KIM-LEE KHO
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Final Week to See Heartspace & Thank You to My Sponsors

11/17/2019

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Heartspace, my debut solo exhibition at The Red Head Gallery, is in its final week this Weds–Sat noon–5pm. I will be there for the final Saturday (Nov 23) all afternoon, or as close to it as I can manage!

After that the work comes down except for some of the small works which will be part of the group show that follows right after mine, #foxypopup.

Heartfelt thanks to my amazing sponsors!

I have thanked my sponsors in print at the show itself, but it's about time I thanked them here on my website.

They took some pressure off, lightening the load on my mind as I headed into, and worked away in, my studio, and they also made some things possible, thereby helping to make this show as interesting and diverse as my ideas called for.

Here are my generous sponsors: 
  • Miriam Snell
  • Josef (Joe) Rich
  • Abigail Johnson
  • Joanna Czub
  • The Conspiracy to Promote Artists
  • Ruth Austin
  • Nancy Moniz
  • Lindsay Isaac
  • Anne Cook
I also owe a very special thanks to Kal Honey, who helps me in every way imaginable. Thanks also to Tim Marshall who along with Kal installed the show so I feel happy every time I look at it!

Installation views of Kim-Lee Kho: Heartspace at The Red Head Gallery through Nov 23, 2019.

My Heartspace solo exhibition is in its final week, continuing through Saturday, November 23 at The Red Head Gallery.

​I'll be there in person on the final day, come and say hi! Open noon–5pm.
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'Hearts in Place': My Installation at In Situ 2018, Part One

11/30/2018

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'Hearts in Place', my room installation at the 2018 In Situ Festival. Most of the room is shown, but you can't see what's at the back centre, behind the "veined" panels, nor what's behind me as I photographed this. All artwork: Kim-Lee Kho, this photo: Kim-Lee Kho
Part two of this blog series is up!
​To go directly to it, click here.


The 2018 In Situ multi-arts festival took place November 8–10 at the Small Arms Inspection Building (a former WWII munitions factory now partially refurbished as a creative hub) in Mississauga, Ontario.

'Hearts in Place' was a whole-room installation comprised of: ten 7-foot high scrolls, eight of which were transfer-printed (a hand-pulled process), two were hand-painted; two paper-and-fibre "veined" panels (centre); two veiling textile panels; one built-onsite sculpture/assemblage which you can see a sliver of light from at the centre of this photo; and the wall behind me as I photographed the room panorama was a mural drawing which I drew a portion of as a live performance each of the three evenings of the festival.

Like the first In Situ festival in 2016, this was an extraordinary experience and a creative high, but with the benefit of central heating and running water!

I am still exhausted from the experience of preparing all of this new work, performing and then taking it all down just days later. As a result I will keep this entry shorter than I might have, but will share with you some photographs. Thanks go to the numerous – generous – photographers and friends, (all credited individually), who made this possible, documenting when I could not.

​Many thanks to the many people who came out to experience the festival and visited my room! If you were there, please let me know what you thought in the comments below.
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Photo: Kim-Lee Kho 2018
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Photo: Jennifer Vong
Kim-Lee Kho stands in front of a 8-foot whimsical heart sculpture made of rope lights, curving silver tubes, metal mesh and tree branches, and next to a very large close up of a face, backlit.
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Hearts in Place installation artwork by Kim-Lee Kho, 2018. Photo (left): Sandra Robson, photo (above): Kal Honey.
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Photo: Gabriella Bank from Sanborg Productions Inc
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Photo: Elaine Whittaker
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Photo: David Ahn
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Photo: David Ahn
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Thinking About Hands: Beautiful, Useful and Expressive

2/14/2018

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Happy Valentine's Day!
My hands aren’t beautiful and elegant like some of my friends, or elegantly or funkily manicured like others of my friends or students. They're not even young anymore.

I do think there is a deeper beauty in them though, in what they can do, express and make.

I talk with my hands.

I draw, paint, print, assemble, and de-construct.

