Solo exhibition of paintings at Loop Gallery, Saturday January 28th until Sunday February 18, 2017.

Exhibition at loop Gallery: January 28 – February 19, 2017 …………..
Reception: Saturday, January 28, 2017, 3-6 PM ……………………..

loop Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition by loop Gallery member Ester Pugliese entitled Measured Calm.

Channeling diverse influences ranging from endangered species and cut flower arrangements, to children’s amusements and Italian folk music, Pugliese‘s new mixed media paintings capture the fleeting quality of life. By suffusing abstracted swathes of colour with carefully drawn details and a coral reef aesthetic, the works ask viewers to untangle dense layers and find relationships in seemingly disparate imagery. Geometric shapes resembling building blocks threaten to swallow carefully rendered details of plants, suggesting their likely demise through the agency of human progress. However, rather than obliterating the natural living things, these geometric shapes appear to be replicating themselves – learning how to grow alongside the natural world.

Measured Calm explores the relationship between the enjoyment evoked by the sensuous depiction of a subject and a conflicting moral message, a concept inspired by the still life, or “vanitas”, paintings of the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries. This is akin to the artist’s breathless lust when she enters a flower shop and imagines composing an arrangement drawn from the exquisite living things contained within. With such an assortment of blooms – common, rare and possibly endangered – she must contain her desire to have them all. It seems that in today’s world, when we scrutinize our base, often materialistic, urges we inevitably confront our morals.

Ester Pugliese is a Toronto-based artist. She graduated from York University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Specialized Honours) in Visual Arts Studio. She studied abroad in Leeds, UK and has exhibited extensively in Ontario. Pugliese has been the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, and her work can be found in private and public collections in North America and Europe, including the Donovan Collection.

Image: Ester Pugliese, ‘Moderate to strong northwest winds will persist throughout the weekend’, acrylic, soft pastel, carbon pencil, and chalkboard paint on wood panel, 30 x 30 inches, 2016.

loop Gallery
1273 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M6J 1X8 (3 doors west of Dovercourt).
Gallery Hours: Wed – Thurs 12 to 5 pm, Fri – Sat 12 – 6 pm and Sun 1 to 4 pm.
Artist is in attendance on Sundays and for the reception.
For more information please contact the gallery director at 416-516-2581 or loopgallery@gmail.com.
Website: www.loopgallery.ca
Blog: http://loopgallery.blogspot.com/

loop Members
John Abrams . Mark Adair . Elizabeth Babyn . Gareth Bate . Yael Brotman . Kelly Cade . J. Lynn Campbell . Gary Clement . Tara Cooper . Tanya Cunnington . Elizabeth D’Agostino . Carolyn Dinsmore . Sheryl Dudley . Martha Eleen . Adrian Fish . Maria Gabankova . Candida Girling . Sandra Gregson . Libby Hague . Linda Heffernan . David Holt . John Ide . Sung Ja Kim . kipjones . Jenn Law . Jane LowBeer . Suzanne Nacha . Mary Catherine Newcomb . Ester Pugliese . Thelma Rosner . Ava Roth . Rochelle Rubinstein . Richard Sewell . Lanny Shereck . Sandra Smirle . P. Roch Smith . Kim Stanford . Adrienne Trent . Mindy Yan Miller