Author: artoronto

Toronto’s Heritage Streetscapes: Can They Be Saved? / A  roundtable discussion

May 11, 2013, 2:30 p.m.
Twist Gallery
1100 Queen St. W.

 A  roundtable discussion on May 11, 2:30 p.m. presented in the gallery with Margie Zeidler (architect, President of Urbanspace Property Group), Deanne Taylor (playwright, co-Founder of VideoCabaret) and Adam Vaughan (Toronto City Councilor, Trinity-Spadina).

The roundtable discussion is part of  the exhibition titled EARLY SUNDAY MORNING / New urban Photographs by DAVID KAUFMAN. The images draw attention to commercial structures in older, once less affluent parts of the city near the downtown core that are threatened by gentrification and the condo building boom. The exhibition is a photographic “cri de coeur” for what remains of Toronto’s unheralded early buildings and a celebration of a century-old era in the city’s architecture. (Part of the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival.)

The show is open May 1 – 26, 2013. Hours:  Wed – Sun 11 – 6 p.m.

BENEFIT FOR MERCER UNION, A CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART

Auction: Thursday May 16,  2013, 6 p.m.
Scrap Metal
11 Dublin Street, Unit E
Tickets $85

Preview Exhibition:
May 7 – 16, 2013
Hours: Tue –  Sat 1 – 6 p.m.
Free and open to the public

Join us for Stellar Living 2013, the fifth installment of Mercer Union’s biannual auction series. Canadian and international artists and designers have generously contributed unique works of art and design in support of Mercer Union’s programming and exhibitions in 2013-1014. Works will be on view at Scrap Metal gallery leading up to the auction night.

Visit www.mercerunion.org for more details.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Nadia Belerique, BGL, Cedric Bomford, Adam David Brown, Sarah Cale, Robyn Cumming, Heidi Earnshaw, Scott Eunson, Geoffrey Farmer, Fugitive Glue, Kara Hamilton, Katharine Harvey, Jean-Paul Kelly, Deanne Lehtinen & Christina Zeidler, Micah Lexier, Derek Liddington, Anne Lowe & Gareth Moore, Annie MacDonell, Elizabeth McIntosh, Benoît Maire, John Massey, Niall McClelland, Tricia Middleton, Jonathan Monk, Moss & Lam, Jennifer Murphy, Christina Ott with Crow Art Design Build, Ed Pien, Jaan Poldaas, Geoffrey Pugen, Kerri Reid, Darren Rigo, Jennifer Rose Sciarrino, Hugh Scott Douglas, Berndnaut Smilde, Rob Southcott, Gary Taxali, Ron Terada, Winnie Truong, Kara Uzelman, Laurel Woodcock, Elizabeth Zvonar, and more…

Call 416.536.1519 or email york@mercerunion.org for further inquiries.

Canadian artist Arnaud Maggs’ artistic legacy continues to influence and inspire Toronto this month with the premiere of Spring & Arnaud by Hot Docs and the opening of his Scotiabank Photography Award (SPA) exhibition at the Ryerson Image Centre (RIC). During the months before his passing, Maggs was self-curating this exhibition at the RIC which contains four handpicked works surrounding themes of mortality, collecting, and portraiture.

Arnaud Maggs, André Kertész, 144 Views, detail, 1980 © Estate of Arnaud Maggs, Courtesy of Susan Hobbs Gallery

Upon entering the exhibition, a monumental display of André Kertész: 144 Views (1980) astounds the senses. Assembled into a large-scale grid installation that is synonymous with Maggs’ practice, this never before exhibited work grants a glimpse into the artist’s working process with the sequential portrait. Maggs’ persistence and attention to detail is demonstrated as Kertész gradually turns and lets his guard down. In certain images, Kertész appears to have fallen asleep on camera and in others he smiles as if he had just heard a witty joke. Although Kertész’s appearance and personality is portrayed in a multi-faceted light that appears to capture every facial twitch, every freckle, and every hair, Maggs’ unyielding focus towards his subject does not shift, highlighting both his and Kertész’s character as photographers.

