The Language of Flowers: Workshop with Karen Azoulay
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
6:30 p.m.

Onsite Gallery
199 Richmond St. West

Two-part event:
The artist talk starts at 6:30 p.m.—no registration required
Workshop will begin at approximately 7:15 p.m.—limited availability; advance registration required
Tickets for the workshop are available on Onsite Gallery’s Facebook page as of Wednesday, June 5 at noon

Free event as part of Onsite Gallery's public event program for T.M. Glass: The Audible Language of Flowers.

Join Brooklyn-based artist Karen Azoulay for a talk and interactive experience that will explore the symbolism of flowers.

This two-part event starts with an artist talk by Karen Azoulay, focused on the influence that flower symbology has played in her practice. Floriography, also known as the language of flowers, is a form of communication that was popular in Victorian times. Botanical species were assigned sentimental meanings that were collected in exhaustive dictionaries, the blooms’ symbolism varying in tone from the sweet (Ivy Geranium conveying the gallant request “Your hand for the next dance?”) to the melodramatic (Vibernum declaring “I die if neglected”) and the downright combative (a dried white rose indicating “death before dishonor”). A thoughtfully curated bouquet could thus deliver a layered poetic memo, which the recipient would be required to decipher.

Following the artist talk is a hands-on zine-making workshop with the artist. Participants will work from a custom deck of cards designed by Karen Azoulay. The random assortment of cards drawn by each participant will create a “flower bouquet” which will guide the composition of a poem. Each poem will be combined to create a zine that participants can take home.

The artist talk starts at 6:30 p.m.—no registration required
Workshop will begin at approximately 7:15 p.m.—limited availability; advance registration required
Tickets for the workshop are available on Onsite Gallery’s Facebook page as of Wednesday, June 5 at noon

Karen Azoulay is an interdisciplinary artist who works within the intersection of performance and sculpture in order to explore earth-elements and the female form. Solo exhibitions include CUE Art Foundation in New York (curated by Glenn Ligon); Four Gallery in Dublin; Mercer Union in Toronto, Primetime in Brooklyn, Dose Projects in Brooklyn and Drew University in Madison, NJ. Her work has been featured and reviewed in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, C Magazine, ReadyMade and Vogue. Her installations and performances include commissions for institutions such as The Art Gallery of Ontario, Canadian Art Magazine, and The Power Plant in Toronto as well as Art in General in New York. Recent exhibitions include Simone DeSousa Gallery in Detroit and Erin Stump Projects in Toronto. Her publication 'Flowers and Their Meanings, a guide for deciphering' was launched at The Perennial, a group show that she curated within The Grecian Shelter in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.

T.M. Glass: The Audible Language of Flowers
May 8 to August 18, 2019

Curated by Francisco Alvarez, Dorene & Peter Milligan Executive Director, OCAD U Galleries

T.M. Glass: The Audible Language of Flowers presents recent series of images by lens-based artist T.M. Glass that feature blooms and vessels from unique gardens across the globe. Glass' distinct photographic style is characterized by extensive digital embellishment of textures and colours to enhance the emotion and geometry of flowers. Recently, the artist’s large-scale flower images expanded into the third dimension through advanced 3-D printing technology. Inspired by 17th century European flower paintings, the artist contends that contemporary digital photographers are also painters who work with pixels instead of oils.

Onsite Gallery is the flagship professional gallery of OCAD U and an experimental curatorial platform for art, design and new media. Visit our website for upcoming public events. The gallery is located at 199 Richmond St. W, Toronto, ON, M5V 0H4. Telephone: 416-977-6000, ext. 265. Opening hours are: Wednesdays from noon to 8 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays from noon to 7 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Free admission.

Onsite Gallery acknowledges that the gallery construction project is funded in part by the Government of Canada's Canada Cultural Spaces Fund at Canadian Heritage, the City of Toronto through a Section 37 agreement and Aspen Ridge Homes; with gallery furniture by Nienkämper. Onsite Gallery logo by Dean Martin Design.

Image: Karen Azoulay, Absence, Poverty, I Have Lost All, 2015, pigment print, 40" x 32". Courtesy of the artist.