EXHIBITION: The Pride Collective: Aries Cheung, Barb Taylor Coyle, Carol Camper
June
21 - June 29, 2006
"Go Figure: A Queer Perspective"
Opening Reception:
Thursday, June 22, 6 - 9 pm
Closing Party & Artists’ Talk/Tour:
Thursday, June 29, 2006. 6 – 9pm (Talk: 7 – 7:30pm)
A multi-media exhibition of figurative art focusing on themes of identity, sexuality and a vigorous questioning of social “norms”, by The Pride Art Collective: Carol Camper, Aries Cheung, Barb Taylor Coyle.
During Pride Toronto 2006
Dates: June 21 – 29, 2006
Reception: Thursday, June 22, 2006. 6 - 9pm
Closing Party & Artists’ Talk/Tour: Thursday, June 29, 2006. 6 – 9pm (Talk: 7 – 7:30pm)
Location:
The Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts
984 Queen Street West, Toronto (east of Ossington Ave)
Extended Hours:
Wed: 12 noon -7 pm
Thurs & Fri: 12 noon – 9pm
Sat: 11am – 7pm
Sun: 12 noon – 6pm
Mon & Tues: Closed
Media Contact:
Carol Camper (416) 535-5751 carolcamper@rogers.com
Information:
www.AriesCheung.com/GoFigure/Exhibition.htm
Carol Camper
Statement
Carol Camper’s paintings explore the body as the site of all experience. The body though finite, permits unlimited possibility. Her personal experience as a racially mixed, queer Black woman has enabled her to embrace hybridity, fluidity and plurality. To be one thing does not mean you cannot also be another. She resists a hierarchy that insists the spiritual is loftier than the corporeal. The body, too, can be transcendent. Carol often depicts this transcendence with the use of golden halos, painted around her figures whether they are angels or ordinary people. She calls her belief, her mission – Corporealism.
Brief Bio
Carol Camper’s painting, photography and other artworks focus on themes of sexuality, race, religion and popular culture. Her work often features subtle references to religion and depicts a reverencing of the body. The body through which all experience, expression and awareness is given. Some of Camper’s references to the sexual are not so subtle. Her approaches to art and to sex are the same; joyful, playful, transcendent, challenging and revelatory.
Camper is also a writer of compelling erotica and social commentary on issues of race and sexuality whose work has found its way onto several university course lists in Canada and the US. Her career includes lengthy experience as a sexuality educator where her approach emphasizes the challenging of repressive so-called norms. Naturally, Carol’s artistic practice centres on these issues. In addition, Ms. Camper is a fan of classic Playboy photographer Bunny Yeager and pinup artist Alberto Vargas. Carol critiques popular culture, yet enjoys it immensely. Accordingly, a little glamour creeps into her work.
Barb Taylor Coyle
Statement
Barb Taylor Coyle’s work will include a series of sculptures similar to the examples on the CD. This new series will focus on the theme human form and the queer gaze. In these pieces women will be seen in a variety of roles – loved and lover, caregiver, player, worker - roles changing and merging. Historically women are subject in the work of sculptors such as Rodin and Moore. In Barb’s work, lesbian couples are the focus – human form from a queer perspective - the pulsating rhythms of joy, sorrow and love – the interaction of two women. This human form is not idealized – it focuses on middle age women, their curves worked by time and labour, femininity possibly not their main concern. The sculptures will be a mix of reality merging with stylized graphics originating in ancient art. The sculptures for this show will be approximately 18x6x6” and carved from local woods such as walnut, butternut and cherry.
Brief Bio
Barb Taylor Coyle is an artist whose main practice is sculpture with secondary experience in film. Her work focuses on contemporary feminist themes, addressing questions of women's sexuality, gender and the heroism of everyday woman. Barb sculpts in wood creating forms with beautiful grains and natural colours. Her sculptures intertwine myth and sexuality with a critical narrative as she seeks to interpret the human condition.
Previous exhibits include XEXE Gallery, 2005, Okanagan International Sculpture Symposium, Kelowna BC, 2002, Art as if the World Mattered, University of Toronto, 2001 and Art Festival du Village, Montreal, 2000. Barb has experimented with her artistic talents in traditional animation with the girl power short Tomboy and lesbian myth flick The Sheelagh. Barb has founded a number of artist groups such as the Lesbian Art Collective and ArtEquity and has received grants from the NFB, Toronto Art Council, LGCA and Ontario Arts Council.
Aries Cheung
Statement
Titled Photographing Fairies, Aries' recent series of paintings explore how the single male (nude) figures stand up to the gazers' scrutiny as beings and objects of sexual desire in the absence of sex.
The title is borrowed from a novel of the same title. The novel is about the fascination of capturing the images of fairies by photographs in the late Victorian and the turn of the century. The fairies in photographs produced in the intention to prove the existence of fairies often turned out as nothing but some conspicuous, ambiguous, blurry specks of lights and shadows. Aries uses such "ephemeral" quality of the fairy images as a metaphor for the constructed "absence" or "endangered presence" of contemporary gayness. As a queer man, Aries is amused and inspired by the gay males' tireless effort to capture any glimpses of gay sexuality through the representation of the male gender.
Brief Bio
Aries Cheung studied design and illustration at the Hong Kong Polytechnics University, and graduated in Visual Arts at York University. He has worked as a graphic designer and art director for advertising for many years. Cheung is now an independent, practicing visual artist and teacher. His interests include painting, drawing, digital imaging and photo-based, mixed media work. He has exhibited at galleries locally and abroad. He has been on the jury and programming committees for artist-run galleries in Toronto. He has received Ontario Arts Council Artist’s Grant and has been a Toronto Arts Council Artist’s Grant Jury Member.
Cheung’s works often deal with racial identity and sexuality, employing portraits, figures, or the human body as the ground for contention. He often uses personal issues as reference points to explore politics that affect his communities.