to sweat the small things”. Man’s fascination with minutiae extends into the sciences where microscopic discoveries illuminate health, engineering and physics. The ability of the eye to delve ever tinier has been aesthetically grasped in carvings on grains of rice, Roman enamels, Persian miniatures and renaissance religious icons. The applied arts have grappled with such preciously miniscule treasures as tapestries made of hair and beaded carpets.

Six artists reveal their obsessive ability in Minutial Matters at Headbones Gallery. From New York, Ruth Waldman’s works has been honoured in exhibitions that ranged from a concentration on size and detail to spotlighting the disguised eroticism of her characters. Katia Santibanez, also from New York where Pace Editions is currently showing her work, speaks an erotic visual language as well but hers is one of tickling hairs and sensuous wavering. Daniel Hanequand’s miniature paintings on panels reveal an intimate futuristic realm that has been executed with such care that wonder follows on perusal. He is an accomplished master of his own universe. Two emerging artists introduce their latest works. Cole Swanson who was trained in India in the art of miniature painting airs his skills with a contemporary subject matter. These paintings must be exhibited under glass for so delicate is the surface that even a drop of moisture can disturb the perfection. Mitsuo Kimura, from Tokyo, presents small paintings on stretched paper that recall Japanese animation, fabrics and design wherein he tells of his reactions to the western world in lively saturated colours and stylised characters. And re-emerging from Toronto is Larry Eisenstein’s full-on obsessive doodles of evolving forms and obfuscated narratives.

Clearly, these artists have “sweated the small stuff”, spent time with a magnifying glass and exerted patience born of dedicated practices.

Back to the Garden                                                  September 11 - October 4, 2009

Joni Mitchell, raised in Saskatchewan, wrote “Back to the Garden” and in 1969, forty summers ago, it was performed by Crosby, Stills and Nash at Woodstock. Held by baby boomers and successive generations of eco-minded youth as a rallying chorus for affirmative positivism; the song focused on the need to reconcile the impact of progress with holistic idealism. As Torontonians return to the city where cultural inspiration replaces the natural regeneration of summertime, four visual artists - Angiola Churchill, Donna Kriekle, Ortansa Moraru and Christian Bernard Singer - extend the season in Back to the Garden, opening - pointedly - on September Eleventh at Headbones Gallery.
 
In Angiola Churchill’s pristine white paper installation, Sacred Grove, a fresh breeze rustles the floating, feminine florals as Singer’s moss installation infuses the gallery with a deep earthy smell. Moraru’s woodblock or tempera prints of, aptly, trees stands firm with the solidity of her master technique. And from Saskatchewan as well, Donna Kriekle presents fulsome berries, crisp ripe apples and the niggle of grasshoppers under prairie blue skies.
 
Beauty is presupposed in a garden visit, pleasure anticipated. Back to the Garden at Headbones Gallery will fulfill the expectations.

BRONSON, THE PRISON DRAWINGS                                 June 17 - June 27, 2009

Bronson, The Prison Drawings is a solo exhibition of drawings by one of Britain's most notorious inmates, Charles Bronson.

Bronson, The Prison Drawings - Courtesy of the Princess, are a play by play visual documentation of a prison romance from 1997 - 2000 told in graphite, ink and coloured pencil. The drawings are brutally revealing. Bronson's hand is controlled but his subject matter is not. The Princess is his muse, foil and interlocutor. 

In late 1995, The Princess, Canadian woman prisoner TG0786 and Ontario College of Art (OCA) graduate, found herself incarcerated in the United Kingdom on a six year drug smuggling charge. With an interest in art therapy, she began writing to Bronson after seeing one of his drawings in a British tabloid and a romantic correspondence of drawings both singular and collaborative, was begun. Eventually, the happy couple pledged to be married, never having personally met, and the British tabloids went wild with their sensational story of love and commitment. 

With a curiously sweet candour, brushed with naughtiness, Bronson tells his story, confined by the size of the paper and materials made available to him. With no emotional holds barred, Bronson tells it as he sees it from within prisons of cement blocks, spied upon by surveillance cameras and tortured by his very active imagination. This sociological, psychological and diaristic presentation of the life of an inmate is an exhibition that encourages study and contemplation, yet also rewards both the curious and the art lover.