Arnaud Maggs, Kunstakademie, detail, 1980 © Estate of Arnaud Maggs, Courtesy of Susan Hobbs Gallery

In the main gallery space, two long works contrast each other on opposite sides of the room with a partial wall extruding from the center. Kunstakademie (1980) is a series of 148 black-and-white frontal and profile-view portraits of students at the Staatliche Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, Germany. In this piece, Maggs establishes a timeless quality through social connectivity. Although this group may have played a part in fabricating the history of conceptual art, Maggs portrays each individual in a humanizing light that exceeds their historical relevancy. Each individual is highly reminiscent of everyday people that one may have known, passed, or briefly encountered. In many cases, it is hard to not fall in love with the individuals that Maggs has chosen because their gaze towards the viewer is so intimately seductive, yet distanced enough to maintain intriguing.

 Arnaud Maggs, The Dada Portraits: Marcel Duchamp, detail, 2010 © Estate of Arnaud Maggs, Courtesy of Susan Hobbs Gallery

At first glance, The Dada Portraits (2010) appears to be representational portraits of seminal Dada artists. In actuality, they are based on architectural drawings of staircases from 1850. The comparison between this piece and Kunstakademie (1980) is quite curious. In one, Maggs creates the impression that mug shots of strangers possess the capability to generate an intimate connection, while in the other, Maggs defaces and defamilarizes the famous. By using architectural lines and shapes along with names, The Dada Portraits evokes presumptions towards the lesser known names, and reiterates the personalities of the more popular artists.

Arnaud Maggs, After Nadar: Pierrot Turning, detail, 2012 © Estate of Arnaud Maggs, Courtesy of Susan Hobbs Gallery

The final work in the exhibition comes as a surprise behind the wall from the center of the space. After Nadar: Pierrot Turning (2012) is part of the larger After Nadar series of self-portraits. In particular, this series alludes to a Nadar self-portrait from 1864 and Charles Deburau the mime. Maggs once commented on another image in the larger series which depicts himself holding a black banded envelope by confidently stating, “It is me playing with death.” Perhaps this is why After Nadar Pierrot Turning is such a difficult piece to confront. During my first encounter with this work, it was difficult to emphasize with Maggs because unlike his more romantic pieces, here his assertiveness is intimating. The other three works in the exhibition feature delicate frames, ivory backgrounds, and stark subjects. The visual elements of this piece are the exact opposite of the others with thick black frames, a black velvet backdrop, and the artist himself in costume as Pierrot. Maggs applied his meticulous nature to document and collect towards himself, pirouetting for the camera just many of his own subjects had done for him.

The work is morbidly optimistic as Maggs boldly stares ahead without any hesitation or fear in his expression. Yet at the same time, although we see all 360 degrees of Maggs, the work still possesses a hint of coyness and mystery. Firstly, Maggs is in costume wearing layers of caked makeup and secondly, the camera focused on the details of his face and his rounded spectacles slightly obscure the focus of his eyes. As the eyes are often considered the window into one’s soul, Maggs maintains a veil of playful secrecy and demonstrates that nothing is as clear as it seems. One of Maggs’ unique talents was photographing individuals without dissolving their mystery.

This exhibition offers insight towards Maggs’ adoption of photography as an artistic tool to document people and grants a glimpse of the photographer himself.

The exhibition runs till June 2, 2013 at the Ryerson Image Centre.

*Thanks for Ryerson Image Centre Docent Tyler Webb

Shellie Zhang

Andrew Wright: Penumbra / Janieta Eyre: Constructed Mythologies
April 30 – June 29, 2013
Opening Reception: May 3, 6 – 8:30 p.m.
University of Toronto Art Centre
15 King’s College Circle

This year, CONTACT’s Festival theme, Field of Vision, intends to explore the photographic medium as a way of seeing. Andrew Wright’s Penumbra, currently on display the University Toronto Art Center (UTAC) is a quintessential display of innovative approaches towards using photography as a means to broaden the horizons of visual perception.

Bonnie Rubenstein, artistic director of Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival with artist Andrew Wright and University of Toronto Professor Mark A Cheetham

Wright believes that this exhibition reflects his “interest in what makes a photograph and what makes a photographic experience.” His investigation of the penumbra explores limbo-like spaces between regions of complete shadow and complete illumination. By using scale, darkness and skewed angles, Wright evokes a sense of disorientation that causes ambiguity and mystery about the space depicted.

Andrew Wright with his two children in front of Tree Corrections, 2012

In the exhibition Q&A, Wright claimed that one’s sense of time and orientation becomes mixed up when travelling. In the north, the distinctions between night and day blend into each other and what we rely on to locate ourselves in space becomes subject to question. Penumbra captures this phenomenon by situating the viewer on the fringes of both worlds.

Visual Studies Graduate Vlad Lunin gazes into Coronae, 2011 (left) University of Toronto Professor Mark A Cheetham admires Boulder #3 (Baffin Island), 2011 (right)

In this mid-career survey of works from 2001 – 13, Wright uses a range of photographic technologies from iPhone filters to camera lucidia, altogether offering a diverse exploration of mystically disorientating visuals. The combination of methods present in the exhibition granted a new means of interpreting our surroundings. For example, in Prairie Skies X (2004), rather than staring up at the sky as so many visionaries before him have done, Wright makes the sky come to him with a pinhole camera.

Bonnie Rubenstein alongside CONTACT programme manager Tara Smith

Bonnie Rubenstein has stated that Penumbra has been one of the most intense curatorial projects for her during CONTACT. In the past, she has seen several exhibitions of Wright’s work in Toronto but they had always been strong centralized around one project. Her desire to see how all his work from the past and present resonated together compelled her to arrange this survey exhibition.

Artist Janieta Eyre alongside her piece The Day My Eye Laid An Egg, from the Motherhood series, 2002

Alongside Penumbra, UTAC is also exhibiting Janieta Eyre’s Constructed Mythologies. Eyre is an internationally acclaimed photographer known for her constructed images that contrast and challenge traditional notions of femininity. This exhibition examines a timeline of Eyre’s work in its capacity to confront and re-examine social constructions.

Installation view of Mute Book #7, 2010

Eyre’s quirky double self-portraits offer alternative myths that stem from her own encounters to a broader social critiques Often, her surreal portraits portray herself as a schizophrenic twin that is simultaneously amusing and grotesque, rejecting singularity.

Text and photo: Shellie Zhang

On a beautiful spring weekend it is fun to walk the city from gallery to gallery. Some of the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival shows  just opened or opening on this weekend. Please look at our suggestions for a gallery walk starting  downtown this weekend and ending at the Junction with a lots of opening receptions on Saturday night. Enjoy the shows and have a glass of wine at one of the many openings. Cheers. We would be interested how did you like the shows so please let us know.

98th Annual OCAD University Graduate Exhibition
May 3 –  May 6, 2012
OCAD UNIVERSITY
100 McCaul St.

Stepping into OCAD’s main building on May 3rd, a sunny Friday afternoon, I was immediately surrounded by a happy buzzing of young people. They were all over the place, many of them graduating this year and proudly showing their work to friends and relatives.   OCAD U’s annual “GradEx” transforms the university’s main building and the acclaimed Sharp Centre for Design into one of Toronto’s largest and most anticipated exhibitions of emerging talent.

Andrew Wright: Penumbra
April 30 – June 29, 2013
Opening Reception: May 3, 6 – 8:30 p.m.
University of Toronto Art Centre
15 King’s College Circle

 Andrew Wright, Untitled Photography #4, 2013,Courtesy of the artist and Patrick Mikhail Gallery

Andrew Wright’s explorations of form, light and photographic phenomena come together in the exhibition Penumbra to reveal an unexpected perspective on land, sea, and sky alike. This mid-career survey of works from 2001–13 invites us to reconsider the ways we relate to and visualize the world around us. His rigorous practice intersecting conceptual and traditional forms of art making raises questions about the way we see.

Janieta Eyre: Constructing Mythologies
April 30 – June 29, 2013
Opening Reception: May 3, 6 – 8:30 p.m.
University of Toronto Art Centre Art Lounge
15 King’s College Circle

Janieta Eyre, Burning Cake, from the series Motherhood, 2002

While Eyre’s work is highly constructed, unlike images of women and femininity that we so often encounter in everyday life, she rejects implicit gender roles and offers alternative myths that extend beyond a simple critique.  This exhibition features photographs from five different series created by Eyre that focus on constructions of beauty and sexuality in various stages of women’s lives, from girlhood to motherhood.

Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival 2013 / Festival Launch
May 1, 2013, 7 – 10 p.m.
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art

The city of Toronto comes into full bloom with the beginning of spring and the commencement of the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival 2013. Photographic works will be on display at 175 venues all around the city of Toronto throughout the month of May. Within Contact’s seventeen-year history, the festival has grown to become the largest photographic festival in the world. Contact brings together both international and Toronto based photographers with the community in both public exhibitions and installations. The role of the community, both as participants and viewers in Contact, has been integral to the success of the festival. Darcy Killeen, the festivals executive director believes that the “function of art is to inspire the community.” Contact has enabled a closer relationship between photographers and the community, bringing to light ideas about the world and the city in which we inhabit.

Bonnie Rubenstein, the artistic director of Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival

This year the festival explores the theme: Field of Vision, drawing attention to how photography is integral to the expansion of how we view the world around us. Bonnie Rubenstein, the artistic director of Contact, described this year’s focus as situating “photography as an expansion of sight.” Photography has the ability render aspects of the human condition that are sometimes invisible to the human eye.

Artist Sebastião Salgado

Some of primary exhibitions include the works of highly gifted photographers such as Erik Kessels, Andrew Wright, and Sebastião Salgado, among many others. Erik Kessels’, 24 Hours in Photography, featured at the Contact Gallery, opening May 9th, explores the ever-changing relationship between photography and society. Andrew Wright’s Penumbra on display at the University Toronto Art Center (UTAC) beginning May 3rd, reflects his “interest in what makes a photograph and what makes a photographic experience.” Sebastião Salgado’s excellence in photojournalism will be displayed in his exhibition entitled Genesis, opening at the Royal Ontario Museum on May 4th.

The opening of Contact took place on May 1st at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA). The MOCCA has been the host of the launch of the festival for the last seven years, and the museum is the most visited exhibition space during the festival. This year, the museum is exhibiting works from the Archive of Modern Conflict entitled Collected Shadows, as well as hosting an installation The Viewing of Six New Works by Michael Snow, a Canadian and internationally renowned artist.

The Viewing of Six New Works by Michael Snow

The launch drew a mass of visitors to the MOCCA of both photographers and admirers of photography. The large gallery spaces as well as the courtyard were filled throughout the entirety of the evening.

The Collected Shadows exhibition occupied the central gallery space where photographs were ordered in a chaotic arrangement clustered together in groups. This exhibition provided viewers with a great multitude of works ranging in subject matter and photographic technique and that inspired them to discuss their ideas about the images.

A show such as this deserves a second visit for viewers to contemplate upon the diverse range in a more private atmosphere.

Text and photo: Alice Tallman

Opening Receptions of the first week of  Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, 2013:

Opening Reception: May 2, 2013, 7 – 10 p.m.
Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen St W

Thursday night, Gladstone Hotel was home to CONTACT’s photo shows, In the Playroom by Jonathan Hobin , Queer Portraits by JJ Levine and Maclean’s Face to Face. The shows were abuzz with Toronto’s art goers, who could be found either pushed up against the 100 year old walls of the hotel or getting some air on the beautiful south facing balcony.

In the Playroom: Photographs by Jonathan Hobin
Opening Reception: May 2, 2013, 7 – 10 p.m.
May 2 – 31, 2013
Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen St W

In the Playroom is photo-based artist, Jonathan Hobin’s ongoing series of large-scale, colour photographs that depict children re-enacting significant world events such as the attack on the World Trade Center,  the murder of child beauty-queen JonBenét Ramsey or torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

Jonathan Hobin, The Twins, 2010, C-print, 42 x 54 inches

Just as children make a game of pretending to be adults as a way to prepare and ultimately take on these roles in later life, so too do they explore things that they hear or see, whether or not they completely understand the magnitude of the event or the implications of their play.

Jonathan Hobin, A Boo Grave, 2010, C-print, 42 x 57 inches

Most of the images are very creepy but in an interesting, engaging way.

Photo: Fox Martindale

InSight
Opening Reception: May 2, 2013, 7 – 10 p.m.
May 1 – 12, 2013
Gallery 1313
1313 Queen St. W

Gallery 44 members once again displayed their works for Contact at Gallery 1313. They have been exhibiting at the gallery for 15 years now and there is always a variety of diverse works.

Annie Sakkab, From the Series ‘Washing Men’, archival giclee print, 18 x 12 inches, 2012

This exhibit was Part One with fourteen photographers showing. Part Two follows with another fifteen photographers.

Gallery 44 Director Lise Beaudry with photographer Jonathan Groeneweg

The reception was a lively one with lots of visitor traffic and a few sales. Kelly Lamorie sold her series of 8 prints to arts critic David Jager, of Now Magazine and Linda Briskin also sold a print.

Linda Briskin

Larry E. Glazer’s print which was used on the invite was front and centre to the exhibition.

Larry E. Glazer with his work

The works were consistently professional and the reception a fun event.

Text and photo: Phil Anderson

Marriage Bureau by Victor Helfand
Opening Reception: May 2,  6 – 9 p.m.
May 3 – 31, 2013
Aroma Espresso Bar
500 Bloor St W.  Hours: Mon – Fri, 7:30 – 11, Sat – Sun, 8 – 11 p.m.

Aroma Espresso Bar with Helfand’s work

It may initially seem out of place to have photographs of American newlyweds in an espresso bar in Toronto; however, it sheds light on a diverse facet of life we are not readily exposed to. The photographs feature a variety of unconventional brides and grooms in unconventional wedding attire (converse shoes, red umbrellas and parasols, timberlands and jeans, bowler hats etc.) posed against the characteristic NY City Hall backdrop.

Installation view

Since 1916 the marriage bureau in lower Manhattan has been uniting couples under the law. Victor Helfand, a welcoming face upon entering the seating area in the back of the espresso bar, tells the story of his inspiration and his desire to represent and give a voice to non-traditional couples, of different social and economic backgrounds.

Victor Helfand with his work

Although Helfand was kicked out of the bureau by several policemen, and unable to continue this project, what he leaves us with is a challenge to our preconceived notions of what a wedding looks like.

Victor Helfand, Bowler Hat, 2012

This project ended abruptly when Helfand was escorted out by a police officer.

Text and photo: Leanne Simaan

Here is Where / Heather Fulton, Catherine Jones, Michael Mills, Annette Seip
Opening Reception: May 1, 5 – 8 p.m.
May 2 – 25, 2013
Workman Arts
1001 Queen St W and Gordon Bell Rd. Hours: Thu – Sat, 12 – 6 p.m.

By setting the tone for the rest of the show with a live musician, playing mellow tunes, all four artists intermingle the evolution of the architecture of the CAMH grounds and the human body/stigma of mental illness.  

Michael Mills, Memory 4, 2013

Mills and Annette Seip integrate the grounds with the elements of human body. Mills does so by layering the male body (inpatients from CAMH), while Seip uses the archival and recent (2011) photographs of the architecture to create 3D portraits of volunteers at CAMH.

Annette Seip, Volunteers

Catherine Jones’ work illustrates the stigma surrounding mental illness through visual metaphor. On the other hand, OCAD graduate Heather Fulton chose to photograph the last two 19th century buildings that remain on the CAMH grounds at 1001 Queen Street West. The intimacy she aims to achieve by developing the film with household items, like instant coffee, is complimented by her choice of framing the photographs with used books.

Catherine Jones with her work

Overall, all four artists’s work ask of their audience to attempt to fight the stigma surrounding mental illness in our community by considering the history of the CAMH grounds and, even more, a history of neglect and alienation.

Text and photo: Leanne Simaan

Sebastião Salgado
Opening Reception: April 25, 6 – 9 p.m.
April 25 – May 25, 2013
Nicholas Metivier Gallery
451 King St W. Hours: Tue – Sat 10 – 6 p.m.

Installation view

Sebastião Salgado, Iceberg Castle between Paulet Islands and the South Shetland Islands on Weddeil Sea, 2005, gelatin silver print, 50 x 68 inches

Nicholas Metivier Gallery presents Salgado’s inaugural exhibition in Canada, which includes influential photographs from Workers (1986–1992), Migrations (1993–2000), and Genesis.

Sebastião Salgado, Barrancos, Gold Mine, Serra, Pelada, State of Para, Brazil, 1986, gelatin silver print, 24 x 35 inches

He describes his style as “inside the circle,” often living with his subjects, immersed in their environments. Salgado’s black-and-white images are infused with empathy and respect for the people, wildlife, and nature he encounters.

Photo: Fox Martindale

Live Auction – Thursday, April 25, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
The Gallery
99 Sudbury Street, Toronto

The cataloque

ArtBarrage were very proud to once again curate the ArtBarrage 2013 FreeHand contemporary art auction to raise funds for War Child’s vital mission.

The mission to work with war-affected communities, helping children “reclaim their childhood through access to education, opportunities and justice” is needed more than ever in war-torn nations where vulnerable communities are struggling to overcome the trauma of war.

