21 WADE AVE #2 | TORONTO
ECHO WITHOUT ORIGIN | 21 MAR - 10 MAY 2025
Artists: Luke Painter & Ron Siu, Alberto Porro, Tammie Rubin, Mia Sandhu, Winnie Truong, Tuan Vu, Balint Zsako
Echo Without Origin
If one does not hear the words that produce an echo, does that echo still belong to its namesake? Does the world exist beyond a closed eye? How can one make sense of concepts and indicators that exist beyond perception, and therefore exceed a single meaning? The group exhibition Echo Without Origin explores the idea of “floating signifiers”, a semiotic and linguistic term used to describe words, symbols, images, and mark-making as fundamentally untethered and therefore able to shift in their meaning. Here, we are presented with multiple interpretations of floating signifiers. These signals create entry points for the viewer to be transported into the works and asked to sit with them. These signals exist as crafted lines, references to the body, text, and representational shapes. The works in this exhibition ask the viewer to cultivate their own visual vocabulary, noticing the reverberations across practices, and then use that vocabulary to speak to and interpret wider cultural contexts.
A multiplicity of subjects are presented in this exhibition, from the naturalistic and bodily, to the structural and architectural. Soft drawn edges, edges of the body, bodies in scenes of stillness, still moments of anticipation, anticipated patterning on animal forms, forms personified cutting through space, and space filled with overlapping planes of color. Winnie Truong and Balint Zsako place bodies in space without grounding, leaving physical forms separated from the background space. Tammie Rubin, and Luke Painter in collaboration with Ron Siu, depict stylized, highly relational figures steeped in repurposed symbolism. Meanwhile, Mia Sandhu, Alberto Porro, and Tuan Vu’s figures inhabit spaces, conveying a sense of rootedness in their surrounding environment, whether natural or built, and in the middle of an unfolding narrative. This exhibition asks how symbols shift in their meaning depending on the images that surround them, the medium they are expressed through, or when viewed from alternate perspectives. How have the artists cultivated a visual language to explore their understanding of symbols?
Collectively, the works in this exhibition provoke curiosity regarding the artists’ intention in using floating signifiers, and the possibility of the works all cohabitating in the exploration of the semiotic. In a fast moving world, one rife with a bombardment of information and symbols, Echo Without Origin offers a momentary reprieve and carves out a space to sit with symbols in their indeterminacy.
Brian Ginther
Luke Painter’s practice explores a wide range of historical and contemporary subjects in relation to pattern, ornamentation, technology and his own personal history. He creates atmospheric, fictional spaces that sample and purposely reimagine these subjects in surreal, humorous and narrative ways. His work has been shown in numerous local and international exhibitions including Bauble Bauble at Patel Brown Gallery in Toronto, Ways of Something at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Teasers and the Tormentors at Galerie Clark in Montreal. Luke has received grants from Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council and was nominated for the K.M. Hunter Award in the Visual Arts through the Ontario Arts Council. His work has been reviewed by Canadian Art, Border Crossings, The Globe and Mail and was included in Carte Blanche Vol 2 – Painting, a national survey of Canadian painters. Luke is an Associate Professor at OCAD University in Toronto.
Ron Siu is an artist currently based in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada. He graduated with his BFA in Drawing & Painting at OCAD University in 2019. Working expansively in print, painting and animation approaches, Siu’s practice explores themes around Queer desire and fantasy. His work is informed by Western and Asian art historical canons and decorative art movements, alongside more contemporary pop sources such as gay-themed Japanese graphic romance novels, video games and supernatural horror. By connecting seemingly disparate cross-cultural threads, Siu aims to express a contemporary sense of Queer imagination. Siu’s work has been shown in exhibitions across Canada and internationally in Scotland and Germany. He has also participated in multiple residencies across Canada, including Atelier Circulaire in Montreal and Centre[3] in Hamilton, Ontario.
Alberto Porro is an Italian painter living and working in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, born and raised in Milan. He earned his BFA in Print Media from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan in 2010 and recently completed his MFA in Painting and Drawing at Concordia University. Through his practice, he explores the realm of semiotics, with a particular emphasis on processes of visual translation and cultural intermingling. Through the depiction of regional playing cards, his work aims to celebrate the specificity of different cultures while acknowledging their interconnectedness.
