Charles Hackbarth & David Holt @ loop Gallery, 1273 Dundas St. W. October 31, 2009

loop Gallery is pleased to present exhibitions by loop members Charles Hackbarth entitled Geographic Tongue (my ghost likes to travel) and David Holt entitled Gardens, Ruins, Fragments.

The name of Charles Hackbarth's new series comes from a medical condition caused by overly acidic saliva. The results of this condition are map-like shapes on a person's tongue. The works have developed from an exploration of the realm of organically shaped canvases. The exhibition combines drawings, paintings and sculpture.

Themes include: maps, mapping, geography, orienteering, being lost, being found, multi-dimensions, biology, history, personal and universal, abstract and representational, control and chaos. Inter-connectedness. Ephemeral and enduring. Transient and eternal. Real, imagined, unknown, unknowable. The great mystery. Options, variables. Transformation.

Charles Hackbarth is a Toronto-based artist, sound sculptor and writer. Hackbarth studied at Ottawa School of Art and OCAD. He has been exhibiting publicly since 1985. His paintings hang in a number of private collections.

David Holt’s paintings in his second show at loop involve subjects from European botanical gardens, architecture, and antiquities collections. Painterly brushwork animates quirky, abbreviated forms, and playful balances of shapes and colours abound.

A painter who has had many solo and group shows in the US, Holt has been the recipient of a painting grant from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and an artist residency at the Ragdale Foundation. He was an art professor for many years at Marymount College (of Fordham University) in New York, and now lives in Toronto where he teaches at Upper Canada College.

Please join the artists in celebrating their opening receptions on Saturday, October 31st from 2-5 pm.

The exhibitions run from October 31 - November 22, 2009.

Gallery Hours: Wed - Sat 1 to 5 pm, and Sun 1 to 4pm. Artist is in attendance on Sundays and for the reception.

Official Website: http://www.loopgallery.ca