CHRISTO KASABOV
EXHIBITIONS
Christo Kasabov is an American-Bulgarian artist who currently lives and works in Toronto. Kasabov's work is a reflection of his artistic and philosophical pursuits that embody his views of the world. He is an abstract figurative expressionist intensely grounded in exploring relationships between the conscious and unconscious and one's inner versus external 'realities'. His ideas integrate the heritage of ancient civilizations, and more specifically, draw from reliefs, signs, symbols, engravings in earth, stone objects and walls. Through oil and acrylic, collages from wood, metal pieces and household objects, Kasabov enriches his abstract compositions until he's achieved a philosophical reincarnation, like a trip beyond the horizon. He strives toward an exceptional feeling of the material and non material across time and space. Onto acrylic layers, he engraves various signs and symbols, numbers and words, often implementing fragments of structure, the skeleton of a fish, a pyramid, a cross, a circle, an oval. It appears as primal language, a rationality that rises from disorder.
SHELDON ROSE GALLERY
451 Adelaide St. W. [Rear - in laneway west off Morrison St.)
TORONTO M5V 1T1
sheldon@sheldonrosegallery.com 416 707 0584
Hours: By appointment
CLAIRE WILKS
(1933-2017)
Claire Wilks’ oeuvre lays bare the inner emotional world of the human lived experience, from love and compassion to devastating loneliness, pain and suffering. In her works, the human body, nakedly vulnerable and vulnerably naked, manifests inner strength and the power of self-awareness. Mortality comes to us all. It often comes unfairly, sometimes cruelly and always too soon, but it is our awareness of our own mortality that is at the heart of the human condition. And, it is in Wilks’ exploration of the human condition that we witness her search for understanding of – and meaning in – the unknowable in a way that is ultimately life affirming.
Claire Weissman Wilks (1933-2017) was a figurative artist, drawing the naked human body over and over again, from every angle, conveying a multitude of experiences. Wilks once called women’s bodies her ‘chosen landscape,’ but she did not consider this a political statement: “The female form is my line, the form lives in the brain of my finger.” Yet, during the 1970s her erotic images of women were rarely accepted for showing in conservative Toronto galleries – far too startlingly carnal for conventional audiences. Although not Wilks’ intention, they contributed to a new dialogue about sexual desire from a woman’s perspective, which happened to coincide with the first major wave of Feminism.
To read more about Claire Wilks and her work, please visit her website
ARTWORK
PAST EXHIBITITIONS
Solo Exhibitions
2015 ‘Women This Way’ GNSTUDIO Contemporary Art, Oakville
2013 WAR: Light Within/After the Darkness' The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo
2012 From the Beginning' De Luca Fine Art | Gallery, Toronto
2011 Sculpture and Monoprints Galeria Ethra, Mexico City
2008 Monoprints: ‘Out of the Cave III’ Querini Stampalia, Venice
2004 Monoprints: ‘Solitude’ Prince Arthur Fine Arts, Toronto, Ontario
2004 Two of Us Together, Each of Us Alone: Retrospective (1982-2004) Hamilton Conservatory of the Arts, Hamilton
2002 Monoprints: ‘Ghosts’ Prince Arthur Fine Arts, Toronto, Ontario
2002 Monoprints: ‘Out of the Cave II’ House of Congress, Mexico City
2001 Monoprints: ‘Out of the Cave II’ and Brush Drawing Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City
Monoprints: ‘Out of the Cave I’ Prince Arthur Fine Arts, Toronto, Ontario
Monoprints: ‘Out of the Cave I’ and Brush Drawing Museo de Arte Contemporáneo - MARCO, Monterrey, Mexico
1999 Sculpture Gallery Schieder on Yorkville, Toronto, Ontario
1998 Drawings and Sculpture Academy of Spherical Arts, Toronto, Ontario
1997 Sculpture and Drawings Liu Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1995 Drawings and Sculpture Madison Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1993 Sculpture and Painting Gallery Schieder and Associates, Toronto, Ontario
1992 Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture Sunnen Gallery, Soho, New York
Drawings: In the White Hotel Luba Bystriansky Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture Luba Bystriansky Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1991-89 Quan Schieder Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1989 Drawings Centro Internationale de Graphica, San Marco, Venice, Italy
Sculpture and Works on Paper Centro Culturale Canadese, Rome, Italy
Lithographs and Sculpture Muzejsko Galeruski Centar, Zagreb, Croatia
Sculpture Charles Allis Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Sculpture and Brush Drawings Quan Schieder Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1987 Erotic Drawings and Sculpture Galleri Hander, Stockholm, Sweden
Sculpture and Drawings Debel Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel
Drawings and Lithographs Arts and Letters Club, Toronto, Ontario
Retrospective, 1975-1987, Drawings McGibbon Cultural Centre, Toronto, Ontario
1986 Sculpture and Drawings Del Bello Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1985 Lithographs Papoli, Italy Drawings and Lithographs WR Mitchell Gallery & Associates, Calgary, Alberta
The Thinking Heart: Series of Drawings Del Bello Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
Medallions, Lithographs Del Bello Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1984 Drawings Hett Gallery Collection Exhibit, Edmonton, Alberta
1983 Hillmother: Series of Drawings WR Mitchell Gallery & Associates, Calgary, Alberta
1982 Erotic Drawings IGA Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
Selected Group Exhibitions
1995 Gallery Artists Exhibition Madison Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1994 Sculpture John B. Aird Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1993 Sculpture Gallery Schieder & Associates, Toronto, Ontario
1992 Group Show Luba Bystriansky Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1991 Spirited Gallery 101, Ottawa, Ontario
1987 First International Miniature Show Del Bello Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1981 The Nude ATC Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1980 Women Artists: A View of Men McGibbon Cultural Centre, Toronto, Ontario
1976 Portraits Jerrold Morris Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1975 The Nude Gadatsy Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1968 Works on Paper Pollack Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1967 Society of Graphic Artists National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Miniatures Pollack Gallery, Toronto, Ontario