Blog - KIM-LEE KHO

Virtual Studio Parties, Fall Term & the Coming Weeks

8/11/2020

DATE CHANGE:
Virtual Studio Party will return two weeks later,
on Saturday, October 3 at 2pm.

My co-host Kal Honey and I are taking a break from some of our work responsibilities for several weeks, including the Virtual Studio Parties, free weekly creative events on my YouTube channel, that have seen us through the first few months of the pandemic.

It has become something that we, and numerous regular attendees, have come to treasure, for the creative time, the conversation, and for the community experience.

While we are on hiatus, there is a YouTube playlist of 24 videos available on my channel from past parties. They are there for you to enjoy whenever you feel the need for some creative time with friendly company, in the comfort of your home (or at this time of year, possibly your cottage).

Here is the link: https://bit.ly/31HtbOm

Meanwhile, in the coming weeks, you can expect more posts here in the blog, and updates in the Teaching+ menu above, in my Online Offerings.

I've got my Fall term planned out so I'm busy writing and making web pages for each of the courses I will be offering. Some of them are up already with everything but the materials lists, which I'll post in late August.

UPDATE: All of my Fall courses are up on the website now!
Click here to see what's available.

Finally, if you haven't made it to one of our Virtual Studio Parties yet, I hope you can make some space in your week to attend one live on a Saturday afternoon this Fall, or else by watching or listening to a replay. And if you know anyone else who might enjoy it, please share the link with them.

Creative time, creative community, a friendly artist making things – and it's free! What's not to love? I hope you'll join us!

My Recent TV Appearance Is Now Online

8/10/2020

I was delighted to be featured in episode 36 of Stella's Studio on Camoes TV, a show about art and artists, music and musicians. In it I talked about and showed some of my work, I also demonstrated a process I work with a lot.

To prepare for shooting the video, there was the "excitement" of getting my upstairs studio space looking presentable – not to mention my own self, lol – anyone else here find that isolation has made their appearance standards slip a little?

The studio clean-up was necessary because making a TV appearance during the COVID pandemic is a little different than my experiences in the past. The show's crew could not come to my house but neither could I go to their studio, so I had to shoot my own video segments, which the show then added to with still photos, video effects, and most importantly, editing.

My video skills are rudimentary (better than they were a year ago!) and I didn't have much time to shoot my segments, but despite that, and some resulting technical issues Stella and her team made it look much better than I feared, and I am quite pleased with the result.

Here is a link to the episode:
tinyurl.com/yb53th78

My portion of the program starts a at about the 4:45 mark and lasts for 7 or 8 minutes.

I hope you enjoy it!

Screenshots courtesy Stella's Studio, a production of MDC Media Group, on Camoes TV (Rogers). Host Stella Jurgen is pictured with me (on the cup) in the final photo.

Life in a Pandemic: Anxious Times

3/26/2020

This is a time for hearts,
for big hearts, growing hearts,
open hearts.

Hearts too big to fit into this picture.

Let’s take good care of everyone,
including ourselves.

Life during a pandemic, even in countries like Canada which is still in the early stages, is full of anxiety. We're thrown off balance so we have trouble finding our footing. It's like the ground keeps moving.

It's not just that we are having to learn new practices to stay healthy, it's also the fact that the situation is constantly changing, close at hand, and around the world.

Some people have reached out to me, each experiencing some degree of distress. Some are experiencing a lot of fear – of the virus, for the future – and the 24/7 news cycle has become a vortex that infects us with fear.

There are others for whom the loss of normalcy, the rhythms and routines of their ordinary life, is the biggest issue. Losing so much so suddenly, they find themselves wading through grief for their life pre-pandemic. The suddenness can hit us hard.

I have been fortunate in finding meaning and purpose in the new things I have taken on, directly in response to the crisis, to help people get through the isolation and disquiet, and doing that has given me a little comfort.

Before I tell you about that though, I want to share with you some thoughts I wrote to someone who needed help and emotional support through her distress at feeling unable to focus, unable to work, unable to settle. I feel it too. So many of us do, even if not all the time. So here is what I would like to say to you:

Nothing is normal right now. Nothing. So be gentle on yourself for not being able to work, and for feeling scattered. That is a natural response to feeling the anxiety of our crisis situation and even trauma and grief at the loss of normality.

We humans adapt to amazing things but to stay healthy in the full sense it is important to do gentle things that nourish, calm and ground you. That will ease the transition to the new normal, and you will feel better for it.

Activities that get you focused on your body are especially beneficial: movement of any kind and focusing on your senses instead of your thoughts whenever you can, or for part of each day.

Do something with your hands, go outside for a walk if you are healthy (and keep your distance from others). Above all, have patience with yourself and those around you... even for the times that you – or they – lose patience :-)

. . . . .

