Tag Archives: arts

DORIS WAI, our lady of letters, launches solo show at URBAN GALLERY

BOTTLED FEELINGS is a project by artist Doris Wai to collect brief statements of personal feelings submitted online and anonymously from people around the world. These private thoughts are about life, parenthood, and secrets often too difficult to share. The artist then transcribes each feeling directly onto individual bottles with elements of calligraphy and hand lettering. Hosted at URBAN GALLERY, 400 Queen St East in Toronto, the show runs throughout February, closing on the 29th – yes, it’s a Leap Year!  Doris hosted a VIP reception last night, welcoming her family and friends as well as supporters who helped make her dream of a gallery show a reality.20200206_164234 20200206_164316(0) 20200206_160027

 

Doris Wai was born and raised in Toronto, and is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design in illustration, but what she loves to draw most is letters. In 2014, she started her own business dedicated to the beauty of hand lettering, and has worked extensively in the wedding and event industry, design/branding/print work and has been featured on numerous magazines including Wedluxe, Mingle, and Uppercase. Her work has also been featured on TV shows like Cityline and The Social. She became a published author in 2017 with her book Extraordinary Hand Lettering teaching readers the tips, tricks and mindset behind lettering beyond paper, and has started a YouTube channel called The Lettering Lifestyle. thumbnail (2)As you enter the gallery, Doris has placed a thank-you notice to all who have supported her and helped finance this show (what a classy lady!) and as you walk around the gallery, you might just recognize feelings you yourself have experienced, or are an ongoing mental meme!20200206_160128 20200206_160614 20200206_160631One of the bottles carries a funny message…

Doris is hosting a special “meet the artist” reception on Saturday Feb. 22nd (2-5pm) and she looks forward to welcoming you to Urban Gallery…and to share some of your own “bottled feelings” with her. RSVP to attend: info@urbangallery.ca

invitation Feb 22

ARTIST CHRIS MARIN OPENS HER “PASSAGES” SHOW @ URBAN GALLERY in TORONTO

URBAN GALLERY hosted the opening reception for artist CHRIS MARIN’s solo exhibition “PASSAGES” last night and Chris welcomed family and friends as she unveiled a series of intuitive paintings that are both intriguing and powerful.  Her works utilize a bold colour palette and viewers can interpret their own vision as to each painting’s subject or meaning – it was interesting to hear several gallery guests air vastly differing interpretations of one particular painting! Anyway, let’s ask Chris to us about about her work herself…

Artist’s Statement:  One brush stroke leads to the next. When I begin a non-objective painting, I do not know where I will go. It’s a liberating, intuitive way to paint and to live. In “Passages” I invite the viewer to take his or her own steps through the paintings. Chris Marin, 2017.20171005_174612Chris became intrigued by art after learning intuitive watercolour painting from Dorothy Clarke McClure in 1993. Over time, Chris expanded her interests to include collage, printmaking, acrylic painting and applying transparent underglazes to her pottery.  One of her paintings is on the cover of “What About My Kids?” a book written to help families coping with breast cancer. Chris’s painting “Home Again” is the image in the Port Medway Lighthouse calendar for February 2018, and “My Favourite Things” was used for the IWK children’s hospital fundraising raffle this year. She contributes regularly to the IWK and Elderdog shows, and her paintings can be seen at the Riverbank, Mill Village, and Port Grocer, Port Medway, Nova Scotia. They also hang in law offices and private collections.

Chris’s story, The Edge of Risk is included in the book, Outside of Ordinary: Women’s Travel Stories.  And her Nova Scotia treetops studio was featured in the Spring 2009 issue of Studio Magazine. The majority of Chris’s paintings arise from the subconscious, whether she is pouring watercolours or sitting at her easel applying paint, simply responding to what she has just done with no end result in mind.

Here are just a few of Chris’s paintings that caused a stir with gallery visitors…20171005_164303 20171005_164333 20171005_164341And as the guests arrived, Chris was eager to greet them and show them around…20171005_174648 20171005_180035 20171005_174610Chris gave an interview to arts journalist Mark Hasan of KQEQ.com (below)20171005_172043…and here she is (below) with gallery curator and fellow artist, Allen Shugar…..20171005_165335…and with her friends (below)20171005_165832Below, Drew from Snap’d newspaper came out to take photos, too.20171005_180243Chris’s guests thoroughly enjoyed the reception and Urban Gallery hopes to see red dots going up alongside a number of paintings that created quite the buzz with the opening night crowd.20171005_180207 20171005_18053020171005_174800Gallery owner, Calvin Hambrook (below L) was also busy welcoming guests…20171005_172102 20171005_174928…and this sumptuous and artful refreshments spread was courtesy of UrbanSource Catering  (urbancatering.com)20171005_170438 Chris’s show runs throughout the month of October (closes Sat. Oct. 28) so please visit and support another talented Canadian artist. Directions and gallery hours: www.urbangallery.ca20171005_164527 20171005_164249 20171005_165404