I perform with them when I do photo shoots, the gestures they can make are vital in the full sense of that word, and full of meaning. As a child I learned that traditional Indian dance is as much a formalized language of hand gestures as of any other kind of movement, and I can understand that despite my natural disinclination to formalized anything, lol.

My hands are very plain-looking, but beautifully capable, working hands.
It was not until a recent morning walk that I realized not only how much I owe them, but how much I actually love them for what I can count on them to give me every day.


What do you think about your hands?
Do you think about them at all?
Do you have a manicure and manage to dive into art-making or gardening regardless?
Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
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Keeping Uncanny Company at the Power Plant Exhibition

9/5/2017

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Mute witnesses still sitting at attention but lost to us, as if frozen by the last testimony they saw and heard. Standing in front of this blind yet staring audience felt distinctly odd. | All photos by Kim-Lee Kho

On Sunday I went to The Power Plant in Toronto to catch the Ydessa Hendeles show ‘The Milliner’s Daughter’ before it closed a day later. I went because an artist friend of mine, Victoria Cowan, pointed out its connection to what I do. 

There were many rooms of work, each with a different story to tell. What struck me most strongly at first was how extraordinary the objects were, gathered by Hendeles over many years – a lifetime even.

Some items such as the numerous vitrines and two pairs of oversized pince-nez, were exquisitely crafted, as were the focus of my visit: the truly amazing collection of mannequins.

'Containment' is a sculpture installation, featuring photo-digital figures in light boxes, that grew out of my 'Boxed In' series, pictured below. Click here to see more.

Some were tiny miniatures some life sized or larger; some mechanical toys, but most the kind used by artists to this day.

The combinations, poses, containment or not, scale contrasts whether between figures or between a figure and the furniture it was placed on, they all set up narrative possibilities, which were hard for the brain to resist.

The uncanny feeling of these articulated dolls comes from the conflict between our cognitive understanding that yes, of course these are inanimate, often very stylized mannequins, but on the other hand how life-like their presence was.

It was very interesting to me as someone who teaches figure and portrait to note how little our brains need to register something as a human being, much like the instances of well-known, often religious figures' faces being found on pieces of toast or a stain on a wall.

​As for the connection to my work, some of which is pictured here, I think I’ll let it speak for itself except to say these ‘Boxed In’ figure works formed the basis for a broader range of work and media concerned with barriers, boundaries and constraints, both physical and not.

​That formed the basis for my Chains Unlinked show at the Art Gallery of Mississauga, the mural portion is pictured here. It was also the origin of my 'Containment' installation at In Situ in 2016, particularly the drawers-turned-to-lightboxes, with solitary figures and faces inside, like the one shown here.

What do you think, what connections do you see? Did you see either show? Please let me know in the comments below.
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Ydessa Hendeles at The Power Plant.
Examples of my Boxed In figures above and below.
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Boxed In #21 (mural) 2015 | Photo: Tony Hafkenscheid
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One of many drawer-lightboxes from ‘Containment’ 2016
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Growing into New Experiences (& Big, Old Spaces)

11/14/2016

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“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”
​– Oliver Wendell Holmes
The In Situ arts festival in late October was an extraordinary experience for me as an artist and a fun one in general.

With two large scale pieces in the main space and an entire room installation (allowing plenty of space for dancers to perform in), it was wonderful to stretch out (mentally and physically) into so much space.

The intensity required to conceive and execute so much in so little time is not sustainable for long (by me at least) but has some benefits. As I was just describing to a friend, it kept the threads of my thoughts white-hot, so every hour of work built 100% onto the previous hours, days and weeks of work – since most other distractions had been put aside... even sleep!

As well, working with the festival's fabulous lighting designer Joe Pagnan and working with light in the drawers and other components of my room installation 'Containment', has forever changed my thinking around light.

The incredible support and enthusiasm of Heather Snell, director/artistic director of the festival, and her wonderful husband Ken, was fertile ground in which to grow (thank you both!).
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Insubstantiated III by Kim Lee Kho | acrylic paint pen on polyester voile, PVC tubing and LED lights; approx. 3ft dia. x 12ft h., 2015-16. Photo: Kal Honey

While I had nothing like enough time to get ready (in fact I am still trying to recover from the 24/7 preparations) but the joyful, creative and expansive experience that this was, coupled with the new work I produced for it, means I am glad and grateful for the opportunity.