The catalogue and exhibition could not be made without accomplices. I would like to thank the Princess for the chance to host this exciting exhibition and together we gave titles to Bronson’s drawings. I would also like to thank Ben Portis for his introductory essay and Julie Oakes for her help with the installation and lastly, I would like to congratulate Charles Bronson on his engaging practice of drawing and sharing his life on the inside.

Figuration                                                                                May 7 - June 16, 2009

There’s something about the honesty of one’s circumstance that sets the scene for powerful images. We are all imbedded in figuration but the personal range of specific experience is varied.

Mahmoud Meraji harkens to his Iranian roots with the use of symbols framing portraits of his family, self and friends. His son, Mehrad Meraji aggrandises friends and family with a positivism born of the undaunted belief that talent lends to a fresh artistic career. Zachari Logan’s triplet nude self portraits radically poise the mundane with sensational eroticism while Susan Low-Beer’s ceramic children leap in trancelike suspended animation. Each artist, ’figuring’ it out, brings to bear the authenticity of personal practices and life orientations.

(ab strak' tid)                                                                           March 26 - May 2, 2009

Ram Samocha’s energetic drawing performance, Abstract Peace, ignites the exhibition as his gestural spontaneity flares.

Intellectual underpinning removes abstraction from the physical so that mental and spiritual practice is as evident as the artistic. This coupling of idea with color, form, material and the personal visual vocabulary of each artist makes ab strak tid an exhibition of rarefied thought.

The architectonic light and monument works of Khaled Mansur, the rich, shimmering and seemingly bejeweled fabric of Heidi Thompson’s and Scott Taylor’s layered colors, the lyric illusions in Mahmoud Meraji’s and Cesar Forero’s dancing shapes, the humourous sense of play with David Samilla and the visceral plasticity of Bodo Korsig’s woodblocks & Karl Heinz Boyke’s paintings and bronze sculptures; spurned on by sensation, resonate within the intellect.

NEOPRIEST   New Pop Realists Intellectually Engaged in Story Telling    February 13 - March 21

The identification of an aesthetic can serve various positive purposes. For the artists, it affords an objective from which to consider why the name is applicable. For the appreciator, it allows for roads of association to be traveled that might not have been self generated and therefore discover correlations that run within these works. To the art writer, critic and curator, it gives a platform upon which to comment, theorize, criticize and organize. It can also position neopriest within historical and philosophical contexts or neopriest can, like a sauce, add new flavour to an already sufficiently nourishing dish.

.The Dark Side and Snow                                           January 3 - February 11, 2009

As the depth of winter plays havoc with our perceptions, Headbones Gallery serves it right back with "The Dark Side". This exhibition of drawings and works on paper, along with sculpture by John Farrugia, features artists working primarily in black & white with macabre subject matter augmenting the brew.

We will present the annual 2008 Headbones Award. Made by last year's winner, Srdjan Segan, the 2008 Headbones Award is a unique cast bronze sculpture, sponsored by Artcast Inc. The winner will be announced at 8PM during the opening reception on Saturday, January 3, 2009.

Human Sacrifice - Julie Oakes (A selection of drawings)   December 13 - 23, 2008

View a selection of drawings from three exhibitions with novellas; Quercia Stories, The Revolving Door and Conscientious Perversity, documenting the libertine adventures of Justine Quercia as told by her sister Juliette.

We invite you to join us in a traditional Wiggly for the opening reception on December 13, from 7 – 10 PM.   Neema Bickersteth, the celebrated opera diva, will perform at 8:30.

Guests are encouraged to wear a wig, hairpiece, toupee or merkin. Garage One Media will be present and providing guests with complimentary professional digital portraits in their Wigs.

Primal - Ashley Johnson (Solo Exhibition)                          November 1 - 29, 2008

Ashley Johnson’s first solo exhibition in Canada at Headbones Gallery will leave indelible impressions on the psyche of viewers. These powerful paintings have the ability to bridge synapses in the deep recesses of the brain and permeate the core. Johnson has successfully captured the essence of human/animal instincts addressing topics of evolution, reproduction, life, death, sexuality, dreams, customs and rituals. 

Johnson has created work that harkens to a spiritual root of first importance, fundamental to the psyche. Humans shape-shift into animals, interact with the beastly and attach to areas of the subconscious. This delving into the basic impulses, much like Freudian psychology, allows for a confrontation with the nether regions where, by visually speaking the unspeakable, knowledge is gained.

The exhibition will consist of approximately sixteen works that span from 2001-2008. A catalogue will be available including pertinent writings by Ashley Johnson.

Fresh Pop NYC (Three Person Exhibition)             September 11 - October 25, 2008

Jesse McCloskey is the young renegade. He freely emotes, applying a pop consciousness to a New England narrative. The result - fresh pop. 

Billy Copley has been working with popular imagery from the west coast to New York City, where he was a friend of Andy Warhol. His snappy cartoon-ish style is a fresh take on pop. 

Ed Giordano, with humanitarian angst shows the plight of the common man in his most disadvantaged insecurity. With a sculptural technique that relates to the work of George Segal (he had studied with him), he presents the popular dilemma with the freshness of a well placed slap.

10 Cent Hot Dogs - Robert Farmer (Solo Exhibition)             June 5 - June 28, 2008

Toronto visual artist, Robert Farmer, steps up his work and delivers an exiting body of new paintings at Headbones Gallery commencing Thursday, June 5, 2008. Aptly titled, 10 Cent Hot Dogs fits Farmer’s surreal carnival-esque pop style paintings with a turn-of-the-century faux finished feel. With his cotton candy palette and pop-social messages, humour and spectacle prevail. Bring a lucky dime and join Robert Farmer and Headbones Gallery for a ‘real’ 10 Cent Hot Dog in the alley during the opening reception.

Warnings - Scott P. Ellis (Solo Exhibition)                                May 1 - May 31, 2008

The jarring imagery in Scott P. Ellis' constructed photographs and collages have the power to provoke memories relating to atrocities from current and historical events. From the point of view of artist as interpreter, these works make associations to corporate, religious and political corruption. Ellis delivers a strong visual punch in this exhibition of photos created during the radical Montreal punk scene of the 90’s along with current intricate collages born of mass media hyperbole..

Revivified                                                                                April 3- April 29, 2008

It has been a long winter, cold and denying the relief of an irreversible melt. When the smells from the street become pungent and the snow banks piled by ploughs turn grimy from pollution, spring harkens.  

Headbones Gallery is hosting spring in the heart of the east end.  With floral sprigs, the wonder of the constellations, verdurous sweeping vistas, and the miniscule details of foliage, the rites of spring adorn the walls in paper works, a magnificent painting by Lorne Wagman and creep across the floor in an installation of moss and flying paper by Christian Bernard Singer.

WWW.Women                                                              February 16 - March 20, 2008

In this exhibition, women have staked a self conscious claim within a nourishing field of dreams (art) and in doing so, broken ground that grew a different female form of artistic avatar. Often political in approach, women have used their bodies, their intuition, their ability to nurture and multi-task and their grand operatic voices to shatter many a glass tower. This Valentine month, WWW.WOMEN follows on the day of paper hearts and cliché promises with a spectacular show of solid womanhood.

Work'n It                                                                      January 10 - February 14, 2008

The energy needed to promote the work is equal to the energy needed to produce the work. Not only with the consistent driving of their practice and openness to opportunity, but also promotion can be integral to the work itself. With strength of image, format or a sheer graphic blast of power, the artists in Working It have noticeably been investing their talents in positions destined for high returns. The imagery and execution broadcasts a combination that clearly equals excellence.

The presentation ceremony of the 2007 Headbones Award sponsored by Artcast Inc. will be at 8pm.

Weird Queer Freaky Xmas                                           December 3 - January 8, 2008

'Christmas’ has morphed into ‘Xmas’ and become outlandish in aspect. Commercialism reigns with high-end demands for better gifts as children loose perspective (children!?) of the inspiration for the holiday season. Art too has found its seat in elfin freaky realms peopled by crazy characters, strange in countenance and design. Rather than becoming jaded, our grab bag presentation is a joyous holiday celebration, straight from the ‘art with a wrestling extravaganza for the opening reception on December 1, replete with freaks, queers and weirdos. 

