This is an archived event from Culture Days 2025.
Images
Reception & Launch of Laird Art Link: After Tryst Exhibition
In-person
Painting Visual arts Poetry & spoken word Writing & literature StorytellingDate and time
Location
Laird Art Gallery
72 Laird Drive
Toronto, ON
Directions: The gallery is directly across from Leaside Village Plaza, opposite the Five Guys restaurant at the traffic light.
Access
Free.
Offered in English.
About
After Tryst — After Flight Alone, Paintings Unveil Their Poetry
A Solo Exhibition by Young Hee Sung
Artist Young Hee Sung, based in Toronto, has developed a distinctive contemporary painting method she calls Brush Densityism. In her practice, countless brushstrokes—lines and dots layered without empty space—accumulate into fields of energy and rhythm. Each stroke carries its own vitality, yet together they generate a unified density where layered colors, directional movements, and textures converge into abstraction. In this way, brushwork itself becomes both structure and music, producing resonance, vitality, and the passage of time within her work.
She found that poetry added layers of meaning to her paintings, allowing them to feel more complete and mature. Her participation in the 2025 Tryst Alternative Art Fair in Los Angeles became a turning point, deepening this dialogue between image and word. What had quietly accompanied her art now unfolds in full view, where painting and poetry converge, each enriching and illuminating the other.
In this exhibition, artworks sometimes unfold as poems, while poems in turn echo as images — an experiment in how meaning shifts, transforms, and finds its completion through dialogue between word and image.
A distinctive element of After Tryst is its integration of poetry. Audience members are invited to submit poems in response to the artworks. Submissions can be made through lairdartgallery.com or LivePoetryWall.com, where visitors can write while viewing the works. Selected poems will appear on the Poetry Wall online and may also be featured alongside artworks in the gallery, creating an ongoing conversation between visual expression and poetic voice.
Join us for the opening of After Tryst and the launch of Laird Art Link — an Artists & Writers Circle. This new initiative begins with a shared celebration of art and words: selected poems will be read aloud in the gallery, and artists and writers will gather in a salon-style exchange to reflect on process, share ideas, and explore potential collaborations across disciplines.
After Tryst is presented by Laird Art Gallery as part of Ontario Culture Days 2025, with the support of All Seeds Academy, celebrating creative dialogue and the enduring power of shared expression.
Exhibition Dates
📅 September 19 – October 4, 2025
Reception & Launch of Laird Art Link
📅 Saturday, September 20, 2:00–4:00 PM
Links
- Register on Eventbrite eventbrite.com
Organizer
Laird Art Gallery
Laird Art Gallery
Laird Art Gallery is an artist-run space in Toronto directed by visual artist Young Hee Sung. The gallery supports independent and emerging artists through exhibitions, talks, and creative collaborations. Throughout the year, we partner with curators, galleries, and non-profit organizations to host meaningful programs—including group shows, artist-writer exchanges, and healing art workshops.
Our ongoing initiative, Laird Art Link, invites community voices into artistic dialogue. As part of this initiative, we host salon-style gatherings and maintain the digital platform LivePoetryWall.com, where audiences can submit poems inspired by artworks. The Poetry Wall and Laird Art Link gatherings are closely connected—encouraging reflection, conversation, and shared creativity between artists, writers, and the public.
The gallery’s vision is rooted in care, reflection, and cultural connection.