On March 20, I started holding Virtual Studio Parties online, via YouTube livestream so that anyone with high-speed internet, no matter how unconfident with their computer, could take part.

It’s a no-cost creative gathering for anyone who’s missing the experience of community, is feeling isolated or anxious, or wants to have some gentle fun in the real-time, virtual, company of others.

People have said it's really helped them and it's something they look forward to now.

If this sounds like it might help you, or just be fun, visit my Virtual Studio Parties page.

Do you have a suggestion for self-care during stressful times? Please share in the comments.

New Show: 'Heartspace Hotel' at the Gladstone Hotel Jan 25– Mar 5, 2020

1/26/2020

'Heartspace Hotel' is my surprise solo show for 2020 (I haven't told anyone about it until the last week couple of weeks, because I didn't know about it myself, lol!).

Occupying the third floor of The Gladstone Hotel in downtown Toronto, an amazing boutique art hotel renowned for its high profile art & design events and exhibitions, this multimedia show features a new combination of my heart-based work seen at my 'Heartspace' and 'A Full Heart' solo exhibitions in 2019, some of which have only ever been shown once, and even a couple of pieces I've never shown before.

Artworks include my longest digital print ever at over eight feet long, shown only once before in March 2019 at Cedar Ridge Creative Centre's Studio Gallery.

Also: many more prints, three of my large scrolls with giant image transfers, fibre-based work, paintings, abstract photography, and two more digital prints I've only exhibited once before.

The opening reception coincides with the one for the second floor exhibition so it's sure to be a happening evening – hope you can make it!

Opening reception:
Friday Jan 31, 7-10pm
Artist talk: 7:30pm

Kim-Lee Kho: Heartspace Hotel
at The Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen Street West
Toronto ON M6J 1J6

Front Desk: 416.531.4635 x 0
Dinner Reservations: 416.531.4635 x 7130

Final Week to See Heartspace & Thank You to My Sponsors

11/17/2019

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.

A Packed House for My Heartspace Artist Talk & Opening Reception

11/3/2019

Kim-Lee Kho giving her 'Heartspace' artist talk to a packed house at The Red Head Gallery in Toronto. All photos by Kal Honey, © Kim-Lee Kho

What a day! I'm feeling so full of gratitude for the many people who came out for the artist talk and opening reception for my 'Heartspace' solo exhibition at The Red Head Gallery in Toronto.

It was so packed that on more than one occasion I had to act like a bus driver and urge everyone to move further inside to make room for the new arrivals!

Wonderful to connect and re-connect with many familiar faces, colleagues, friends, students, sponsors, and even family!

I gave the group a guided tour through the artworks – so many of which merit a little background or additional explanation to enrich the experience rather than replace the personal encounter – covering conceptual, material and

technical aspects as well as recounting an occasional anecdote. There were also some excellent questions from visitors rounding out the experience.

While I rest and recover I will leave you with some photographs from the afternoon, and later on I will post photos of the installation without the crowds.

If you were unable to attend the opening reception, I will be back at the gallery on Saturday, November 9, from noon to 5pm. I'd love to share the show with you then, but of course visit whenever you can! And please don't forget to sign the guest book :-)

Heartspace runs through November 23, 2019.

Solo Exhibition: Heartspace Oct 30–Nov 23 at Red Head Gallery

10/10/2019

You are invited to my first solo show at The Red Head Gallery, where I became a member in 2018.

For more information about the content of the show, click here to see the exhibition page.

This show would be less than I’d hoped if not for the generous support of its/my sponsors.
Many thanks to all of the individuals, and one organization, who chose to support this project!

If you are curious about sponsoring new work, in any amount starting at just $10, please visit this page (click here) to find out more.

My Artist Statement for 'Heartspace'

Heartspaces are not tidy. They are bloody and muscular and visceral. They throb with the rhythm of our life. As their chambers squeeze, then fill, they experience high and low tides in the space of a single beat.

Being human is not tidy. We are born from blood and viscera and the scream that gives us breath, while our deaths set in motion a rapid decay.
From beginning to end there is so much mess, in our lives, our psyches, our hearts, and our flawed selves. And yet there is so much opportunity for beauty, love, and connection.

We are an interconnected web, hidden, like the vast underground network that makes a forest. And like a forest, if we separate into smaller, divided sections, we all do more poorly.

In this show artist Kim-Lee Kho is interested in the visceral and emotional experience of our human hearts, of the life and connections we can find inside, outside and between our heartspaces.
Heartspace is part of her ongoing exploration of the human heart: as repository for emotions, as metaphor, as physical structure; using it as a gateway to what our hearts mean to us.

The work began with Kho’s fascination for three-dimensional medical models and antique anatomical illustrations on the one hand, and on the other with a stirring of emotion, which moved her hand to draw as a way of contemplating subject matter.