And I still love that gorgeous, decrepit building!

Thanks to all who visited! For any who could not, I hope these photos will go some way toward compensating.
I make my work to be shared. With you. 
Which is why, although only a one-woman operation, I do my best to share via my blog, social media and email 'Update' newsletter.
I know each thought, event or artwork is part of a larger story and an opportunity to build meaning and to connect.

If you would like to support my projects (even $10 would help, believe me!) please click below and accept my heartfelt thanks.
Donate via Paypal

I will be updating my In Situ album on Flickr with more photographs soon, so check it out next week!
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Three Giant Scrolls Get an Airing

6/28/2016

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Above: Standing in front of "Double Happiness, Three's a Crowd" scrolls at Art-Spread in Port Credit, June 18/19. Photo by Sandra Robson.

Top left: Drawing Louis Armstrong for the #dailyheroes series live at the same event, with another artist's (Nisreen's) drawing of an imaginary face showing in the foreground. Photo by Meena Chopra.
​
Left: Louis Armstrong drawing completed. I chose a serious photo of him to work from because his glorious smile so easily overshadows the man's genuine genius.


It was a busy and fun weekend in Port Credit (Mississauga) on June 18 and 19 at Art-Spread where I was one of over a dozen artists/artisans showing and demonstrating what I do. 
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Lots of people I know came to visit (only one had ever seen the scrolls live before), and if you were one of them, thank you.
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Below: The scrolls provided a focal point for the whole show in that vaulted space. Photo by Sandra Robson.
​

Left: The whole group of us! Photo courtesy Sandra Robson.
This was the first time the scrolls had been on display in four years! I have fresh ideas on where I might exhibit them next. If you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments below or via my contact form in the menu above.
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#dailyheroes: A Different Approach to Portraiture (and Social Media)

12/10/2015

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Have you ever commissioned a portrait? If not of yourself or a family member, then maybe of a pet or even your house?

Most people haven’t. And I’m not surprised. It’s not because they’re expensive, they can be, but so can entertainment systems that become obsolete while the portrait remains just as valuable, just as meaningful, as ever. They can also be very affordable, depending on the artist, and bearing in mind that each portrait is a bespoke (custom-made) item, usually hand-made and often with tremendous skill as well.

But seriously, most people have either never thought of commissioning a portrait or ruled it out for some reason.

Now imagine that I show up in your Facebook newsfeed or your Twitter feed, asking you to tell me the name of one of your hero(ine)s, so that I can draw them. When I’m done, I’ll share it on social media, tagging you in the post and asking you to share it with your online friends (naming me as the artist) along with a little explanation of why you chose that person as your hero.

Doesn’t that sound and feel a little different?
Fun even?


That in a nutshell is my #dailyheroes online portraiture project, a way for me to create something positive on social media without sharing videos of cats I don’t have :-) 

While the portraits are far from daily, (I find I need to do them in bursts), they have become a key part of what I bring to my online life, because of what others have brought to it. 

First of all, others bring me names, and when they do some of them share why they chose that hero(ine). It’s like being given a double gift: I get to know my friend or contact a little better and I also get to know figures (past and present) whom I may never have heard of before, or I will learn more about in my research.

Secondly, others have brought me their enthusiasm, both when bringing names and when “receiving” the drawing, and sharing them, whether they were the original commissioner or not.

I love the conversation that’s resulted, and the nascent sense of community building around it, at least for me.

So, when the producer of Night Time (a late night Rogers TV talk show) approached me about appearing in their current season, I knew which project I wanted to talk about! The segment originally aired on Friday, December 4, and will repeat. I will see if I can get a recording of it to share online.

Meanwhile, if you have a hero(ine) you’d like to share, please do so in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter (those words are live links).

I am posting the results in an album on Flickr as well.


PS: The name #dailyheroes is what's called a hashtag. For anyone unfamiliar with how those work, you can search for them in the search bar on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for example, (you must include the "#" which is the hashtag proper) and if anyone has used the term you enter (it has to be all one word), you will be able to see the posts where they used it.

