Sketching the Line, an international exhibition of 78 sketches by 13 artists from around the world, currently provides Toronto transit riders with brief impressions of fellow commuters in Toronto, New York, Berlin and the United Kingdom.

The sketches document place, time and movement while simultaneously revealing some of their subjects’ personal moments while commuting. Sketching the Line is part of Pattison Onestop’s ongoing Art in Transit programme.

Sketches of the commuters appear on Pattison’s digital screens in TTC subway stations from Monday, March 3 until Sunday, April 13.

“Exhibiting sketches of commuters, by commuters, in the environment where they were made reminds us that we are not anonymous or invisible when we move through public space, and that the constant sea of humanity around us is actually made up of individuals. Sketching the Line also draws attention to the range of artistic practices that occur every day in well used public spaces like the Toronto’s subway system…,” said Sharon Switzer, national arts programmer and curator for Pattison Onestop. “This is the first exhibition of its kind on public screens and I hope that commuters enjoy seeing themselves from the perspective of artists.”

(The sketches also appear along Edmonton’s light rail transit line and in the Calgary Airport. A series of billboards, presenting images from a daily car commute between Calgary and Drumheller, is also part of Sketching the Line and appears beside an Alberta highway.)

Sketching the Line includes work by 13 artists who have often been sketching on their daily commutes, some for many for years, keeping their drawing and observational skills sharp. The participants include architects, artists, art instructors, character designers, curators, and illustrators. Canadian contributors are Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera of Imaginism Studios, and multimedia artist Nicole Little, all based in Toronto.

Images by Alberta artist and exhibit designer, Jan Beringer, form the billboard series.

Richard Alomar, founder of Urban Field Studio; Greg Betza, founding member of Studio 1482; Jason Das, president of Urban Sketchers; artist Sharon Frost; Stephen Gardner, who has painted more than 200 book covers; and Anna Rich with more than 20 children’s book illustrations to her credit, all provided New York City sketches.

The Berlin sketches are provided by Oona Leganovic, a founding member of Urban Sketchers Berlin; Irish artist and educator Conor Coady; architect and illustrator Rolf Schröter. Steve Wilkin, a Yorkshire-based illustrator and educator whose work has garnered international recognition, captured the UK commuters.

You can review the participating artists’ biographies and artist statements here.

Pattison Onestop’s Art in Transit program organizes a number of annual programs and unique programming almost every month of the year.

Art in Transit programming introduces more than one million daily TTC commuters to a range of digital public art by offering entertaining and thought-provoking projects and festivals that require no previous knowledge of contemporary art. Art in Transit also runs arts and cultural programming throughout the year on the Pattison Onestop network of shopping mall screens across Canada.

Source:

• Art in Transit