His art is like a puzzle. The fun part is figuring out how it goes together

Inside an old TV repair shop in Toronto's west end, the studio of Leif Low-Beer is littered with hundreds of sculptures, drawings and materials in some stage of becoming. The artist buzzes from piece to piece, making marks in pastel here and sculpting shapes from papier mâché there, playfully arranging and rearranging the artworks to discover how they might best live together.  

It's interesting for people to see "the chaos" of creation, he told CBC Arts on a recent tour. "I like studio visits for that reason."
In a new episode of the CBC Arts video series In Process, Low-Beer welcomes viewers into his workspace as he composes an impressive, room-filling installation made from dozens of individual sculptures and drawings. Seen from a particular viewpoint, the distinct elements strewn around the space snap into shape, revealing a singular, flattened image or scene. 

He's building the artwork in preparation for a summer solo exhibition at Clint Roenisch gallery in Toronto (on now), where many of the smaller works will be on display. 

Watch the full episode here:

"When someone comes and sees one of these installations, I want them to explore it on their own, see all these different juxtapositions between objects and materials and narratives, and I want people to see their own path through the work," Low-Beer says. Then, after they've tried to puzzle out what's going on, he wants visitors to discover the golden perspective that exposes the grand composition.

In photographs, his artwork often gets mistaken for digital collage or the kind of thing assembled in Photoshop. Instead, everything is installed in the space just so to make the image click.

It's a little bit like a magical illusion, Low-Beer says. But it's an experience he finds quite interesting. "It opens up the way we see things to people."

The exhibition Leif Low-Beer: Versus Unavoidable Circumstances is on view through Aug. 9 at Clint Roenisch in Toronto.