Into the 905

Opening Thursday, March 29th at 6pm
All are welcome! This event is FREE

Into the 905: The View From the Car Martha Eleen
March 29 to May 3, 2007








Martha Eleen, Subdivision, 2002, oil on wood

The title of Martha Eleen’s exhibition references the area code designated to Mississauga, Brampton and Oakville among others. It also references the hypnotic ritual of commuting and vehicle dependence associated with suburban life. In this part of Ontario, with our proximity to Toronto, 905 is an idiom for a location and identifies the suburbanite. Martha Eleen’s work is the result of an urbanite circling the perimeter of the suburbs, pausing there and penetrating with her gaze and brush.

Each series, comprised of Eleen’s small paintings, is titled after a location. The location, quite literally, was The View From the Car. She was drawn by the vista as she peered over highway barricades while speeding along in her car between Port Hope, where she was landscape painting, and her Toronto home. In Eleen’s paintings we view the structures that constitute the suburbs, just beyond the highway, bathed in the particular light of day.

Eleen writes “I believe that there is no form or structure that cannot be viewed as a subject for art. The fall of light on surfaces, the placement of forms in space, and the colours, natural and artificial, are as much a part of the meaning of my paintings as are the functions of these forms...Initially I was interested in the shock of the large subdivisions as seen from the road: the repetitive geometric patterns of rooftops circling cul de sacs, the impersonal facades composed of garages and the wasteland of treeless construction sites. But it is impossible to ignore the cultural diversity of the new neighbourhoods growing on the outskirts of Toronto.”

With a specifically engineered easel constructed to fit over the steering wheel of her car for plein air excursions Eleen calculated perspective and faced the challenge of “nailing a colour” to capture the view.

Marth Eleen
From the Yellow Pages series, 2003





















Also opening the same evening: If 905 isn't 416, why do we have YYZ?


The title of this exhibiton refers to the area codes that differentiate the GTA from the surrounding suburbs. YYZ is the airport code for Toronto however, Pearson International Airport is located in Malton, which is 905 territory.

This exhibition, coinciding with Martha Eleen's Into the 905, explores Mississauga's identity through works 12 x 12 inches and smaller. The artists in this exhibition have been selected from a call for submissions. Additional submissions may be viewed on a CD catalogue at the Gallery.


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