OPENING RECEPTION: JJ Lee & Mary Catherine Newcomb @ Loop Gallery, Sat Nov 22 2-5pm November 22, 2008

Loop Gallery is pleased to announce exhibitions by gallery members JJ Lee entitled Migration & Mary Catherine Newcomb entitled Product of Eden 2008: Bare Garden, November 22 - December 14, 2008.

Bare Garden represents Mary Catherine Newcomb's 2008 Product of Eden phyto-collaboration. The Product of Eden project began in 2006 with the cultivation of saint and (latterly) demon bushes. During the 2008 growing season Newcomb worked with polar bear, arctic fox, and arctic hare vines (white pumpkin varieties). She sculpted models out of clay and made polycarbonate moulds to encourage optimum animal development. In early August Newcomb discovered that the plants had been infested with squash vine borer. All efforts to save the crop were unsuccessful.

This exhibition consists of a few sadly misshapen pumpkins, unfired clay positives (for the moulds), “happy thanksgiving” polar bear pumpkin (humble) pie and an atmosphere of lament.

In Migration JJ Lee explores identity and hybrid cultures by borrowing from Eastern and Western artistic traditions. Migration continues Lee's fascination with the surface and subject of painting, as well as the tension between presence and absence. By referring to geographic movement Migration also implies psychological, cultural and emotional movement.

Migration is a series of encaustic paintings that borrow from, refer to and re-imagine this genre through second-generation eyes. Lee is curiously attracted to the flatness of these paintings and how flatness reinforces the 'picture plane' in the Modernist Western painting tradition. She is also interested in how much is said with so little paint.

Please join the artists at the Opening Reception: Saturday, November 22nd, 2008, 2 - 5 pm

November 22 - December 14, 2008
Gallery Hours: Wed-Sat 1-5pm, Sun 1-4pm

Official Website: http://www.loopgallery.ca