Keep Six Contemporary

New Site

2008-04-12T09:10:00.000-07:00

Our new site is up and you can see it here: keep6c.com

Nick van Woert and Shawn Kuruneru

2008-04-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

For immediate release

Keep Six Contemporary presents…
New Works by artists
Nick van Woert and Shawn Kuruneru

Dates: April 11-27, 2008

Friday April 11, 6-10pm
Opening reception

Location: Keep Six Contemporary: exhibition and project space (www.keep6c.com)
938 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Canada, M5R 3G5, 647 436 6594

About the exhibit:

Nick van Woert, is a 2007 graduate of Parsons MFA program and winner of the 2007 International Sculpture Center Student Award, creates sculptures that, like his impression of culture, result from "the pressure to produce, acquire and abandon consumable goods and information." Shawn Kuruneru is a Montreal-based artist whose pen-on-paper drawings and collages combine elements of portraiture and landscape. Both artists are currently living and working in Brooklyn NY.

Nick and Shawn’s works both engage with contemporary culture while their processes suggest that surprise and beauty can emerge from a million repetitive movements. Nick’s sculptures begin with mass-produced pop culture in the form of plastic figurines of characters such as the Tin Man and Dorothy. These form the structured, symbolically-laden core of what will become an organic shape of vibrant colour. By dipping the figurines repeatedly into a bucket of paint, they emerge from the process looking like stalagmites, with their original form suggested by a pair of intact feet. While Nick starts out with a product that has been carefully planned, researched and focus-group tested, he subjects them to a mechanical treatment, ultimately unpredictable, pointless and without underlying logic.

Nick’s vibrant sculptures are contrasted by Shawn’s stark black-and-white drawings of iconic personalities and scenarios that are strangely juxtaposed. Shawn’s large-scale drawings are created from meticulous, careful execution with a ballpoint pen. The thousands of penstrokes eventually combine into an ordered image conjuring up associations with nature, pop culture,
experiences.

Bax Bears World Tour

2008-03-19T10:13:00.001-07:00

BEARS IN THE CITY!

Keep Six Contemporary and OSO Design House presents
Dates: March 28th to April 6th

Friday March 28th
Press reception 4-6pm, public reception 6-10pm
Music by DJ Nic Carlino

All events are free and child friendly

8″ Custom painted vinyl DIY Bax Bears. Featuring over 150 of Canada’s top artists and illustrators.

Artists include:
Fiona Smyth, Erin Zimmerman, Steve Wilson, Aaron Leighton, Clayton Hanme,r Chris Hutsul,  Leo, Tomo, Jon Todd, Dennis Chow, Matthew Daley, Reyo, Luke Gustafson, Leon Vymenets, Dalton Sharp, Robert Farmer, Harvey Chan, Yumi Onose, Allan Ryan, Yukiko Otsu, Steve Manale, Charlene Chua, , Diana Mcnally, Joe Morse and more…

Location: Keep Six Contemporary: exhibition and project space (www.keep6c.com)
938 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Canada, M5R 3G5

Talking Series:
Sunday April 6th

4-5pm: ILLUSTRATION AND BEYOND
On the panel, Anne Koyama, Clayton Hanmer, Steve Wilson

This talk will focus on the perspective from the artists and their involvement with projects that challenge the creative thought and execution, from two dimensional to three dimensional. The artists will discuss how they started in the field of illustration and the direction it is going, from magazines to galleries. Also on the panel, Anne Koyama will give her perspective as a publisher and the importance of her contributions as a publisher.

Anne Koyama is a former film producer who started a new venture working with artists in 2007

Koyama published the book TRIO MAGNUS: Equally Superior, under the moniker Koyama Press, with local artists Clayton Hanmer, Aaron Leighton and Steve Wilson.

In addition to producing commercials, documentaries and feature films, Koyama also volunteered at the Aids Committee of Toronto and served on the board of directors of Art City in St. Jamestown for the past two years.

Koyama will continue contributing her time and efforts to inspire a new generation of artists.

