Sandra Meigs
The Glass Ticker
19 Oct - 25 Nov 2017
Sandra Meigs
The Glass Ticker
Opening on Thursday, 19 October from 7 to 9 p.m. and continuing through to 25 November, Susan Hobbs Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Sandra Meigs.
Following Sandra Meigs’ 2015 exhibition, All to All—a multi-sensory environment that invited the viewer to experience artistic play amplified to the level of profundity, The Glass Ticker employs the vernacular of painting and display beyond the constraints of fine art.
The project began when Meigs found a 1930s automaton from The Netherlands—a child-sized boy with curly orange hair in jaunty suit. Originally, this figure would have been placed in the window of a shop, probably a toy or confectionery store. His arm mechanically moves up and down to tap a pane of glass while his head turns from side to side. Tick: here. Tick: there. Meigs recreates this scene using 3D printing technology to construct doubled, mirrored automata, one in each window of a spectacularly painted art deco storefront called “Cosmos”. The twins’ repetitive expressions begin to cause slippages in perception. Tick: him. Tick: he. Tick: them. Tick: us. In time, their plural body suggests the possibility of physical interchangeability whereupon the shop’s façade seems to offer a portal beyond individual experience to the multitude to the cosmos to infinity to ALL.
Upstairs, Meigs presents a new series of paintings, "The Scewey Louies". Like half-remembered scenes from childhood dreams and fairy tales, boys and girls and bunnies bob within monochromatic pastel seas. With their illustrative quality and quirky construction, we can imagine them filling the walls of a store like “Cosmos”. Their oily surface conjures the exterior of houses, furniture made to last, and the come-look tick of enamel nails on a windowpane.
"The Glass Ticker" coincides with Meigs’ major new immersive installation, "A Room for Mystics", at the Art Gallery of Ontario in collaboration with distinguished contemporary composer Christopher Butterfield that opens 18 October 2017 and runs through 14 January 2018. The exhibition is part of her 2015 Gershon Iskowitz Prize, which recognizes outstanding contributions to Canadian art. It is comprised of 30 paintings, a wall treatment, sculptural mobile, a sound installation, and live musical performance.
Sandra Meigs was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1953. She holds a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (1975) and an MA in Philosophy from Dalhousie University (1980). Her work has been exhibited at the Ydessa Hendeles Foundation, Toronto; the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; The Power Plant, Toronto; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Saidye Bronfman Centre, Montréal; the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Montréal; Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa; and Open Space, Victoria. She has recently participated in group exhibitions at Museum London, London, Ontario; West Vancouver Museum, Vancouver; The Power Plant, Toronto; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto. In 2015 Meigs received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Art.
Susan Hobbs Gallery is open to the public Wednesday to Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and by appointment. The gallery is located at 137 Tecumseth Street, Toronto.
For further biographical information, other inquiries about this exhibition, or the Susan Hobbs Gallery, please give us a call at (416) 504.3699 or visit www.susanhobbs.com.
The Glass Ticker
Opening on Thursday, 19 October from 7 to 9 p.m. and continuing through to 25 November, Susan Hobbs Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Sandra Meigs.
Following Sandra Meigs’ 2015 exhibition, All to All—a multi-sensory environment that invited the viewer to experience artistic play amplified to the level of profundity, The Glass Ticker employs the vernacular of painting and display beyond the constraints of fine art.
The project began when Meigs found a 1930s automaton from The Netherlands—a child-sized boy with curly orange hair in jaunty suit. Originally, this figure would have been placed in the window of a shop, probably a toy or confectionery store. His arm mechanically moves up and down to tap a pane of glass while his head turns from side to side. Tick: here. Tick: there. Meigs recreates this scene using 3D printing technology to construct doubled, mirrored automata, one in each window of a spectacularly painted art deco storefront called “Cosmos”. The twins’ repetitive expressions begin to cause slippages in perception. Tick: him. Tick: he. Tick: them. Tick: us. In time, their plural body suggests the possibility of physical interchangeability whereupon the shop’s façade seems to offer a portal beyond individual experience to the multitude to the cosmos to infinity to ALL.
Upstairs, Meigs presents a new series of paintings, "The Scewey Louies". Like half-remembered scenes from childhood dreams and fairy tales, boys and girls and bunnies bob within monochromatic pastel seas. With their illustrative quality and quirky construction, we can imagine them filling the walls of a store like “Cosmos”. Their oily surface conjures the exterior of houses, furniture made to last, and the come-look tick of enamel nails on a windowpane.
"The Glass Ticker" coincides with Meigs’ major new immersive installation, "A Room for Mystics", at the Art Gallery of Ontario in collaboration with distinguished contemporary composer Christopher Butterfield that opens 18 October 2017 and runs through 14 January 2018. The exhibition is part of her 2015 Gershon Iskowitz Prize, which recognizes outstanding contributions to Canadian art. It is comprised of 30 paintings, a wall treatment, sculptural mobile, a sound installation, and live musical performance.
Sandra Meigs was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1953. She holds a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (1975) and an MA in Philosophy from Dalhousie University (1980). Her work has been exhibited at the Ydessa Hendeles Foundation, Toronto; the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; The Power Plant, Toronto; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Saidye Bronfman Centre, Montréal; the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Montréal; Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa; and Open Space, Victoria. She has recently participated in group exhibitions at Museum London, London, Ontario; West Vancouver Museum, Vancouver; The Power Plant, Toronto; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto. In 2015 Meigs received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Art.
Susan Hobbs Gallery is open to the public Wednesday to Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and by appointment. The gallery is located at 137 Tecumseth Street, Toronto.
For further biographical information, other inquiries about this exhibition, or the Susan Hobbs Gallery, please give us a call at (416) 504.3699 or visit www.susanhobbs.com.