A few examples (click on the image to see a larger version):
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Charles Darwin: the portrait that launched a project!
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Malala Yousafzai: youngest Nobel winner & social activist
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Pablo Picasso: I did a 2nd version of him, including animation!
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John Lennon.
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Amelia Earhart.
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Teaching a Workshop at a Friend's Beautiful Studio

11/5/2015

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William takes in the stunning view through the studio windows.
Recently, when my friend artist Patricia Singer generously suggested I teach a workshop at her studio, I didn't have to think about it for long. Looking at these photos I think you'll understand why I and this small group have been having a wonderful time working in her space and our great luck that the days – and our view of them – have been glorious!

We've been exploring contemporary mixed media, working with photos and other digitized imagery in a variety of ways and combined with all kinds of traditional media.

Collage, working into prints (by drawing, painting, cutting, sanding, peeling, piercing and even embroidering) and trying out numerous image transfer techniques has kept everyone very busy and the days seem to fly by! At the end of each day we take a look at what some other artists have been doing along the same lines to see what's possible and get fresh ideas.

Not everyone has a studio large enough for a group to work in, but if you do, it can be fun and convenient (you don't have to schlep all of your materials somewhere else!). Please get in touch if you'd like to discuss the possibility. Depending on the time of year, my availability can be quite limited.
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Everyone hard at work, but having fun too! What you can't see in this shot is the big skylight over the table which means there is lovely light to work by.
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Philip Guston on Making a Mark

10/26/2015

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Making marks in a painting or drawing sets up a dialogue between artist and artwork, one that is full of questions, challenges and responses.
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Sleeping by Philip Guston; 1977, Oil on canvas, 213.4 x 175.3 cm. Private collection © The Estate of Philip Guston
Philip Guston was a Montréal-born painter (1913) who became a major artist in the US.

I admire him for his honesty, making radical changes to his work over the years, going from skillfully figurative to purely non-objective (i.e. abstract) and then back to figuration; changes that had to be made in order to be true to the changes in himself as an artist.

The apparently crude approach he finally adopted (he said he wanted to paint like someone who could not paint) centred on a very personal vocabulary of recurring imagery and symbols.

​This quote from Guston shows his intimacy with and insight into the painting process.
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Mixing Up Media

10/20/2015

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Photo-only (before):
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Photo of a lawnmower detail showing beautifully corroded areas. Kim Lee Kho 2013
One area of stitching complete:
Creativity is essentially about making unexpected connections. Working in mixed media is very stimulating precisely because it expands the opportunity for forming new connections, especially in contemporary approaches where the options for ingredients has cracked wide open.

Stitchery, whether as sewing, embroidery, needlepoint, cross-stitch or other needle arts, has taken on particular importance in recent years. Late great Canadian artist Joyce Wieland (one of my heroes) was a pioneer in bringing traditional women's arts, such as sewing and quilting for example, into "real" art, i.e. the kind that gets shown in galleries and museums.

Below is a work-in-progress I've scanned in, where I'm drawing-by-embroidering onto a close-up photo of mine of an old, rusty lawnmower.

​What interesting media combinations have you seen somewhere or tried yourself?
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    Kim-Lee Kho

    As a visual artist I like nothing more than getting up to my elbows in paint or little plastic toys, or wading in at the deep end in pursuit of an idea. When I am not teaching others in a similar vein, you can find me researching, writing and noodling around in my studio, seeing where my latest lines of inquiry lead me.

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  • Home
  • Gallery
    • 2025 Facial Expressions
    • Burnt Offerings (2023)
    • Burnt Offerings (2022) >
      • Sponsors: Thank you
    • My Father's Things (series)
    • Heartspace
    • A Full Heart
    • Subject to Limitation >
      • Boxed In
      • Expanding Media
      • Fences as Barriers
      • Containment
    • Skin
    • Face[t]s
    • [Un]Settled
    • Digital / Photo / Mixed
    • Painting
    • To See More
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    • Biography
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