Clayton Hanmer (aka CTON) has worked with many great clients over the years including The NY Times, Nickelodeon, National Geographic Kids, The Walrus, explore Magazine, The Globe & Mail, Wrigley's, The Progressive, and Mini Cooper. www.claytonhanmer.com
Steve Wilson Steve Wilson is a bio-writing specialist who draws, paints and designs in his spare time. He has drawn / painted / designed for such clients as MuchMusic, Nickelodeon, Reader's Digest, Playstation, Billy Talent, and Kelloggs but finds bio-writing more lucrative and fun. Ok? www.stevewilson.ca

5-6pm: HAPPY PLASTIC: IT’S FANTASTIC!
On the panel, Steve Cober, Kristin Weckworth, Derrick Hodgson

Steve and Kristen will talk about the philosophy of Magic Pony and its significant role in supporting contemporary culture through exhibitions. In the second part of the talk we will hear their opinions regarding the start and rise of vinyl toy culture. Artist Derrick Hodgson has played a significant role in this movement. His drawings have morphed into sculptures over the years. Hodgson will talk about the beginnings, from how he started in illustration to getting his characters produced as vinyl toys.

Magic Pony was created by Steve Cober and Kristin Weckworth in 2002. It began as a small circle, importing a rare selection of designer toys from Asia and selling it to a small group of collectors.
  
To date the gallery has exhibited both local and international artists, including Kozyndan, Gary Taxali, Team Macho, C'est Moi Ce Soir, Sonja Ahlers, Derrick Hodgson, Space 1026, Dalek, Nathan Jurevicius, Moira Hahn, Gary Baseman and many others. www.magic-pony.com

Derrick Hodgson’s drawings are renderings of complex social spaces crowded with familiar and mutated characters. Using aspects of cartoon, graffiti and contemporary design, Hodgson’s concept has quickly advanced him to the forefront of contemporary art and character design. Hodgson has exhibited his work in Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Milan and Melbourne. In addition to this he is the first Canadian artist to be recognized by Sony Creative in Japan where his character illustrations are transformed into 3-D art figures and sold in gatcha-gatcha machines across Japan. This quick rise to success led Hodgson to be a key speaker at the Berlin Pictoplasma conference in 2004. www.madreal.com

7pm
Film screening, “Toys are Us”
Executive Director, Brian Stillman

Toys Are Us: A Revolution in Plastic explores the creative, sophisticated, and oftentimes challenging world of designer vinyl toys through the eyes of the designers and collectors who help create it. The film features interviews with such artists as Frank Kozik, Patrick Ma (Rocketworld, IWG), Tara McPherson, Kano (Moneygrip), Erick Scarecrow (ESC Toy, Liberty), Mark Nagata (Max Toy Co., Captain Maxx), Brian Flynn (Super 7), Mars-1, Jermaine Rogers, J Neth and more, as well as collectors and fans. The DVD also includes additional interview footage with Mars-1, Patrick Ma, Brian Flynn, and Frank Kozik—who also takes viewers on a tour of his personal toy collection! High energy and fast paced, Toys Are Us is a celebration of new forms of artistic expression, DIY culture, and, of course, toys!

Toys Are Us was filmed on location at the artists' and collectors' homes and studios, various toy stores, and Comic Con International 2006, and features a soundtrack with music by Mindless Self Indulgence, Longway, Brian McCarty, Stick Shift, and I, Synthesist.

8-10pm
Reception: Artists will be present

For further details about any of the participants please contact: ask@keep6c.com
or call 647 436 6594

Links:
www.keep6c.com 
www.blog.baxbear.com 
www.baxbear.com
www.magic-pony.com
www.jasonpultz.com
Facebook Event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=11076440473
Facebook Bax Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11186480862

SLEEPING BEAUTY AWAKEN!

2008-03-10T10:19:00.000-07:00

Title of exhibit: Sleeping Beauty Awaken!
Artists: tomolennon (JP)
Dates: March 13-23, 2008
Reception: Thursday March 13, 6-10pm
Location: Keep Six Contemporary, Toronto, Canada
938 Bathurst Street (north of Bloor street)

In celebration of “White day” we welcome artist tomolennon in his first solo show at Keep Six Contemporary (KSC) with his series titled “Sleeping Beauty Awaken”

tomolennon will also welcome the photo documentary titled “The Unseen Sleeping Beauty” by photographer Neil Schmidt and also a live photo shoot under the direction of Taca Ozawa

We invite you to this unique celebration and to enjoy, yes….marshmallows!