Project Room - Scott McEwan

It’s worth being ringside at 7PM when Headbones presents Queer Wrestling, a colorful collaboration of showmanship, ritualism, choreography, and the performative aspects of pro wrestling amidst an exhibition of Scott McEwan’s Neo-Psychedelic paintings. Defiance Pro Wrestling grapples with Christmas in wrestling gear by fashion designer Matthew Simpson.

Srdjan Segan (Solo Exhibition)                                                November 1- 30, 2007

It is as if we are now familiar with another species, for the large drawings of Srdjan Segan are becoming a recognized shape on the horizon of Toronto's art landscape like a subliminal giant or an archetypal figure. The tall beings dangling from Woolfitt’s Art Supplies on Nuit Blanche arrested passer-bys as they gaped at the giant drawings. Concurrently, a solo exhibition was held at the Detroit Industrial Project Gallery from September 15th - October 20. Several 33 foot long drawings hung with their feet from the rafters dipping into Headbones booth #825 at the Toronto International Art Fair. On November 3, Segan's solo exhibition at Headbones Gallery opened to an enthusiastic crowd where once again exclamations of wonder and awe resounded in the space transformed by the paper visitations.

Two time recipient of the John B. Aird drawing competition, Segan has put charcoal and coffee (simple necessities of an artistic practice) to use to expand the parameters of size with passionate deliberation and delivery.

On November 21 at 7:30, Headbones the Drawers will host an 'artist talk'. We extend a warm invitation to join us at Headbones Gallery to listen as Segan illuminates the creationism that led to the birth of these larger-than-life humanoids.

Press Release & Artist Profile -Visual Art, Toronto          September 8, 2007
Abstract (Colour)

Color can be the sole focus of abstraction as in the color field paintings of Heidi Thompson. It can differentiate between elements and describe space as in the work of Steve Rockwell or it can carry geometric associations as with George Dewitte's dot works. Color serves to express a display of emotional states, symbols and conditions in Cesar Forero's paintings and choreographed performances. And then there is color as a team member, a component in a symphony where form, composition and color combine to celebrate a new vision as in Klunder's, Bigelow’s, Noestheden’s and Meledandri's work. In this exhibition, the component of color is as necessary to the work as the spirit that carries life.
 
Gykan Project Room
The Gykan Project Room will be featuring colour abstract paintings by George Dewitte
 
October 6 - November 1
Robert Bigelow
George Dewitte
Cesar Forero
Harold Klunder
Nina Meledandri
John Noestheden
Steve Rockwell
Heidi Thompson
 
 
Press Release & Artist Profile -Visual Art, Toronto          September 8, 2007
Abstract (B&W)

Abstraction – an opportunity to ignore the pressing concerns of representational thinking, loaded as it is with meaning – delves into a freer vision. By paring the flight of freedom down to black and white, Headbones Gallery opens its fall season with a power packed slate of artists whose diversity exemplifies numerous visual possibilities with an astonishing range of greys in between the polarized opposites.
Gykan Project Room
The Gykan Project Room will be featuring colour abstract paintings by Gertrude Kearns
 
September 8 - October 4
Karl Heinz Boyke
Angiola Churchill
Alan Glicksman
Gertrude Kearns
Ortansa Moraru
John Noestheden
Bryan Ryley
 
 
Press Release & Artist Profile -Visual Art, Toronto          May 17, 2007
Bona fide

Have you ever felt when looking at a piece of art work that you might be falling into the state of one of those silly peasants who were fooled into believing that the Emperor had on clothes and that perhaps there was an element of fraud in the work? “Bona Fide” is a presentation of work that is absolutely real and without fraud. We have gathered solid, earnest artists that have made work in good faith that attests to an inherent veracity, rare hits of substance in a world prone to a quick fix.
Gykan Project Room
The Gykan Project Room will be featuring animated vignettes by: Paula Jean Cowan
 
May 17 - June 28
Paula Jean Cowan
Diane Feught
Johann Feught
Ed Giordano Jr.
Susan Hamburger
Jenny Laden
Jeffrey Thompson
Nanna Vonessamieh
Ruth Waldman
 
Press Release & Artist Profile -Visual Art, Toronto          April 5, 2007
For Font's Sake

Before the Tower of Babel fell, it attempted to reach heaven but the confusion of language brought the grand ambition to a crumbling close. Text based work, often dry visually has a critical bite that clearly is picking up on a chaotic chatter. Transferred into didactic sayings or cryptic clues to the meanings of societal mores; the messages seem to be working as visual configurations in league with the shapely fonts.
Gykan Project Room
Stephan Bircher and Patrick Mimran along with story telling by Allen Merovitz will be featured in the Gykan Project Room. Headbones Gallery would like to thank both Gykan Enterprises Inc. for the use of the space and SML Graphic Solutions for their generous support in printing the large banners for this project.
 