The FreeHand Crew (from left to right): Lorna Read, Jennifer Ivanovs, Emma Cosgrove, Barbara Harmer, Walter Willems, Lee Piazza and Kelly McCray

By incorporating drawings made by children in Afghanistan alongside contemporary visual artists, the FreeHand auction celebrates the War Child community, the visual arts community and the creative process in all it’s many manifestations.

Guest are registering in

Installation view

58 artworks were up for auction, from emerging artists to established career artists like John Brown, Bill Burns and Douglas Walker. It was a well attended event with a mix of seasoned art collectors, War Child supporters and first time buyers. There was work for sale in a variety of mediums: collage, drawing, painting, photography, prints, neon and sculpture. Some of the artists were in attendance. The auction sells doubled the number form last year, which is amazing.

Artwork by John Nobrega

The bidding

Lorna Read, the Chief Operating Officer at War Child Canada wrote to the ArtBarrage: “I wanted to extend a warm thank you again for all of your tremendous efforts that led to the successful event of last Thursday evening.  There was a wonderful spirit in the room, and people were not only generous, but they were also very engaged with the cause of War Child and the purpose of the event!  I hope that you were all satisfied also with the results of your work. It is wonderful when a partnership develops in such a positive way, and I look forward to many more years of collaboration on an event that is surely only going to continue to grow.”

Auctioneer Stephen Ranger from Waddingtons Auction House

Text: Walter Willems
Photo: Matt Forsythe

What The Hand Sees

Claire Weissman Wilks, Self Portrait, 1963 (detail), oil and dry brush on paper, 26.5 x 22 inches

In the 1980’s, after reading Etty Hillesum’s diary, Claire Weissman Wilks made some 20 drawings, her “Etty” series. As always in her work there is no landscape, no object, no clothing, or other “defence,” except sometimes a shroud, no food or shelter; and there is no deconstruction of form. As always in her work, there is “nothing but” the profound intensity of the naked human body – its immense moral power and mortal vulnerability. To explore historical events and to ask the most difficult questions through an exploration of the body – this requires the deepest humility. It requires the kind of rigour that is only possible after decades of disciplined work, when technique has become so intuitive that the hand has become “free”. It is a freedom that can only be earned. In the “Etty” series each line is alive and essential to the others. There is a silence surrounding these drawings that comes from an intense inner focus and conviction. This is Etty’s journey and this is Weissman Wilks’ profound solidarity with that journey.

 Daddy’s Day Girl, 1967, Conte crayon, 34.3 x 34.3 cm. Photo: Walter Willems

The “Etty” series is suffused with dispossession of every kind and with a fierce embrace of life, often in a single line. The drawings recognize the fact that all lives are lost “mid-stream,” gaping with intentions and desires; recognize that there are many possible lives lost in a single life.

 Mother Russia, 1982, Conte crayon, 99 x 68.6 cm. Photo: Walter Willems

In her drawings, monoprints and sculptures, the body is not a symbol. Abstractions find form in these bodies yet their flesh is always powerfully real. How much longing, fear, passion, self-knowledge, tenderness, joy, abysmal loneliness, grief, resignation, despair, is in the position of a foot, the weight of a limb or breast, the folding or grasp of a hand, bodies so full they are empty, so empty they are full. For this is love “sunk past its gleam” as Seamus Heaney wrote: “these are bodies steeped in physical sensation, emotion, and self-realization, an immersion so total it tips towards the insensate.” For all their intertwining, Weissman Wilks’ figures often possess a haunting solitude. No one has drawn this with great accuracy (and with lines of such fluid precision) – both the solitude we leave behind when we love without restraint, and the solitude at the very core of grief. In her series, “Tremors” and “Out of the Cave” her figures eat love to this core.

Out Of The Cave Series, 2008, monoprint, 61 x 46 cm

This exhibition represents decades of concentrated work. Images of intense physical intimacy – love and desire, submission to another and to sensation or emotion, the power and powerlessness of maternity, images of complex human pain in wars in different times and parts of the world.

In each drawing, an entire life is brought to the moment. Moments of devastating loneliness and devastating trust, openness splayed like a wound. The artist carries nothing with her, she carries everything with her. Paper and a stick of conte. “Drawing” with a brush on stone or glass. The page may be empty but the hand says what it sees. This is the mastery of an artist who comes to her work with absolute control and abject vulnerability.