About White day
St. Valentine's Day in Japan is a day when women give the special men in their lives boxes of chocolate. To balance out the one-sidedness of this practice, White Day was invented for men to reciprocate such gifts. While Valentine's Day is an imported convention, White Day (on March 14) is a purely Japanese creation.

Just as with the giving of chocolates on Valentine's, the driving force behind the popularization of White Day was a confectionery maker. A company making marshmallows launched a campaign in 1965 urging men to repay valentine gifts with soft, fluffy marshmallows. The name White Day comes from the color of the candy, and at first it was called Marshmallow Day.

About Sleeping Beauty Awaken!
Sleeping Beauty Awaken is specific selection from a collection of portraits in which women's dream worlds are being visualized. Women appear as princesses amongst backdrops adorned by their subconscious delights. Each woman is living in a special dream world that she distinctively idealized. A woman who loves shoes would probably be wearing a pair of Manolo's in her dream, or a woman who dreams of having blonde hair might have shiny, luminous blonde hair in her dream. For it's the correlation between women and fashion (Hairstyle, makeup, and clothes) which holds the key to reflecting their personalities.

tomolennon managed to beautifully manifest these women's ideal images with the help of accomplished Toronto fashion industry artists. He and these photographers, makeup artists, hairstylists, and fashion designers composed various scenes in which the women fall asleep elegantly nestled within a web of their ideal images in order to capture these imaginary characters as authentic. After which, this imaginary world was conceived as a painting on a prodigious, life sized canvas by tomolennon. At this point, you find two diverse forms co-existing: photos depicting the real, and paintings depicting the imagination. Finally, actual dresses were hand sewn onto the canvases in order to convey that the dream world is not simply the imagination, but in fact, a real image. In other words, these dresses are a means of amalgamating the imagination with reality.

Simply and beautifully, Sleeping Beauty is tomolennon's Ode' to the collective conception that fashion embodies people's feelings as well as their minds. People have been expressing themselves consciously and unconsciously through fashion for centuries and will continue to do so.

For any further details, please contact ask@keep6c.com or call the gallery at 1 647 436 6594

A Valentine's FRANKEN-JEWELLRY

2008-02-11T07:52:00.000-08:00

Bring your warm fuzzy feelings to this month's Franken-Jewellery Swap on Wed. Feb 13th, 7-10pm.

Make something great for your love, your crush, your flirt or your best friend.

Or even better, bring them along and have some fun together!

Great tunes will be playing, refreshments will be served and love will conquer all the beads and chains and pins and ribbons and......

The Idea: Bring all your neglected and unused jewellery, necklaces, earrings,
bracelets, ribbons, fabric and beads. Throw it all in a pile with everyone else's unwanted treasures. Then we take it all apart and make new amazing pieces to wear!

Why: Because it is really fun.

And you can make one-of-a-kind accessories for you and your pals that no one else has...

Details: Refreshments served

$5 donation to go towards the use of tools and extra jewellery supplies for all to share.

Feel free to bring your own tools too!

Tools:
Scissors
Glue Gun
mini pliers
wire cutters
hammer n nails
drill with strong tiny bit

Soundstripe Revisited 0:1 reception

2008-02-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

thanks all for coming out

FILM

2008-01-30T07:33:00.000-08:00

Soundstripe Revisited :01
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Keep Six Contemporary
938 Bathurst Street
door-9pm/show-10pm/cover-6 bucks

Real-time soundtracks to real-awesome movies!

Soundstripe Revisited is a resurrection of the Splice This! live-music-film program that not only launched the legendary annual super 8 film festival but also helped kickstart the now common practice of indie¹ bands using projected images during shows. Some past Soundstripe performers include Feist, Peaches, Bob Wiseman, Sook-Yin Lee, The Satanatras, Wayne Omaha, The Silt, GUH, Jon-Rae + The River and Kids On TV,

Soundstripe Revisited :01 features Gentleman Reg performing live accompaniment to films + videos by Laura Cowell, Kevin Drew + Sara St. Onge.

Laura Cowell is the Co-Founder and Former Festival Director of Splice This! and this is her first post-Splice event since the 9th and final festival in 2006. For the upcoming monthly Soundstripe Revisited events she¹ll be expanding on her past format-based programming to include (are you ready?) video!

Whatever things change, people change.

