Winnie Truong, The Fringes

September 8th - October 2nd, 2011
Opens: Thursday September 8th, 6-9pm
1086 ½ Queen St. W. Toronto, ON
Hours: Wed – Sat 12-6 p.m. & Sun 1-5 p.m.

In her new series The Fringes, Winnie Truong's pencil crayon portraits of tender young outcasts continue to explore the liminal space between the beautiful, the grotesque, the discomforting and the familiar. While The Fringes refer to both ornamentation in both hairstyle and fashion, it also makes reference to a place in John Wyndham's 1955 sci-fi novel "The Chrysalids" of a forbidden territory occupied by outcasts and mutants at edge of society, where physical deviations are known as "blasphemies". Truong continues to examine hair as an extension of character in the portrait and the anonymous body. Her drawings conjures the dejection, isolation and strange allure of this imaginary place, telling the story of what occurs when these faces dare to exist at the fringe of beauty, fashion, and biological possibility.

Artist’s Bio
Born in 1988, Winnie Truong lives and works in Toronto and is a recent graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design’s drawing and painting program. Winnie is the recipient of numerous awards, including W.O. Forsythe award, the 401 Richmond Career Launcher prize and the BMO 1st! Art Award for Ontario, which was shown at Mocca last fall.  This past year Truong has shown in New York at Mulherin Pollard Projects and was also featured at VOLTA , NY.  She is in the collection of The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas