For Immediate Release

Cosmos and Anarchy Part 2

Gareth Bate's Solo Exhibition at Loop Gallery, Toronto.

Opening Reception:
Sat. Jan. 31, 2014, 2-5 pm

Dates: Jan. 31 - Feb. 22, 2014
Entry to this exhibit is free
Days: Wednesday - Saturday 12 p.m. - 5 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. or by appointment

Address: 1273 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON, M6J 1X8   (three doors west of Dovercourt)
Loop Gallery Website
416-516-2581
loopgallery@primus.ca

Artist Statement

My Cosmos and Anarchy paintings depict humans fighting a war with the cosmos. They are fighting their inevitable fate. An impossible battle. Whipping grenades into the void. Firing catapults at nothingness. Tear gas and burning buildings morph into galaxies. The series evolved out of viewing violent and chaotic photos and videos of recent global protests, riots and revolutions happening in Kiev, Cairo, Tehran, Athens, Madrid, Belfast and London. Here global turmoil plays out as part of a cosmic drama.

Cosmos and Anarchy Part 2 is the sequel to last year's loop gallery show. It introduces more violence to the work. There is a new level of desperation. These paintings were constructed using source imagery from internet news coverage combined with the random churning of paint and brushstrokes on palettes used for his ongoing Jewel Net of Indra installation. The accumulation of paint formed a universe.

Around the world people are rising up in an effort to overthrow tyrannical governments and fight injustice. The media has developed a kind of riot porn. Especially recent images of Kiev with its medieval weaponry and siege warfare. However, I realized that this work is ultimately not about the particularities of those conflicts. Unlike the source imagery, the humans in these paintings are not fighting against police or soldiers. The real battle is with an incomprehensible universe. This is a conflict that arrises out of our insecurity and fear of our own insignificance and powerlessness. The terror of the absurdity of human life. We try to defend ourselves as we battle the awesomeness of the cosmos. We compensate by stealing power, undeserved power, and destroying others. The image that kept occurring to me as I painted was the battlefield from the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu scripture about a warrior frozen with anxiety. The real war is an internal one. He must make a choice, follow his duty, or flee.

I agree with Kenneth Clark's sentiment in Civilization: "I believe order is better than chaos, creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence, forgiveness to vendetta. On the whole I think that knowledge is preferable to ignorance, and I am sure that human sympathy is more valuable than ideology…"

Recent

Cape Flora
Solo Show

Loop Gallery, Toronto

Cosmos and Anarchy: Part 2
Solo Show

Loop Gallery, Toronto

Past

Cosmos and Anarchy
Solo Show

Loop Gallery, Toronto

Indicator
Toronto Nuit Blanche

Gareth Bate Art Projects
401 Richmond St. West.

Something Still
Group Show

Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto.

Responsive Space II
Group Show

Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto.

Gareth Bate's 2012 Review: Yearly Update

Art practice, exhibitions, etc.

Variegated Threads:
World of Threads Festival

Curating at Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre, Oakville.

Outside Environmental Installations:
World of Threads Festival

Curating at Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre, Oakville.

Protrusion:
World of Threads Festival

Curating at 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto.

Fibre Collage:
World of Threads Festival

Curating at Abbozzo Gallery, Oakville.

"Where the Wild Things Aren't":
Group Show

Wall Space Gallery, Ottawa

Gareth Bate's 2011 Review: Yearly Update

Art practice, exhibitions, etc.

FROLIC: 401 Richmond Artists Open Studio

Gareth Bate Art Projects, 401 Richmond, St. W., Toronto

"Floating World"
Solo Exhibition

Loop Gallery, Toronto

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Gareth Bate's 2010 Review: Yearly Update

Art practice, exhibitions, etc.

Gareth Bate Art Projects Official Launch

Gareth Bate Art Projects
Studio S-17, 401 Richmond St. W. Toronto

"Where They Are Now: OCADU Alumni Exhibition"

Art Square Gallery, Toronto

"Moments" Solo Painting Exhibition

Gareth Bate Art Projects, Toronto

For The Infinite, Book Cover.

Ryerson Poetry Chapbook, Toronto

Gareth Bate's 2009 Review: Yearly Update

Art practice, exhibitions, etc.

"Common Thread International Exhibition" at World of Threads Festival

B42 Gallery, Oakville.

"The Winter LamentPaintings," Solo Exhibition

Canadian Heritage Office Gallery, Toronto

"BeeCause," Fundraising Auction for the Canadian Bee Research Fund

The Arts Project London,London.

"Between Reality & Fantasy"

Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto

"Corps Intérieur"
Set Design Installation

David Pressault Danse at the Monument National Theatre, Montreal.

Ontario Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant

For Corps Intérieur Set Design Installation

"Hard Twist: 3rd Annual Juried Textile Art Exhibition"

The Gladstone Hotel, Toronto.

"Bigger, Bigger and More Desperate"

Deleon White Gallery, Toronto

"Art 401: A group exhibition of 401 Richmond Artists"

The Gladstone Hotel, Toronto.

"Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition": Lament Paintings

Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto

"Lament": 401 Richmond Career Launcher Prize Solo Exhibition

Studio 260, 401 Richmond St. West, Toronto

"Penance Performance"

Queen Street West, Toronto

"Plastic Paintings" Solo Exhibition.

Public Health Canada Office, Toronto

"Residual Landscapes" Photography Exhibition

Arcadia Gallery, Toronto

"Nuit Blanche: Ann Hamilton's Listening Choir," Performance

Varius Locations, Toronto

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"Central Tech Alumni Show"

The Library Gallery, Central Technical School, Toronto

"Nuit Blanche: In Memory of Brian Kipping"

Bau-Xi Gallery, Toronto

Gareth Bate wins 2007
401 Richmond Career-Launcher Prize

Ontario College of Art & Design & Margaret Zeidler.