From Scratch
Metalpoint drawings by Ram Samocha

 
March 30 – April 23, 2011
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 2, 2011 from 2-5pm
Artist Talk: Saturday April 9 & Saturday April 16, from 2-3pm
 
Red Head Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Hours: Wednesday – Saturday 12-5pm
401 Richmond St. W, Suite 115, Toronto, Canada, M5V 3A8
Tel: 416-504-5654  e-mail: art@redheadgallery.org | www.redheadgallery.org
 
The Red Head Gallery is pleased to announce our upcoming solo, From Scratch, an exhibition of metalpoint drawings by Ram Samocha.  Samocha deliberately employs an ancient, neglected drawing technique to produce large-scale contemporary works of art.  His metalpoint series uses gold, bronze, copper, aluminium, brass, and silverpoint pen on a unique, recently developed paper made from rock.
 
Ram Samocha is an Israeli-born artist, presently residing in Ontario. Samocha’s work draws from the locale and the location of its creation. As an immigrant artist, Samocha focuses on the issues of personal and global transformation by combining drawing, video, animation, and performance. Through his manifold, hybrid practice Samocha hopes to catalyze a communicative interaction with the viewer. Using a personal artistic language that speaks via abstraction and the physical process of repetitive line-based actions, the work reflects on global issues while eschewing an overt political narrative. Drawing is a seminal element in Samocha’s practice as it allows him to work with very basic media. As an immigrant and traveller, Samocha often works with temporary, flexible, and transportable surfaces, using materials such as paper, unstretched canvas, photos or video recordings. The combination of performance, animation, video, installation, and drawing facilitates a more precise articulation of ideas and issues, and allows the artist to self-reflexively examine the relevance of drawing as a modern medium.
 
From Scratch opens on March 30, 2011 at the Red Head Gallery, Toronto. Concurrent to this drawing installation is the launch of Samocha’s black and white video performance piece titled Body Count.

Accompanying the From Scratch exhibition is a critical essay by Jane Buyers, visual artist and Professor Emeritus, Department of Fine Arts, University of Waterloo, Ontario.

For more information about Ram Samocha and his work please visit:
www.samocha.com
www.youtube.com/ramsamocha