The Ministry of Artistic Affairs
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
This Friday Toronto's Show & Tell Gallery is set to open another exciting exhibition.

Titled Geometric Balance this 2 person show features acclaimed American artists James Marshall and Greg Lamarche.  You can check out preview images and information about the exhibition below.

Exhibiting these distinct artists together creates a powerful dynamism based on the collision of James Marshall’s graphic geometries with Greg Lamarche’s typographic savvy and cut-paper collages. The cross-pollination of visual and conceptual traits that occurs when viewing both bodies of work at once produces a new, combined aesthetic that is wholly unlike either Marshall or Lamarche’s artistic achievements on their own. That said, it would be an oversight to discount the similar visual and structural methodologies upon which these artists have built their practices. 


Inspired by the dynamism of his native New York City and its role as an incubator of the outlaw art of graffiti, Greg Lamarche’s collages combine the city’s relentless rhythm and graffiti’s aggressive presence to express the power, elegance and rebelliousness of urban creativity. Using found materials and commercially printed papers from his vast collection of vintage printed matter, Lamarche abstracts graffiti’s visual language, playing with a profusion of font styles, word fragments, multiple layers, bold colors, rhythmic repetition, multiple perspective and movement. Each unique work of precisely hand-cut paper thus becomes an interplay of the directness of graphic design and the aesthetics of fine art.



James Marshall is a painter who currently lives and works in North Carolina. He was raised in a military family who moved frequently along the East Coast throughout his childhood and later lived in Hawaii and Japan. In his youth, Marshall turned to punk rock, skateboarding and graffiti subcultures for inclusion and identity. His Space Monkey character was born out of graffiti, which he discovered in 1994 in the rail yards of California and later in Chicago. After an education in anthropology and sociology, followed by receiving a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995, Marshall worked under the name Dalek to merge street art with influences from animation, Japanese pop, and the energy of the urban punk scene. In 2001, he reached a major turning point in his studio practice while working as an assistant/apprentice to the world-renowned artist Takashi Murakami. Marshall’s work has been shown in galleries and museums across North America, Europe and Japan.


Greg Lamarche & James Marshall (Dalek)
Geometric Balance
Show & Tell Gallery
July 22 - August 31 2011