Talks

2008-01-23T07:25:00.000-08:00

Thank you all for attending Dr. James Maskalyk talk about his personal experience in Sudan as an active member with Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Dr. Maskalyk is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto where he teaches and practices emergency medicine. His academic time is spent advocating for global perspectives in the education of young physicians, and as one of the founding editors of Canada's newest open-access medical journal, Open Medicine. Most recently, he has returned from Abyei, Sudan where he worked as a medical doctor for the humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres.

He is the author of a very popular blog written during his time in Sudan, and it has been excerpted for publication in the Globe and Mail and the UK Telegraph. Currently he is working on a book detailing his experiences for Random House Canada. The book will be published in
Spring 2009.

Dr. Maskalyk will spend an hour discussing the role of humanitarian assistance as he experienced it in Abyei, Sudan and through that, provide a broader context for one of the world's most complex contemporary stories. He will touch on the history of Sudan, of humanitarian intervention, and importantly, the personal trajectory one experiences during such a mission.

The Franken-Jewelry Swap

2008-01-18T08:39:00.000-08:00

2008-01-10T08:59:00.000-08:00

JANUARY 2008

Saturday 19, 6-10pm
Face/ Face Drawing Network
$5 (proceeds to go towards materials)

In the rise of online social networks, we would like to invite you to meet the face…and draw it!
We had a great turn out for our first night where over thirty people met old friends and made new ones and got to be visually intimate with each other. And all it took was a sharp pencil and some blank paper.

This night invites everyone to come and draw each others portraits. It’s a great way to impress that special someone through your talent or sense of humor.

You will be provided with paper and HB pencils. Or bring your own, you artist you.

Inaugural show

2007-12-29T11:59:00.001-08:00

Saturday December 15, 2007 to February 1, 2008

Closing reception:
Friday, February 1, 6-10pm

Featured Artists:
Fiona Smyth
Julie Moon
Seth Scriver
Marc Bell
Shoichi Aoki
Kurt Swinghammer

The opening reception was one night to remember. It was our first big snow fall so we missed seeing a few of you. But you did miss Ulysses Castellanos give birth and sing to his baby. And all he had on was a mask, a cape, a toy guitar and an Italian sausage attached to his not so Italian member.

Sook Yin Lee and the Jooj put together a magical mimed story telling. And Milie Croche dropped in from Montreal to sing a few of her songs, a beautiful voice with a strong message for the boys. And the night ended with DJ Guy Stevos playing music such as Simian Mobile Disco and other great tracks. You can hear him on CIUT 89.5 on Tuesdays 5-6pm and on http://soundbasement.blogspot.com

Punchclock

2007-12-10T16:26:00.000-08:00

Punchclock is a transdisciplinary, democratic organization of cultural workers, political activists and trades people operating out of two hives functioning as collective metal and screen printing studios.

Punchclock mandates are economic sustainability and artistic direct action. Punchclock produces aesthetically defiant graphic design, video, poster, sculpture, performance, installation, textile and street art. Punchclock's efforts challenge conventional, isolating and competitive models of professional art careers. Punchclock exists not for wealthy collectors or insular art patrons, but as an essential element to a healthy and dynamic community.

Begun in 2003 by activists Shannon Muegge and Stefan Pilipa the abundance of talent that currently inflames the collective consists of the following individuals.

Rocky Dobey - Metal worker, artist, street installation legend.
Simone Schmidt - activist, artist, musician (100 dollars, LSdoubleDcup).
Jesjit Gill - print artist.
Michael Comeau - artist, musician (LSdoubleDcup).
Will Munro - artist, DJ, promoter, restauranteur.
Christopher Cook - carpenter, musician (LSdoubleDcup).
Fancy Gordon Zero - carpenter, artist.
Kids on TV - multimedia collective, dancefloor destroyers.

With the help of friends at BlocksBLocksBlocks records and Keep Six gallery, Punchclock presents two evening of exceptional cultural significance. An exhibit of art and design and performances by...

thursday Dec. 6th
dj. Guvnor General (warm, soulfull sellections from Caribean and beyond)
the Youngest (sweet solo sounds)
Castlemusic (captivating with voice and guitar)
100 dollars (catalyst country, songs about something)
Final Fantasy (ethereal one man symphony)

friday Dec. 7th
dj. Will Munro (punk, electro dance enabling)
LSdoubleDcup (psychadooolic day of pentacost)
the Blankett (reimagined past to build future)
Kids on TV (queer dancefloor detonators)