2015 Gil McElroy, “Ryan Legassicke: Wall Disease,” blog.sculpture.org, June 24.

2015 Allison Fonder, “Jonald Dudd Exhibition Challenges the Definition of Design,” core77.com, May 22.

2015 Douglas Max Utter, “Window to Sculpture Emerging Artists Series,” Sculpture Center, Cleveland, 14-15

2015 Douglas Max Utter, “Window to Sculpture Emerging Artists Series,” Sculpture Center, Cleveland, 14-15

2013 – David Paterson, “City Strife: LAC unveils exhibition of urban grit,” Mississauga News Online, April 28.

Borderline” curated by Megan Press

From left, Mississauga based artist Tyler Armstrong, photographer Ryan Legassicke and sculptural artist Steve deBruyn at the opening of Borderline. The other artists in the show were Sara Febbraro and Mary Porter, who were not at the reception.

By David Paterson for Mississauga News

MISSISSAUGA — City planners struggling to come up with a vision for Mississauga’s increasingly urbanized future will have food for thought if they hop across the road to the Living Arts Centre, where an exhibition of art inspired by city life has just been unveiled. 
Called Borderline, the exhibition draws together the work of five new and emerging artists who have each been inspired by the urban environment. 
Though the five artists work in media as diverse as painting, photography, sculpture and even flip books, the overall impression is one of unrelenting grit. 
Heading the field in visions of civic dystopia is photographer Ryan Legassicke, whose piece No Trespassing/Space Available is as potent a rumination on urban decline as you will see. Legassicke has photographed dozens of condemned houses in the U.S. city of Buffalo and, to emphasize the gap they will leave behind, has cut the buildings out from each of his pictures. Row after row of these Polaroids are displayed on a table in the centre of the gallery in a work which would probably give the Buffalo tourist board a coronary, should they ever see it. 
Emerging Mississauga artist Tyler Armstrong also has a number of pieces in the show. A self-taught painter, Armstrong’s semi-abstract figures use both oils and spray paints, giving them a street-art vibe. 
“I try to pick out human characteristics, elaborate and deform and really make them my own. It relates to society and what is going on right now and how there is a lot of distortion in the world,” said Armstrong, whose figures are also brightly coloured to show that there is still hope for us all. 
The exhibition also features the works of Steve deBruyn, who has created a piece from recycled materials that is inspired by the forms found in a skate park, Mary Porter, who has created a series of flip books looking at Condo life, and Sara Febbraro, who uses mixed media to look at community and social engagement. 
Borderline opened as part of National Youth Arts Week and runs to June 16 at the gallery at the Living Arts Centre. 

Rachel Gotlieb. “Ryan Legassicke and Tanya Lyons,” Studio, Toronto: OCC, summer, pg 4-6.

2003 Gil McElroy. Piano Works. Oshawa: Robert McLaughlin Gallery.

2000 – Ingrid Bachmann. “The Object Talks Back.” Looking Forward. Ed. Susan Warner Keene, Toronto: OCC, 45-50.