AMY SWITZER: Bird Call
June 8 – July 9, 2011

Closing Reception: Saturday, July 9th 4 - 6pm

Switzer's recent drawings and sculpture attempt to address the complex relationship humans have with animals and the ways we have charged them with symbolic and anthropomorphic characteristics. Her work examines the human tendency to observe, name, and ascribe meaning to animals and speaks to the connection between natural history and human nature. The narrative element of the work is derived from a variety of sources including observation, philosophical speculation, and literary sources. (Two of the above sculptures, "Word Birds," were created from book pages.)

I am very interested in how subconscious gestures of living beings can communicate what words cannot. The body language of my animal subjects can be read as metaphors for the human experience of desire, isolation and the pack or group mentality.

Switzer takes pleasure in discovering the subtle nuances of different materials. Most of her sculpture requires hand fabrication that is often involved and time consuming. Materials include found objects: paper, lead, fired clay, bone and steel all of which have signifying properties that extend beyond the physical nature of the material. Switzer is intrigued with the inherent dual meaning and corporeality of a material and what it can say about the sculptural object.

Amy Switzer has received numerous awards for her sculptural work, including the Patricia and Lou Odette Award from the Sculptor's Society of Canada and the international Grant for Emerging Artists from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. Switzer holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of Guelph (1996) and a Masters of Fine Art from the University of Waterloo (2008). She has shown her work nationally and internationally.

Her public sculpture commissions include the Ted Freedman Award for the Ontario Hospital Association and for the City of Toronto at Humber Bay Shores East Park and Milne Hollow Park. Switzer lives and works in the Barrie area, and is currently the Coordinator of Art & Design Fundamentals and a Professor at the School of Design and Visual Art, Georgian College.

Artwork Details:
Word Bird: Mortimer (Detail), 2008, glass, wood, book pages, 4 x 1 x 6 inches
Word Bird: Loulou, 2011, glass, wood, book pages, 11 x 4.5 x 4.25 inches
Untitled (Standing Bird), 2008, ceramic and graphite, 11 x 6 x 17 inches

SOPHIE PRIVÉ: Recent Works
July 13 – August 13, 2011

A narrative suite of paintings that depict beautifully rendered figures that float in a landscape of relationships and conversations that permeate daily life.

Sophie Privé has a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Université Laval (1999). She is an award winning artist that has exhibited nationally and internationally. Privé has artworks within several public collections in Québec including Loto-Québec, Colart Collection, CPOA du Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec and Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec.

HOURS
Tues by appt.
Wednesday and Saturday 11am - 6pm
Thursday and Friday 11am - 7pm

TELEPHONE BOOTH GALLERY
3148 Dundas Street West - Toronto - Ontario - M6P 2A1
(The Junction, Dundas at St. John's Rd.)
T 647 270 7903 - www.telephoneboothgallery.ca

Contact: Sharlene Rankin, Director
sharlene@telephoneboothgallery.ca