Gallery in the Garden: Emergence July 12, 2011

Sherway Gardens’ (Hwy 427 & the QEW) current Gallery in the Garden exhibit entitled Emergence is a display of experimental work by three young artists with different takes on media. Callen Schaub, Swapnali Thakar and Hailey Yates each have a unique direction, special vision and a calligraphy of their own. The exhibit is on display until Saturday, August 13 in the corridor at door 3. For more information call 416-621-1070 or visit www.sherwaygardens.ca.
Toronto resident Callen Schaub is attending his third-year at OCAD University (Ontario College of Art and Design). Callen specializes in painting, illustration and mural work. He is also a metal sculptor, set designer and art teacher with the City of Toronto Community Schools program for primary students and Story Planet. He has done commissioned murals, book illustrations and published magazine illustrations. For more information visit www.callenschaub.com

Mississauga resident Swapnali Thakar has a master’s degree in communications media from India and has completed a program in computer graphic design at the International Academy of Design and has been working as a graphic designer for the past 13 years. Swapnali has taken courses at George Brown College, Toronto School of Arts, Visual Arts Mississauga (VAM) and Neilson Park Creative Centre to create pictures and enjoys experimenting with colour and composition. Her work has been exhibited in VAM Members show, Artworks Oakville Juried Show, Lakeshore Arts Juried Exhibition and Art in the Park at Neilson Park Creative, in 2011. Visit www.cybersapien.ca to see more of her work.

“My favourite medium of expression is watercolour,” says Swapnali. “I consider myself an experimental and adventurous water colourist. No matter what other mediums I try, I tend to come back to watercolour. It is the simplicity of water, pigment and paper that attracts me. The transparency of the pigment gives the work depth, so easily and naturally. It lets me be detailed and controlled at the same time there is a natural and inherent fluidity in the medium that lets my work be as loose and free as I like.”

Toronto Beach area resident Hailey Yates is a formally trained printmaker who attended the University of Windsor and incorporates print characteristics such as layering into her mixed media works. Her work has been exhibited in group shows throughout Ontario including eXcel, Station Gallery, Throb, Secrets Studio 410, Project Fish Bowl, Insomnia, Red Head Gallery, My Uni., Union Gallery, Art Scene, Art Cite, Titillation and Sleaze, The Loop and Nobel Flags of Peace Turku in Finland. Hailey will be exhibiting six works from the series title THROB in the Emergence exhibit at Sherway Gardens, which are a collection of drawings on paper that explore a range of total values developed through an experimental mark-making process.

“These drawings are linked together by simple spontaneous lines and pattern,” states Hailey. “Each drawing contains a variety of tonal mediums including: graphite, ink, charcoal and conte, which are used to build rich layers of texture and depth. While abstract, these images are symbolic to me and communicate a deeper sense of love and loss. They are the nervous energy exchanged between strangers. They are sound waves carrying messages between lovers. They are the fluctuation of a heart falling in and out of love or maybe they are just uncontrolled lines drawn on paper.”