The Red Head Gallery is pleased to present At The Root, an exhibition by artist Sally Thurlow from March 4 - 28 with opening reception March 7, 12 - 5 pm.

Sally Thurlow is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Greater Toronto. Her practice is based in sculpture, installation, photography and painting. For some years she has been exploring the dynamic range of figurative forms using driftwood, within a wide range of other media. Questioning our cultural and environmental practises are a constant in her work. Currently, she is introducing paints, stains, and manufactured additions to her anthropomorphic figures, creating symbols for re-examination of dominant cultural ideas and re-evaluation of our propensity to judge. In an era of social disintegration and ecological collapse we may reconsider what the latest justifications are to conform. The pre-historic sacred and profane nature of the complex female forms is a choice for movement into wholeness and integrity. Her dark muses, emotionally charged with deep earthen colours, express anguish, ecstatic energy aborted, war on life forces. The playfully overt sexuality in the new figures lie somewhere between the lyricism of earlier driftwood forms and the dark emotional underworld of root forms.

Thurlow received a BA majoring in Fine Arts from the University of Toronto, finishing with Cultural and Environmental Studies at Trent University, with significant earlier studies at OCAD and George Brown College. She has given numerous artist talks and workshops at educational institutions and public galleries. Her work has been shown internationally and she has been the recipient of various Ontario Arts Council Awards. She is a member of The Iris Group and The Red Head Gallery, both artists’ collectives. Her work is held in private collections across Canada, and at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa Ontario. For more information please visit her website: www.sallythurlow.com.