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<\/a>Opening reception of Gareth Bate and Sung Ja Kim shows, loop Gallery, November 4, 2017<\/p>\nThe show is well curated by mixing the works of the two artists. Bate\u2019s strong colours and Kim\u2019s shades of white compliment each other well. All the In the Garden <\/em>series canvases are relatively small. As Bate says, they are almost \u201caccidental\u201d compositions, their creation started as he cleaned his brushes on those canvases. \u201cThe universe is like a garden\u201d, he wrote. Looking at the abstract compositions you can, indeed, see the chaos as well as the order the gardener\/painter created out of it. You can easily imagine growing plants and blooming flowers in the abstract shapes as they swirl with life and energy. Bate walked the streets of Toronto and made hundreds of photographs of plants, seeing a \u201cbeautiful mess\u201d that became somewhat orderly in his paintings, while still encapsulating their original, unruly nature. He organized their rich colors into complimentary colours of yellow-red-purple or shades of blues, and created a series of compositions that are still raw at their roots, but also powerful and exiting.<\/p>\n In strong contrast to Bate\u2019s vivid colours, Sung Ja Kim\u2019s show, Connection<\/em> is built on the colour white. White supposedly absorbs the full range of other colours and creates richness by itself that can\u2019t be easily captured in any other way. As the artist wrote of these works, \u201cStraight lines and curved lines connect us to our destinations. Connecting with these personal destinations occurs through a journey involving new ways to live our lives.\u201d The layers in Piling Up<\/em> remind me at first of bed sheets or table linens stored in a cupboard, witnesses of old holidays and lovely times from the past that are also heavy with the possibility of future events. They capture time. Shaping Reality Through Time <\/em>shows our movements toward our chosen destination \u2013 movement that becomes time and time that becomes movement as we move from past through present into the future. Reality becomes almost abstract in Trading Together<\/em>, when the layers are no longer recognizable. What amazes me in these works is the shadow of white \u2014 white shadows to be precise \u2014 that can swallow time and make it stand still.<\/p>\n<\/a>Gareth Bate, In the Garden 10, 2017, acrylic on wood, 12″ x 16\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>Gareth Bate, In the Garden 14, 2017, acrylic on wood, 12″ x 12\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>Sung Ja Kim, Piling up, 2017, mixed media 12″ x 46\u201d, 2pc<\/p>\n