Raw'n Wild is a Digital Art / Science Collaborator who blew into town from Alberta with his distinctive 'smART Map' digital montage style. These vibrant mash-ups remix up to 100 layers of finely detailed scientific symbology and contemporary imagery. He regularly collaborates with scientists, mathematicians, and medical researchers in creating art 'maps' of their specialized knowledge domains. You can’t just casually look at the resulting artworks, you really have

to wonder about them. Ron Wild is an emerging explorer at the art and science frontier, who bridges the divide between the two.

Christopher Knights is a Toronto-based artist who has exhibited extensively in major Canadian cities and New York (US). He received his training from Sheridan College of Applied Arts, specializing in Editorial Illustration and was awarded ‘Best illustrator’ on graduation. 

Since then, he has pursued his calling as a professional artist. Thematically his work links his early rural experience of nature in Collingwood, where he was born, with a robust exploration of his psyche. This results in unique, expressionistic environments populated by intuitive... mechanical/biomorphic forms that reflect the spirit of our times.

Knights has been painting consistently for several decades and his work has been recognized with awards like the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition: ‘Best Painting’ (2011) and the ‘City Archive Purchase Award’ (1989).

In 2003 he co-founded Engine Gallery in Toronto, which became renowned for their eclectic selection of artists. He was co-owner of the gallery until 2009. He is now represented by CFA and Galerie BAC, his work is represented in many private and public collections in Canada and the US.

Laurie is a Guelph based artist and has been exhibiting full time since 2008. She returned to University as a mature student in 1996 and fell in love with painting while she was enrolled in the fine art department at University of Waterloo.  She shows her work in a variety of galleries throughout Ontario and regularly participates in the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Toronto Artist Project and Guelph Studio Tour as well as the International Affordable Art Fairs with Spence Gallery. Laurie’s work is included in collections across North America, Europe and in Hong Kong. Her painting is largely inspired by the natural world and filtered through her inner landscape.

In her latest series of paintings Laurie explores the relationship between the masculine and feminine, bridging the edges of balance and harmony with a directed boldness.  Dancing with open, intuitive mark making and focused, almost meditative penetration, she is searching for a resolution that is often facilitated through colour.  Chaos and order have long interested Laurie and she has discovered a new avenue of investigation in this series. Surface definition is more prominent than in her earlier work and she loves that hidden beneath the decisive brush stokes is a tumultuous, often emotional foundation of fluid paint.

Andrew Duff is a mixed media visual artist living and working in Toronto, Canada. A graduate of both OCAD and NSCAD, Andrew currently draws robots on just about everything. His robot explorations include drawings, collages, mixed media paintings and silkscreen prints. Each piece celebrates our natural flaws and strives to bridge the gap between hi-tech and handmade.

Statement:

My current body of work explores the juxtaposition of shiny, new high technology and urban decay. Through the materials and process I use in my practice, I investigate themes of challenge and hope. Graffiti, comics and 1980s science fiction movies continue to influence my work, as I strive to create characters and narratives that speak to my own story. These robots started out as a reaction to my struggles in life, but each has evolved into a unique journey.

By using collage to reveal texture (through addition/subtraction of materials), then drawing and painting on top of that, I distress the image and showcase its flaws. The characters I’ve created are not perfect, and for me, this reflects on the challenges we all face in everyday life. Each of us has our own journey, and I see the juice of life in the challenges we meet. Life is rough, and so are my robots and the beat up rocket ships they fly in. Their dents and scars are showing, but their humour and tenacity remain intact.

Throughout my work is a short line of text I created for my robots: When I dream, I dream I am beautiful. It is a simple meditation: to find peace with the present and hope for the future. When I collage distressed paper, with bleeding colour and overlapping images, I am able to capture moments of hard earned escape that are full of potential.