Apr. 5 - May. 15
Carin Covin
Briar Craig
Scott Ellis
Stephan Erasmus
Patrick Mimran
Christopher Olson
Ed Varney
Daryl Vocat
Stephan Bircher
 
Press Release & Artist Profile -Visual Art, Toronto          February 22, 2007
Ethnic Convergence

There is an ethnic convergence within the art world that makes it a far richer place in which to appreciate cultural and characteristic diversities. By bringing together the work of ten artists whose nascent cries were first made in far distant lands, Headbones, The Drawers, pays homage to cultures other than Canadian, and like a global bazaar, the sights are astounding.

Feb. 22 - Apr. 3
Rana Bishara
Ellen Butler
Adrian Doura
Saroj Jain
Erik Jerezano
Ashley Johnson
Goro Kadoi
Victor Klassen
Mahmoud Meraji
Srdjan Segan
 
 
Press Release & Artist Profile -Visual Art, Toronto          January 11, 2006
Highly Recommended

The most enthusiastic, vociferous and intuitive audience for art is the one made up of artists. They stay the longest, discuss the most, pinch pennies in order to acquire, boo the loudest and leap the highest in standing ovations.

Headbones, The Drawers has turned to the artists from 2006 for their recommendations. How apt for the title of the exhibition that coincides with the presentation of the HEADBONE AWARD to be Highly Recommended, referring to the fact that the current choice of paper works was chosen from Headbone's artist's recommendation, for who has a better and more concerned finger on the pulse than the artists themselves!
 
Jan 11 - Feb 20, 2007
Billy Copley
Mitchell Friedman
Sybil Goldstein
Karina Kalvaitis
Jesse McCloskey
Becky Parisotto
Laurie Sponagle
Anthony Taylor
Kathleen Vance
 
Press Release & Artist Profile -Visual Art, Toronto          December 9, 2006
An Exotic Erotic Christmas

In a season when clichés abound, Headbones, The Drawers is stepping outside of the norm and presenting a show of exotic works that are striking and unusual in their effect and appearance. With paper works both suggestive and explicit, a fire performance, the titillation of eroticism amongst an exotic crowd and the swinging jazz of Joe Sealey and Paul Novotny on opening night - an Exotic Erotic celebration is in place.
 
Dec. 9 - Jan. 11
Tom Ackermann
Michaele Berman
Irina Dascalu
Andy Graffiti
Bogos Kalemkiar
Donna Kriekle
Zachari Logan
Julie Oakes
Gord Smith
E.J. Wickes
Ivan Yovanovich
 
Press Release & Artist Profile -Visual Art, Toronto          November 16, 2006
Indie-Picks (Independent Curator’s Selection)

With the recommendations and commentaries from perspectives other than our own, Headbones Gallery is stirring the mix by inviting curators to select or comment on a phenomenal drawer. This refreshing show that ignites through spontaneous combustion once again attests to the wisdom of 'two heads'.
Artist followed by Curator: David Pirrie by Julie Oakes, Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo by Zachari Logan, Dakota McFadzean by David Garneau, Robert Malinowski by Monika Burman, Andy Moon Wilson by Andrea Pollan, Ron Giii by Oliver Girling, Guy Boutin by Daniel Erban, and Charles Bronson by Headbones.
 
Nov. 16 - Dec. 9
Charles Bronson
Guy Boutin
Osvaldo R. Castillo
Ron Giii*
Robert Malinowski
Dakota McFadzean
David Pirrie**
Gord Smith
Andy Moon Wilson
 
Press Release & Artist Profile -Visual Art, Toronto          October 12, 2006
X-Country Selection

From July 1st to August 31st, Headbones, The Drawers, took to the road, driving from Quebec to British Columbia taking the Canadian route on the way there and the American on the return, exposing artworks presently held by Headbones from a portable drawer containing over one hundred works on paper and reviewing new work. From this exploratory viewing program, we have selected the works of ten artists for our “Cross Country Selection” with an opening reception on Thursday, October 12 from 4 until 8 PM.