Tammie Rubin is a ceramic sculptor and installation artist whose practice considers the intrinsic power of objects and coded symbols as signifiers, wishful contraptions, and mythic relics. Her artwork weaves together familial, historical, and literary narratives of Black American citizenry, migration, autonomy, and faith. Rubin has received residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Penland School of Craft, and Pottery Northwest. She is the 2022 Tito’s Prize winner and a 2024 USA Fellow in Craft. Born and raised in Chicago, Rubin lives in Austin, Texas; she is an Associate Professor of Studio Arts, Ceramics at Texas State University. She has exhibited widely across the United States, and her work has been reviewed by Artforum, The Brooklyn Rail, Oxford American, Art in America, among many others.
Mia Sandhu is a Punjabi Canadian artist currently residing in Toronto, Ontario. Sandhu’s multidisciplinary practice explores themes of femininity, sexuality, cultural hybridity, self authenticity, and safety. Expressed through her playful paper and gouache/watercolour based works, Sandhu seeks to examine inner conflicts seemingly intrinsic to womanhood while also challenging more abstract concepts like unrequited assimilation and cultural dysphoria. She attained her BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2009 and has since participated in residencies at Cotton Factory and Smokestack Studios both located in Hamilton Ontario. Her work can be found in private collections around the world. She has exhibited across Canada, the USA and Europe.
Winnie Truong is a Toronto artist working with drawing and collage to explore ideas of identity, feminism, and fantasy along with a digital art and animation practice that includes public art and community engagement. Her work has been featured recently in Uses of Enchantment curated by Sarah Milroy at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and the Varley Art Gallery and with recent solo exhibition at Contemporary Calgary. Truong has exhibited internationally, with solo presentations amongst others at Volta New York Art Fair, and Pulse Miami Art Fair. Truong is a 2017 recipient of the Chalmers Arts Fellowship. Her work can be found in private collections, as well as The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Doris McCarthy Gallery at the University of Toronto, Bank of Denmark, EQ Bank, Scotiabank Fine Art Collection, RBC Art Collection and TD Bank Corporate Art Collection.
Tuan Vu was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and is currently based in Quebec. A self-taught artist, Vu’s creative practice spans drawing, painting, and photography, with a particular emphasis on exploring colour to convey emotions and narratives. His work often features women within vibrant tropical landscapes, drawing inspiration from the Parisian artist group Les Nabis and Odilon Redon as well as the flattened planes of traditional woodblock Japanese prints. Vu employs a unique process of layering colour directly on canvas, creating dreamlike compositions filled with rich textures and intriguing patterns. His art invites viewers into mystical worlds where beauty and imperfection coexist, aiming to evoke joy and a sense of peace amid life’s challenges.
Balint Zsako was born in Budapest, Hungary to a textile artist mother and a sculptor father. The family immigrated to Canada when he was 10 years old. Balint received his BFA from Toronto Metropolitan University. The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art organized a traveling exhibition of his works entitled Drawings from the Bernardi Collection that was also accompanied by the artist’s first monograph. Balint’s works were featured in Sarah Polley’s film Take This Waltz, and also appear in Phaidon’s Vitamin D2 drawing anthology. He was long listed for The Sobey Award, Canada’s largest art prize & is featured in Jason Schmidt’s Artists 2 photographic survey published by Steidl. Most recently, his 2023 book “Bunny & Tree,” was named as one of “The Best Picture Books of 2023” by The New York Times and Mickalene Thomas selected him to participate in The Brooklyn Museum’s Brooklyn Artist Exhibition. Balint lives in Los Angeles with his family.
Brian Ginther (they/them) is the 2024 Patel Brown Commission Award winner from York University’s Department of Visual Arts and Art History’s Open House. They are an undergraduate student working towards a specialized visual arts studio and art history degree (BFA) with a certificate in public history. Their art practices use semiotic theories, art historical and biblical references, poetry, storytelling, and interdisciplinary methodologies to explore concepts surrounding identity and the human experience. Their work has been featured in group shows at York University and Gallery 1313. Their latest show was a duo show co-curated with them called The gay psalm for God.