Using his eclectic personal memories of more than 30 years, artist Anthony Wolch has created a series of 18 mixed media works of art in which he has included hand-painted and inked messages of hope and beauty.
Among them are: Let’s Dance, Love Deeply, Get Funky, Love Me Tender, Get Kind, Choose Life, Be Heroes, Hug, Get Found, Rock My Soul, Shake It Sugary, Get Uppa, and Move Me Brightly.
Wolch’s premise is that every day is a chance to realize dreams and share a vision of positivity and love.
He is set to exhibit his first solo art shows, Hello Darling: Pop Art for a Better Today on June 9 and Be Heroes: Pop Art for a Better Today on June 10, hoping that people will be inspired by his art. All proceeds sold at the exhibition will benefit The Remix Project.
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“The intention of this show is to give back to today’s disadvantaged, marginalized and underserviced youth by providing them with an opportunity for incredible creative experiences, and to introduce the idea that art exists everywhere in our everyday lives and is something that can change someone’s life in an instant,” Wolch said.
At five years old, Wolch discovered his creative genes through his late grandmother, Gertrude Ludwick, who was a poet, improvisational jazz aficionado, artist and proud member of Winnipeg’s Jewish community. Ludwick took the young Wolch to his first art class.
“In a now-defunct Winnipeg Canada Railway station, surrounded by people generations older than me, my grandmother introduced me to a person named Nick with dirty painted overalls and calloused hands full of paint who said, ‘Today you will learn to paint.’
“He sat me down at an easel and I produced my first piece of art, which was a still life of a lobster, grapes and a bottle of wine. The painting still hangs in my mother’s home,” Wolch said.
About 2-1/2 years ago he realized why he had been collecting elements of pop culture for the last 30 years: he could use them to create a body of work.
“A plan was hatched to create a show to benefit a better cause,” he said.
Wolch’s style of art is based on tenets of improvisational jazz music.
“All my work is produced on reclaimed pieces of board and paper where you can see throughout the art the workmanship and crafts that have gone into each piece. There are levels of imperfection. You can see bits of cardboard sticking out as well as the lines where I have drawn type. Nothing is traced or photocopied or screen-printed. It’s all original collage,” Wolch explained.
The project took eight months to produce in his home studio. Wolch takes his cues from Pablo Picasso, filmmaker and street artist Mr. Brainwash, angsty art and American artist Shepard Fairey.
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“It’s really about psychology that tries to understand the laws and our ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions in a chaotic world. I practise a design that’s based on the tenets of gestalt. Art becomes a balance of colour, design, shape, tone, hue, light and darkness combined with words,” Wolch said.
The works in the collection sell from $760 to $3,600, with everything based around the number 18, chai (life).
Wolch works in advertising, running globally recognized campaigns for some of the world’s best-known brands, including Nike, Coca-Cola and Google.
But it’s not his most important job, he said. “Being a dad and husband is my number 1 job. Advertising is a hobby, and art, my passion.”
Hello Darling is on exhibit June 9, 4:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., and Be Heroes is on June 10, 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Geary House 344 Geary Ave., Toronto.