Heartspace explores these ideas in multiple media: drawing, painting, text, photography, digital, fibre, mixed media, film-based transfer prints, sculpture and the artist’s first zine.
. . . . . . .

BIOGRAPHY

Kim-Lee Kho is a self-taught multidisciplinary Canadian artist, and former graphic designer/art director, exploring subjective experience as a gateway to broader human concerns. The daughter of both a scientist and an artist, Kho’s process and interests combine both influences, in sometimes unexpected ways.

Kho has participated nationally in exhibitions, residencies, and mentorships including at Renann Isaacs Contemporary Art (RICA) in Guelph ON, You Me Gallery in Hamilton ON, the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga ON, Evergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam BC, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby BC, and as part of a two-year travelling exhibition for the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie in Alberta. She is a multiple Ontario Arts Council grant recipient.

A feature artist in both the 2016 and 2018 In Situ multi-arts festivals, Kho developed large-scale installations in multiple media and live drawing performances for both events, held at the Small Arms Inspection Building (SAIB) in Mississauga ON. Her 2015 solo exhibition Chains Unlinked a multi-layered immersive installation exploring internal and external barriers through temporary mural drawing, video, textile, and sculpture, was at the Art Gallery of Mississauga.

In addition to her creative practice, Kho is a popular and knowledgeable arts instructor. She teaches at Fleming College’s Haliburton School of Art + Design, and Neilson Park Creative Centre in Etobicoke. She also teaches workshops, gives talks, live demonstrations, critiques, and juries exhibitions, at the invitation of numerous art groups, centres and galleries in Ontario.

Heartspace is Kim-Lee Kho’s debut solo exhibition as a member of The Red Head Gallery.

October 30 to November 23, 2019
Opening Reception:
Saturday, November 2, 1–4pm
with artist talk at 2pm

The Red Head Gallery
401 Richmond St. West
Ground floor, Suite 115
Toronto, ON M5V 3A8

Gallery hours:
Weds–Sat 12–5pm

Watch for sneak peeks on social media!
Instagram
Facebook

Seeking Sponsors for Heartspace Show, Starting at Just $10

10/1/2019

Hearts Are Messy by Kim-Lee Kho. Inks and acrylic paint pen on Chinese mulberry paper; approx. 30" x 18"; 2018. Can be an image for a sponsorship reward or the original is also available for purchase. Contact me for pricing.

Detail view of Hearts Are Messy. I actually like closeups on this piece a lot, so much that I may produce some prints of those. Let me know if you're interested.

Would you consider becoming a sponsor of Heartspace to help me make the best show I can?

Your interest in and support of my work here (and in-person) means so much, thank you! It spurs me to push myself to do the best work I can.

You may have noticed that I have an upcoming solo exhibition, my first as a member of The Red Head Gallery. Heartspace runs Oct 30–Nov 23, 2019; reception Saturday Nov 2 from 1–4pm; 401 Richmond St West in Toronto.

This is the first time I’ve asked this, but if you know me and my work then you know I do my utmost to create artworks, installations and experiences for artlovers like you to enjoy, and I hope find thoughtful, moving, sometimes challenging, always 🤞 interesting.

My last couple of shows left me gutted financially. So I am asking for your support, by considering sponsoring Heartspace, to help me complete the new pieces and formats.

Sponsorship is easy and starts at just $10
Either an email transfer (via online banking) or use the PayPal button below, no account required.

EMAIL Transfer (see below)

No link, just use your online banking and kimandkal@me.com as my address

PayPal (no acct needed)

This button above will take you directly to PayPal.

Please also send me your email address so I can confirm your name and we can communicate regarding your reward!

Reward Levels:
I will thank all sponsors – at any level – on signage at the exhibition as well as on my website. Some levels include gifts (see below). Please let me know if you prefer anonymity.

💲10 Please accept my sincere thanks 🙏
💲25 My thanks plus I will mail you a set of 3 cards with envelopes, featuring heart-based images 💌
💲60. My thanks plus I will mail you a special edition art print on 5” x 7” hot press paper, signed by me ✍️
💲100 My thanks plus a special edition art print on letter-size (8.5” x 11”) hot press paper OR a similar hand pulled film-based transfer print (featuring irregularities from the process), signed by me, with a handwritten thank you note 📝
💲250 or more Larger print? Small original drawing? Suggest something and we can discuss! 🎁

Fulfillment would begin at the end of the exhibition.

I will be making regular sponsorship posts on social media over the coming weeks, featuring different art images, and repeating this info there so no one has to go hunting for it.

You can find me on:
Instagram and
Facebook

Thanks SO MUCH much for reading and considering!

Heartfelt thanks to my new sponsors!
It means the world to me and to my Heartspace show! If you are able to attend the reception be sure to collect your special sponsor-hug!

Preparing for a Big Show

3/6/2019

Scale model for planning my solo show in the three exhibition rooms at Cedar Ridge Creative Centre.

I am hard at work preparing for my solo show 'Kim-Lee Kho: A Full Heart' at Cedar Ridge Creative Centre March 9–21, 2019. The opening reception will be Sunday, March 10, 1–4pm.

All the prints are made, including the two large new ones (scroll down for a sneak peek of one of them), which I can't wait to see up and share with everyone who's able to visit!

The gallery at Cedar Ridge comprises three main rooms in a historic mansion owned and run by the City of Toronto. There is dark wood trim and features everywhere, a big old fireplace, high ceilings (around 12ft), and baseboards that are at least a foot tall. Full of character, this is a very different kind of space than any I've shown in before.

Because the rooms are full of complications like multiple doorways, built-in bookcases, areas of windows and a big fireplace; and because this is my biggest solo show ever, where I'll be presenting up to 40 pieces/objects, a scale model was absolutely essential to help me plan.

My favourite and always-generous helper Kal Honey put it together for me then helped me plan and curate the show.

Following a site visit when we check and tested a number of aspects, particularly related to hanging methods and details about the space, there will be some adjustments made to our plan. That's why the final number of works isn't quite settled.

I'm continue to work on a sculpture that I hope to include in the show, (working with chicken wire so my hands are getting rather scratched despite mostly wearing gloves), and there are still so many details to look after!

If you can join us for the opening this Sunday, or visit the show anytime through Thursday March 21, I'd be delighted! Hope you can make it!

Please share any questions or comments below.

Cedar Ridge Creative Centre
225 Confederation Drive
Toronto, ON M1G 1B2
(416) 396-4026

Lacy white on red symmetrical image based on bare tree branches to express branching vascular systems. Artwork by Kim-Lee Kho, 2019.

This lacy image is a digital print, just over 5ft long. You will find it hanging over the fireplace at Cedar Ridge Creative Centre March 9–21, 2019.

SOLD! And Yes My Artwork Is For Sale :-)

1/26/2019

My Untitled (Layered Trees) just sold!

It’s always nice to hear that someone saw my work and both liked it enough and was in a position to purchase it so they could take it home.

“Untitled (Layered Trees)” is one of two artworks sold recently at the Take 2 exhibition at Neilson Park Creative Centre, which has its closing reception this Sunday, 2–4pm. Click here for more details. (On a sidenote, the reception is also an early-bird opportunity to register in-person for spring courses!)

This photo-based mixed media piece is 8” x 8”, on a wood panel, and layers a mounted photo-digital print under an image transfer from a piece of film that I spent considerable time altering by hand before applying.

Trees are a recurring motif in my work now that began to appear regularly once I started my anatomical hearts body of work, because the tree branches are so beautifully analogous to the branching behaviour of veins and arteries. As so often happens, our inner world reflects the outer one, because branching behaviour is a fundamental design structure in nature; it's one that I have become enchanted by.

I am drawn to the relationship between branches but also to the complexity, which reflects what I experience so often in my own mind and out in the world as I navigate a profusion of sensory inputs and relational ones as well. Complexity can become overwhelming, which some artists (eg Julie Mehretu) communicate (and create) very well.

It's interesting then that for this piece I chose to concentrate on editing the complexity, leaving only small touches of it in deliberate places.

Well that’s all very nice, but none of what I said really addresses the slightly tongue-in-cheek headline I gave this post!

That headline is rooted in my realization this year that it sometimes isn't clear that my work is almost always available for sale. Some of the more unusual formats might require a little adaptation or customization for a new, permanent home, but most of my work transfers quite easily.

It’s also true that sometimes when I’ve made a lot of new work for a show or event (like a festival) I’ve worked so hard right up until the installation that I haven't had a chance to work out pricing in time for the opening. So that can be another issue, but it’s only a temporary one :-)

I’ve had enough people ask that I thought I should clear that up!

(Continues below...)

The four prints I'm exhibiting in Take 2 at Neilson Park Creative Centre through January 27, 2019.

Since I have a couple of solo shows coming up this year – March 9–21 at Cedar Ridge Creative Centre’s gallery (where I will have three rooms in their historic mansion) and in November at The Red Head Gallery in the wonderful 401 Richmond creative arts hub in downtown Toronto – I will be making more new work. My plans include a couple of large pieces but some small and medium as well, including (if my idea works out) some multiples for the Red Head show. Multiples, like print editions, are more affordable forms of artwork than a one-offs like a painting.

I’ll definitely be showing sneak peeks and works-in-progress on my social media channels, so keep your eye out there! Especially Instagram where you'll find me at @kimleekho.

• • • • •
Have you ever bought original artwork (includes editions or multiples), or do you have a collection? If so, what inspired/inspires you to make the purchase and take it home (or office, or give to someone)? Was it a feeling, was there a sense of recognition, or something else?
I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.