The fact that Halloween falls within this show seems to have spookily worked its way into the content. From the skeletal sculptures of Stephan Bircher, to the macabre blood drawings of Daniel Erban, even extending into Sue Rusk with her Sonata series or John Noestheden's meticulously rendered night skies, the atmosphere in the gallery will be charged, 'all hallow', and in tune with the spirit of magic.
 
Oct. 12 - Nov. 16
Thomas Ackermann
Stephan Bircher
Angus Bungay
Daniel Erban
Mary Hrbacek
Michael Lane
Jefferson Little
Khaled Mansur
John Noestheden
Sue Rusk
 
Press Release & Artist Profile -Visual Art, Toronto           September 7, 2006
Beauty & Obsession
 
Beauty and Obsession meet each other in the realms of love and art, realms where an allowance is made for the indiscretion of indulgences. Headbones, The Drawers addresses Beauty and Obsession through the subject, the technique, the aesthetic and the body in the works of Aleks Bartosik, Carin Covin, Johann Feught, Alan Glicksman, Catherine Hahn, Shelagh Keeley, Jodi Panas, Heidi Thompson, Gord Smith, and Kerry Stevens. Each of these artists has their approach and specific concern where the obsessive nature of creating art is placed at the beck and call of our notions of Beauty.
 
Headbones, The Drawers is beginning the fall season by addressing two great themes. You are invited to the opening from 4 to 8 PM on Thursday, September 7 when we will be presenting the work in our new street level location at #102, 260 Carlaw Avenue with a project room featuring the large scale drawings of Aleks Bartosik and Carin Covin and an alley installation by Scott Ellis celebrating the completion of his fiftieth collage from The Political Series.
 
Sept. 7 - Oct. 10
Aleks Bartosik
Carin Covin
Alan Glicksman
Johann Feught
Catherine Hahn
Shelagh Keeley
Jodi Panas
Heidi Thompson
Gord Smith
Kerry Stevens
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Press Release & Artist Profile -Visual Art, Toronto              May 25, 2006
Situation, Positioning, Location
 
Situation, Positioning, Location
As summer approaches and the nomad movements of urbanites seek their country respites, Headbones, The Drawers traces the imagery that comes from our personal situations, which affected through positioning, results in location. Primarily landscape based, this exhibition extrapolates on an essentially vague theme and links the works of ten diverse oeuvres.
 
The Gykan Project Room
Iran , Iran and I ran with Bogos
There is another interpretation for 'situation' that pertains to ethnic and cultural origin. By focusing on four Canadians with sympathetic backgrounds and a combination of cultures and generations, the gaze of assimilation confronts the present challenge - the making of art. Mahmoud Meraji and Mehrad Meraji are father and son. Mehrad is in his second year at OCAD. Mohammad Mofrad graduated from OCAD this year. All three were born in Iran. The generational and experiential differences are intriguing as are the similarities and trends between their bodies of work. Bogos Kalemkiar is Mahmoud's friend, of Armenian descent and married to an Iranian woman. Armenia was occupied by Iran at one time.

Their styles are diverse, even their mediums - Mohammad is a photographer - but the subject remains the same. They all address 'their people’. The Meraji's focus on family, Mohammad on stereotypical translations of ethnicity and Bogos presents the masses.
 
May 25 - June 24
Daniel Anhorn
Susan Austad
Daphne Gerou
Margie Kelk
Peter Reginato
Robin Tewes
John Torreano
Lorne Wagman
Charles Yuen
Ben Woolfitt
 
Press Release & Artist Profile -Visual Art, Toronto              April 22, 2006
Results of the headhunt
 
A Selection of Heads
There are artists who are known for their heads - Chuck Close, Alex Katz, Angus Bungay, Cynthia Karalla or Ann Kipling where a primary source of their research and practice has been the human physiognomy. They are hanging on our walls, a result of the headhunt. This generation of heads came after the tradition of portraiture where egoism and historical record-keeping motivated the use of heads as subject.

