This group exhibit brings together the work of Lauren Hall, Gareth Lichty and Sam Mogelonsky to explore landscape simulation as a function of the tourist imagination. Beyond invoking a common phrase heard on the way to a destination, the title Are We There Yet? hints at the elusiveness of the expected destination and redefines codified landscapes as sites of actualized imagination. Lichty hooks rugs simulating sod through a backing woven on a loom of 2x4s. Using garden hose instead of yarn, Lichty’s piece jabs at the practice of maintaining a well-manicured lawn. In her pieces, Hall creates the illusion of near a perfect sunset and sunrise by pouring brightly coloured sand into translucent corrugated plastic using simple shapes as shorthand for mountain-scape and airplane windows. In the Project Room, Mogelonsky’s fluorescent sign illuminates the phrase “Wish you were here.” Written in casual cursive and casting a quiet blue glow, the piece compels a slower, more intimate reading of the words that are habitually tacked onto the end of postcard messages.
Lauren Hall received her BA in Fine Arts from the University of Waterloo in 2006. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally with recent exhibitions at Modern Fuel, Kingston; Peak Gallery, Toronto; Cambridge Galleries, Cambridge, and Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including an emerging artist grant from Ontario Arts Council. She was recently awarded a fellowship to attend the Vermont Studio Center and is a former artist in residence at Ox-Bow School of the Arts. Reviews of her work have appeared in Canadian Art Online, The Toronto Star, C Magazine, and The Globe and Mail.
Gareth Lichty studied Fine Arts at York University in Toronto and Sculpture at Leeds University in England. He has exhibited internationally and nationally with exhibitions in Europe, New Zealand and Canada. Lichty has been a Director of the Board of directors for CAFKA (Contemporary Art Forum, Kitchener and Area) since 2005 and Board chair since 2009. He has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. Lichty lives and works in Kitchener, Ontario and is represented by Peak Gallery, Toronto.
Sam Mogelonsky is an emerging Toronto-based artist. She holds a BFAH from Queen’s University and an MFA from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art, London, UK. She has participated in international residencies, including the Florence Trust Studio Residency Program, London, UK, the Château de la Napoule Art Foundation Residency in Mandelieu de la Napuole, France and A.I.R. Casa Marles in Llorenc de Penedes, Spain. She has exhibited in Canada, the UK, Ireland, and Portugal, with exhibitions in artist-run, commercial and publicly funded galleries. Her work is held in Canadian and international collections. She is a member of the artist-run Red Head Gallery in Toronto.
