2013 Review: Yearly Update

Summary of 2013

I'm happy to say that 2013 was a much lighter year for me in terms of exhibitions. The result was that I got a lot of work done! I have now painted 1600 people for the Jewel Net of Indra installation. For the last two years I've been working on a new abstracted painting series called Cosmos and Anarchy which combines images of the cosmos with current riots from around the world. I continued my Cumulonimbus photography series for the seventh year in Prince Edward Island. I was in three group exhibitions this year including Responsive Space II and Something Still at Lonsdale Gallery in Toronto. I exhibited in Toronto Nuit Blanche with an installation exhibition Indicator about endangered species. The World of Threads Festival's "Weekly Fibre Artist Interviews" series has now reached 110 interviews. I also launched a new course called Art History - The Masters at Central Tech. At the end of the newsletter is what's coming in 2014!

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Jewel Net of Indra installation (Phase 2)
1600 people painted so far...

In 2013 I finished an additional 800 people. That brings the total to 1600 people since I started working on this piece in Oct. 2011. This project is infinitely fascinating to me and I've never been bored for one second. I have no plans to exhibit the work for several years until it is completed. Once I know who is in the work, then I can begin the process of arranging them into historical context through their connections. They will not be randomly placed like the first installation. They also may not be arranged in the linear pattern you see in the studio images. See current studio shots from Phase 2

Read the Artist Statement & List of Names.
View Phase 1 of Jewel Net of Indra

Cosmos and Anarchy: Painting Series

For the last two years I've been working on this painting series. It consists of small abstracted paintings depicting an imagined cosmos merged with imagery from video stills from recent riots in London, Athens, Madrid, Cairo, Belfast and Tehran. These twelve inch-square, densely worked paintings depict our current global turmoil playing out as part of cosmic drama. Around the world people are rising up in an effort to overthrow tyrannical governments. The worry is always what will replace them? In the paintings tear gas and burning buildings morph into galaxies. The image that kept coming into my head while painting 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.
See NEW Paintings | Read Artist Statement

Upcoming Show: I'll be showing this body of work at Loop Gallery in Toronto in Feb. 1 - 23, 2014. View show details here.

Opening Reception: Sat. Feb. 1, 2014
Dates: Feb. 1 - 23, 2014
Days: Wed. - Sat. 12 p.m. - 5 p.m., Sun.1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Address: 1273 Dundas Street West, Toronto.
(Three doors west of Dovercourt)

Cumulonimbus 2013: Year 7
Photography Series

I've been working on this photography series for 7 years now. Every August I stay at North Lake, Prince Edward Island and photograph the shifting skies over the lake in every weather condition. Every photograph is the exact same scene with radically different skies. I shoot hundreds of photographs over the course of the month. Sometimes the sky changes completely within a few minutes. This was probably the most dramatic year so far.

View the NEW Cumulonimbus 2013 series

Toronto Nuit Blanche: Indicator

Gareth Bate Art Projects, Studio S-17, 401 Richmond St. W.
Official Project: Oct 5 - 19, 2013

This year I revived Gareth Bate Art Projects by turning my studio into a gallery. I exhibited a new version of my honey installation Colony Collapse along with work by Jessica Marion Barr and Karen Abel. The exhibition "Indicator" was about species like birds, bats, bees who signal the deteriorated state of ecosystems, warning us when our environs are in trouble. Three installations dealt with habitat destruction, climate change, and environmental contamination. Colony Collapse was a drawing made of liquid honey poured on the walls in the form of the ancient Roman Coliseum and an aqueduct.

View NEW Indicator Exhibition | Read Artist Statement

Group Show: Responsive Space II

Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto
April 18 - May 12, 2013

My Lament and Moments paintings were featured in the exhibition Responsive Space II at Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto. The show featured 4 artists with unique approaches to landscape painting including myself, Liz Pead, Howard Podeswa and Jim Reid. It was curated by Stanzie Tooth who writes: "In a digitally immersed society, one's relationship to the nature and history becomes distorted by the overwhelming dissemination of information and the removal from direct experience."

Group Show: Something Still

Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto
August 15 - September 22, 2013.

This group show highlighted the majesty of spaces unmarred by human intervention. It featured a number of my Deep Field nightime cosmos paintings. It included Jim Reid and Nora Sturges with a solo photography show by Osheen Harruthoonyan.

110 Weekly Fibre Artist Interviews
World of Threads Festival

I continue to be Festival Curator. Every week for the last two years I've published a new Weekly Fibre Artist Interview with my mother Dawne Rudman. For 110 weeks we have been profiling local, national and international fibre artists. We have created a comprehensive archive of the most exciting fibre artists in the world. The next festival is in fall 2014. Our call for submissions starts in February 2014.

Art Highlights in Toronto, Ottawa
and Montreal

Toronto: My favourite show of the year was Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller at the Art Gallery of Ontario. I especially love Cardiff's The Forty Part Motet and their Killing Machine. I also enjoyed Kim Dorland at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

Ottawa: I saw the show Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Canada which was impressive. The main hall above is seen dressed up as an iceberg by Inuk Silis Høegh. Their David Altmejd sculpture blows my mind. I also saw the Voodoo exhibition at the Museum of Civilization.

Montreal: I saw the whimsical Dale Chihuly glass show at the Musee Des Beaux Arts and their awesome Gerhard Richter painting.

Teaching Art at Central Tech Night School

This was a really intense year for teaching. I now teach four night school courses at Central Technical School's adult art program. The newest one is "Art History - The Masters" which covered 622 years of European art history from the late gothic to 1900. Learn more about my classes in in my Teaching section.

A few people have really gotten my attention who I hadn't understood before. In particular Caravaggio. Altdorfer and Tintoretto are also rocking my world. The next round start Jan. 13!

My Courses:

Art History - The Masters: 1300 - 1900 (Monday Nights)
(One semester so far)
History of Modern Art: 1850 - present (Tuesday Nights)
(Seven semesters so far)
Abstract Painting (Studio) (Wednesday Nights)
(Eleven semesters so far.)
Abstract Painting (Studio) (Thursday Nights)
(Eleven semesters so far.)

Podcasts!

I've become an avid listener to podcasts from iTunes. I subscribe to these free downloads which cover a huge variety of topics. I think podcasts are the greatest thing ever. I listen to them while painting and for research on for my Jewel Net of Indra installation.

Website Design

I continue to design websites. I work primarily on artist portfolios and sites for professionals and creative organizations. My clientele has expanded this year to include several authors.
View Gareth Bate Design Website

New 2013 Completed Websites

Artists: Phillip Woolf, Paul Elia, Alyse Frampton, Martin Myers and the Oakville Quilters' Guild.

Coming in 2014!

I'm planning a trip to Paris in the spring where I'll be recording commentary in all the museums for the Art Untangled podcast. I will work my way through, and rethink the entire history of Modern Art from an international perspective. Art Untangled will also be an education company featuring the "21st Century Art World Toolkit" a collection of online courses. This will be a friendly community where people can make art a part of their lives.

Jewel Net of Indra, Year 3

I'm continuing to work on my "Jewel Net of Indra" installation.

Cosmos and Anarchy
Solo Exhibition at Loop Gallery

Opening Reception: Sat. Feb. 1, 2014
Dates: Feb. 1 - 23, 2014
Days: Wed. - Sat. 12 p.m. - 5 p.m., Sun.1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Address: 1273 Dundas Street West, Toronto.
(Three doors west of Dovercourt)
See show details here.

2014 World of Threads Festival

I'll once again be Festival Curator. The next festival is coming in the fall. Our call for submissions will be in February.

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