Headbones, The Drawers presents a portrait attributed to Sir Joshua Reynolds and documents the search for it's authenticity, but this is not a portrait show. The Results of the Headhunt brings forward a selection from artists who have succumbed to the irresistible urge to headhunt, to have a head to hang up, 'a head of one's own' to examine with all of the ramifications of expression, execution, subject, and association that they embody.

Daniel Anhorn, Michaele Jordana Berman, Daniel David, Andy Graffiti, Cherry Hood, Gertrude Kearns, Kris Knight, Daniel Lee, Tom MacKenzie, Jennifer MacKlemm, Mehrad Meraji, Maurizio Pellegrin, Srdjan Segan, Julie Oakes, Malcom Poynter, Fred Tomaselli, Alphonse Van Woerkom, Charles Yuen and others address the head from their particular perspectives.
 
April 22-May 23
Sergio Finamore
Rae Johnson
Harold Klunder
Judith Page
Lorraine Pritchard
Gord Smith
Jenny Wing Yee Tong
Selection of Heads
 
Press Release & Artist Profile -Visual Art, Toronto              March 18, 2006
Narrative?
 
On Saturday, March 18, Headbones, The Drawers introduces ten additional Canadian and international artists to its drawers. Exhibition dates are March 18 – April 21. The opening reception is March 18, from 4-8 PM.

Interrogating narrative has been the concern of art historians ever since the end of the Renaissance when the meaning of the religious iconography was understood by everyone laymen and the initiated alike. Now, as we attempt to grab a handle of commonality in the many diverse narratives that run through our multi-ethnic/racial/gender/political/ fantastical contemporary story telling, Headbones, The Drawers assembles a selection of works on paper and questions the narrative intent, the couching of the tale and the interpretation.
 
March 18-April 20
Daniel David
Jen Dyck
Eric Jerezano
Judith Jurica
Wanda Lock
Jesus Mora
Shauna Oddleifson
Srdjan Segan
Ruth Waldman
Scott Waters
 
Press Release & Artist Profile -Visual Art, Toronto              February 4, 2006
Drawers' Selection
 
On Saturday, February 4th Headbones, The Drawers introduces ten new Canadian and International Artist’s to its drawers. Exhibition dates are February 4th – March 11th.
 
A hybrid gallery, something between Pierogi, Brooklyn and The Drawing Center in New York, Headbones Gallery, The Drawers is inspired by the recent interest in drawings and works on paper in the contemporary art market.

Managing Director of Headbones, The Drawers, Richard Fogarty translated his interest in collecting artwork into Rich Fog Micro Publishing, printing and publishing art catalogues and art books. He is producing catalogues for each of the artists represented in the Drawers.

Assistant director, previous owner of Headbones Gallery, visual artist and art writer Julie Oakes brings her established career and expertise to guide selection and programming. For the past six years, Oakes has been living in New York City where she acquired a Masters in Art and Art Professions from NYU, a Masters in Social and Political Science (Cultural Theory and Criticism) from The New School for Social Research and maintained a studio.
 
February 4-March 16
Ellen Butler
Phyllis Godwin
Jim Kalnin
Attila Richard Lukacs*
Malcolm Poynter
Tina Poplawski
Birgit Ruff
Bryan Ryley
Alphonse van Woerkom
Tom Wren
 
Press Release & Artist Profile -Visual Art, Toronto           December 14, 2005
Inaugural Drawers' Selection
 
On December 14, 2005, Headbones, The Drawers introduces the first ten Canadian and International Artist’s to its drawers in Toronto. Exhibition dates are December 14 – February 2.

In existence in British Columbia since 1995, now, “Headbones, The Drawers” will be focusing on contemporary drawing and works on paper.

“The Drawers” will exhibit ten Canadian and International artists every month. Following the exhibition month, the works will be placed in the drawers for on-going viewing. This will make space for up to ten new artists to be exhibited in the gallery space.

The mandate of the gallery is to encourage collecting at an entry level by offering works for sale that are both affordable and of a high caliber. 
 
Director, Richard Fogarty
 
Dec. 14/05 - Feb. 02/06
Robert Bigelow
Billy Copley
Ed Giordano
Catherine Hahn
Cynthia Karalla
Donna Kriekle
Zachari Logan
Jesse McCloskey
Julie Oakes
Katia Santibanez