For Immediate Release

Cosmos and Anarchy

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

Opening Reception:
Sat. Feb. 1, 2014, 2-5 pm

Dates: Feb. 1 - 23, 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

"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. I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven't changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must try to learn from history."
Kenneth Clark in Civilization.

Gareth Bate's Cosmos and Anarchy series consists of small abstracted paintings of an imagined cosmos combined with video stills from recent riots in London, Athens, Madrid, Cairo 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. Gareth states, "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." An existential struggle is always playing out Gareth's work. A search for personal meaning undercut by a worry that things are ultimately meaningless. The struggle becomes an artistic one: Does this amount to anything? Does art have any impact on the world anymore? Does anyone care? And will this object even survive? And, in the end he keeps painting.

The cosmos, as well as metaphors of historical time, have been central themes in Gareth's work for several years. This includes the series Deep Field, inspired by the Hubble Ultra Deep Field photographs which revealed the existence of billions of galaxies. The Floating World series combined images of the cosmos and landscape with devastating imagery from the Japanese tsunami. Most significantly the cosmos and history themes run through his ongoing Jewel Net of Indra installation. He has been working on this massive painting-based installation for two and half years. So far it includes 1600 miniature painted historical figures on mirrors. They combine to form an interconnected web of human history. The Cosmos and Anarchy paintings were created simultaneously with the Jewel Net of Indra installation. They evolved intentionally out of the paint palettes used for that work.

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.