She Ite Holired Abbles, 1972, Conte crayon, 31.75 x 31.75 cm. Photo: Walter Willems

There is so much tenderness in Claire Weissman Wilks’ line of flesh, and so much courage in this tenderness.

*Essay for Claire Weissman Wilks’ cataloque From The Beginning, De Luca Fine Art / Gallery, March 28 – April 28, 2013. 

Anne Michaels – Author of Fugitive Pieces
 

Monday 6 May, 2013 7 p.m.
Mercer Union
Location will be confirmed on RSVP
Refreshments will be served

Join in this exclusive opportunity to meet artist Jeremy Bailey at his studio. The In Studio series is free and guaranteed to Mercer Union Sustaining Members on RSVP.

Space is extremely limited. Select tickets may be available to non-Sustaining Members for $25. For membership inquiries, contact York Lethbridge, Director of Operations & Development by email at york@mercerunion.org or by calling 416.536.1519.

Jeremy Bailey’s selected recent exhibitions and performances include Life Feed: New Works by Jeremy Bailey and Antoine Catala, at the New Museum in New York, The Future is Now, Media Arts, Performance and Identity after Nam June Paik, at Tate Liverpool and Myths-Online, at MOSAIC, Polytechnic Museum Moscow, Russia.

Jeremy Bailey’s Important Portraits is currently on view at Pari Nadimi Gallery, 254 Niagara Street, Toronto, until  May 4, 2013.

With so much choice, with well over 1500 Canadian and international artists and photographers exhibiting at more than 175 venues throughout the Greater Toronto Area,  it isn’t easy picking exhibits to see.
We all  look forward to seeing much more than the ones listed but these caught our interest and everyone is sure to have their own list as well.

PHIL ANDERSON, publisher:

Looking Forward, Looking back / Lynne Cohen
May 4 – 28, 2013
Olga Korper Gallery
17 Morrow Ave

Lynne Cohen, Untitled, 2012

Xpose / Presented By Capic
May 22 – June 2, 2013
Todmorden Mills
67 Pottery Rd

Schatzberg / Jerry Schatzberg
April 29 – June 2, 2013
Nikola Rukaj Gallery
384 Eglinton Ave W

Jerry Schatzberg, Bob Dylan, 1965

THe Hard Way / Vitas Luckas
May 1 – 31, 2013
Studio 7 – Charlotte Hale & Associates
588 Markham St

Structure and Photo / David Trautrimas
April 24 – May 21, 2013
Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre
750 Spadina Ave

EMESE KRUNAK-HAJAGOS, publisher:

Genesis / Sebastião Salgado
May 4 – September 4, 2013
Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queen’s Park

The Mute Book / Janieta Eyre
May 16 – June 9, 2013
Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects
1082 & 1086 Queen St W

Janieta Eyre, Mute Book 4, 2009

In-Between Worlds / Meryl McMaster 
April 27 – June 1, 2013
Katzman Kamen Gallery
80 Spadina

The Girl Document / Edith Maybin:
May 10 – June 8, 2013
O’Born Contemporary
131 Ossington Ave

Edith Maybin, Untitled, from the series The Girl Document, 2013

In the Playroom / Jonathan Hobin
May 2 – 31, 2013
Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen St W

STEVE ROCKWELL, publisher:

Structure and Photo / David Trautrimas
April 24 – May 21, 2013
Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre
750 Spadina Ave

Architecture of Empty / Shane Fester and Kevin Morris
May 1 – 31, 2013
Evergreen Brick Works
550 Bayview Ave

No Cameras Allowed! / Steve Mann
May 1– June 30, 2013
Deconism Gallery
330 Dundas St W

Steve Mann, Maktivism: The wearable camera and Fare Witness as a Praxistemology of Veillance, 2012

Penumbra / Andrew Wright
May 2 – June 29, 2013
University of Toronto Art Centre
15 King’s College Circle

In-Between Worlds / Meryl McMaster
April 27 – June 1, 2013
Katzman Kamen Gallery
80 Spadina

AMY LUO, intern:

The Viewing of Six New Work / Michael Snow
May 2 – June 2, 2013
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art
952 Queen St W

Michael Snow, The Viewing of Six New Works, 2012, Photo © National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

