November 12 – 30, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 15, 1 – 6 pm
Artist Talk: Sunday, November 30, 3 pm
Up Down Strange | David Griffin
These drawings extend my fixation with geometry as an incredibly fruitful drawing method — reductive but expansive at the same time. The purpose for Art, the reason we do it, is understanding; understanding how language works as a sense conductor or understanding what we can say to each other, among other things.
In a graphical search for understanding, I overload my paper with colour, and with compositions of growth and natural things. The constraints of geometric drawing are complicated by my love of water flowing, things growing, fire licking, and coils coiling. I view all the drawings as shallow piles where stories may be stored.
David Griffin (born Kingston, Jamaica) has presented artwork across North America and the UK and has published writing on drawing in the journals Drawing: research, theory, practice (Intellect), and in the MIT Press’ Leonardo Journal. The Bloomsbury Press recently published his book on music notations, entitled “Drawing Music: Marking time: The design, structure and impact of musical notation”. David is currently an Assistant Professor at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada, and is Vice-Chair of the University’s Research Ethics Board. He holds a PhD from the Glasgow School of Art, an MFA from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and a BFA from Parsons School of Design in New York.
https://www.instagram.com/dr.d.griffin/ or www.davidgriffinart.com, email david@davidgriffinart.com.
More Than Meets the I | Joseph Muscat
More than meets the I or Plusque ce que je vois is an intended pun, un jeu de mots. I wanted to visually explore the various hidden depths, situations and complexities of our realities in our day and age. We live in a time of Artificial Intelligence, Chat GPT and Deepfake, where reality is always on shaky ground and may never be what it seems.
Each tableau is populated with images and markings which fall into the composition intuitively and which carry with them symbolic possibilities. It’s up to the viewer to negotiate their way through the work and to spin their own story and derive their own meaning.
This body of work stylistically follows my earlier work in its use of random images, some new and some repetitive, against various backdrops, executed primarily through an automatiste painting approach and the use of stencils.
One common thread that weaves throughout my paintings is the ubiquitous presence of the cabin, which I have been including in my work for the last forty-plus years. This simple, isometric structure can conjure up a whole array of meanings from the warmth of home, family or country to the more sinister praxis of homelessness or domestic conflicts.
Colour is a dominant characteristic in my work. It might attract or repel depending on one’s cultural pedigree; the expansive variation has something for everyone.
Art to me is a constant journey of exploration and discovery. It is that surprising element that keeps me engaged and addicted.
Joseph Muscat is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art, AOCA 1981, the University of Toronto, B.Ed. 1975 and the Glendon College, York University, B.A.Hons. 1973. He has also studied at the École des Beaux-Arts d’Aix-en-Provence, France and did a series of lithography workshops at the Atelier des réalisations graphiques de Québec and at the Tailleurs d’images in Quebec City.
He has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the United States, Europe, South America and South Korea. He is widely collected in public, corporate and private collections and has received project, travel and exhibition support grants from the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. His art has been reproduced in art books, textbooks, novels and magazine covers.
He has lectured at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Toronto and taught visual arts part-time at the Toronto School Board. He has mentored students and newcomer artists and is presently working with intern students from the University of Guelph-Humber.
Joseph is a member of Propeller Art Gallery, where he was Chair between 2010 and 2015. He is a member of the Ontario Society of Artists, where he served on the board; he is a founding member of Le Labo d’Art and BRAVO, two franco-ontarion arts organizations and a past board member of TOAE, the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition.
Mr. Muscat has served on local and national art juries, including the Toronto and Ontario Arts Councils. He is represented by David Kaye Gallery in Toronto, Danielle Wohl Fine Arts in Orinda, California, Guildworks in Bloomfield, Ontario and MIZ Gallery in Seoul, South Korea.