FOX MARTINDALE, intern:

Unreleased / 2Fik
May 2 – 30, 2013
strong>gallerywest
1172 Queen St W

2Fik, Picnic sur l’étang [Picnic on the swamp], 2009

ALICE TALLMAN, intern:

Genesis / Sebastião Salgado
May 4 – September 4, 2013
Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queen’s Park

Sebastião Salgado, The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska, 2009, © Sebastião Salgado / Amazonas Images. Royal Ontario Museum, May 4 – September 4, 2013

LEANNE SIMAAN, intern:

Marriage Bureau / Victor Helfand
May 3 – 31, 2013
Aroma Espresso Bar
500 Bloor St W

On a beautiful spring weekend it is fun to walk the city from gallery to gallery. Some of the Contact Photography Festival shows are just opened or opening on Saturday. Please look at our suggestions for a gallery walk starting on the West end but focusing on downtown this weekend. Enjoy the shows and have a cup of coffee on a nice patio when you are getting tired of walking. We would be interested how did you like the shows so please let us know.

Georgia Dickie: Stivverin’
April 18 – 27, 2013
Cooper Cole Gallery
1161 Dundas Street West

Artist talk: Saturday, April 27, 2013,  3 – 4 p.m.

Working with an endless array of found objects, Dickie’s sculptural assemblages seek to map a new history through the conflation of their parts, re-examining their inherent properties to identify new orders of knowledge and information.  She uses collage and its essence of abstraction as a way to establish anonymity on behalf of the materials by creating new roles for them. WWW.COOPERCOLEGALLERY.COM 

Grow Op
April 26 – 28, 2013
Gladstone Hotel 2nd Floor Gallery + public spaces throughout hotel + exterior/offsite

 

NEW APPROACHES TO LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, URBAN DESIGN, ART AND EXHIBITION

Opening Reception: Friday, April 26, 2013,  7 – 10 p.m.

The Gladstone Hotel cultivates Grow Op, a new four-day, juried event challenging preconceived notions of landscape architecture, garden design, art and place making. The only exhibition of its kind in Toronto, Grow Op participants will be bringing some high art to outdoor design culture. www.gladstonehotel.com

Outworld by Alex McLeod
April 27–June 1, 2013
Angell Gallery
12 Ossington Ave

Opening Reception: Saturday, April 27, 1–4 p.m.

In Outworld, McLeod uses the video game’s virtual unreality as a jumping-off point for the creation of new territories at the extreme ends of colour. Like postcards from another dimension, these lustrous visions of rainbow-hued crystalline islands, shimmering artificial beaches, and shadowy villages tantalize with their offer of impossible worlds made manifest. http://scotiabankcontactphoto.com/events/1355

Lost in the Memory Palace: Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller
April 6 – August 18, 2013
Art Gallery of Ontario
317 Dundas Street West 

The multimedia artworks of Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller emphasize aural and visual experiences that transport the viewer to other realms of consciousness. Their work is highly scripted, meticulously detailed and often cinematic in scope, breaking down distinctions between fiction and everyday reality. Through various levels of engagement, the viewer becomes a participant, either witnessing a phenomenon or becoming immersed in a scenario and vitally activating it. http://www.ago.net/lost-in-the-memory-palace

Sebastião Salgado
April 25 – May 25, 2013
Nicholas Metivier Gallery
451 King Street West

 

Nicholas Metivier Gallery presents Salgado’s inaugural exhibition in Canada, which includes influential photographs from Workers (1986–1992), Migrations (1993–2000), and Genesis. Salgado is the recipient of many prestigious awards and his work has been exhibited in museums worldwide. http://scotiabankcontactphoto.com/events/1136

Meryl McMaster: In-Between Worlds
April 27–June 1, 2013
Katzman Kamen Gallery
80 Spadina Ave 406 

Opening Reception: April 27, 2 – 5 p.m.

In-Between Worlds is an expression of one of  McMasters bicultural Aboriginal-European heritage, which she views as a synergistic strength rather than a struggle between opposing forces. http://scotiabankcontactphoto.com/events/1178

Toronto Time by Harry Enchin
April 27 – May 22, 2013
Bezpala Brown Gallery
17 Church Street

 

Toronto Time uses photo-based collages that digitally combine archival source material with modern-day images of the exact same locations, to examine the passing of time in Toronto. www.bezpalabrown.com