Author: artoronto

November 3 – 10, 2012
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 3, 8 p.m.
GLAD DAY BOOKSHOP
598A Yonge Street,
Toronto, ON, M4Y 1Z3
T: 416.961.4161
shop@gladdaybookshop.com
Hours: Mon-Wed 11-7, Thurs-Fri 11-9, Sat 10-9, Sun 12-6 p.m

The Human Canvas Project is a body painting project that seeks to reconcile the relationships we have with our bodies.

Author (Saga of the Radicals) and artist Matti McLean will present his Human Canvas Project, displaying the first 100 portraits and launching the corresponding 100 page, hardcover photo book. In a collaborative and ongoing process involving music, paint, and photography, McLean has painted over 100 human canvasses and published the results.

The event will feature a live exhibit of the Human Canvas Project process, with models from the photographed sessions also on hand.

Matti McLean is an artist and author originally from North Bay and has been experimenting with different mediums for many years. A published author and graduate of Nipissing University, The Human Canvas Project is his first solo exhibit featuring the medium of body painting.

November 3 – 17, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, November 2, 7 – 9 p.m.
WELLINGTON STREET ART GALLERY
270 Wellington Street West, Suite 105
(between John Street & Blue Jays Way)
Toronto, ON
T: 647-352-3463
wellingtonstreetartgallery.ca
Hours: Tues-Fri 12–6, Sat 12–4 p.m

WSAG is pleased to introduce STEVEN MURRAY: Depth and Time .

As an emerging artist, this is Steve Murray’s first solo art show in Toronto. The artist creates unique, one of a kind, monotype artworks. His goal in art is to render an aesthetic image through abstraction that creates a sense of depth and time through colour and form.

Please join us at WSAG’s opening art show reception with artist in attendance to be held on SATURDAY, November 3rd (7:00 to 9:00 pm).

November 1 – 11, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday November. 1, 6 – 9 p.m.
GALLERY 1313 Main and Process Gallery
1313 Queen St. W.
Toronto, ON, M6K 1L8
T: 416.536.6778
E: director@g1313.org
www.g1313.org
Hours: Wed – Sun 1 – 6 p.m.

Gallery 1313 is pleased to present Lion Mouse, an exhibition of new paintings by Veronika Szkudlarek.

The paintings in Lion Mouse were made in Szkudlarek’s studios in Brooklyn and Jerusalem. The works included in this exhibition highlight three years of her large abstract oil paintings. Expressed through her praise of color, the paintings are about the process of experimentation. Szkudlarek’s work explores themes of newness and familiarity, conveying some of the ineffable emotions of the foreigner as well as the fears and the exhilaration of the emigrant and traveler.

Szkudlarek’s highly intuitive paintings are made with gestural layers of thin oils and large brushes. The process informs the work and each painting is a discovery of the relationship between the paint and the surface. The transparency or translucency of each pigment is expertly manipulated to create tension and perspective. The paintings are bright and visceral.

The title Lion Mouse is a double entendre. It makes reference to Lev Myshkin, the protagonist of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel ‘The Idiot’. Myshkin is a holy fool, a saintly stranger, who has traveled from afar. He is beautiful but guileless and must navigate through an intricate fabric of foreign expectations. The title also alludes to the contradictions between a fierce lion and a timid mouse, mirroring the artist’s feelings on the process of painting.

For more information about the artist check http://veronikaszkudlarek.com

Iman Issa, Material for a sculpture recalling the destruction of a prominent public monument in the name of national resistance, 2010. Mahogany, black tassel, 49x49x142 cm white pedestal, vinyl wall text. From the series Material (2010-2011).

November 2 – December 1, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, November 2, 7 p.m.
MERCER UNION
A Centre for Contemporary Art
1286 Bloor Street West
Toronto, ON, M6H 1N9
T: 416.536.1519
E: sarah@mercerunion.org
www.mercerunion.org
Hours: Tues–Sat 11–6 p.m.

Positioned within the interstices of physical reality and personal memory, the diverse practice of Egyptian artist Iman Issa continuously comes back to a critical question: “How does one visually evoke, communicate or signify one’s personal relationship to familiar places, events, and figures?” This question is born of Issa’s profound skepticism, or disbelief in, the pragmatist function of words and images to represent the complex makeup of memory. In recent years, Issa has probed this question against the abstracting background and symbolic language of monuments and memorials.

In presenting not anti, but rather counter-monumental proposals, maquettes, and alternative materials, Issa offers an antithesis to the failed doctrine of official monuments. Four sculptures from Issa’s series Material (2010-11) are on view in the exhibition at Mercer Union. Each display refers to an existing monument that Issa intimately knows from her native city of Cairo. Returning to the question, “How to evoke one’s close knowledge of a monument,” Issa gradually strips the original of its extraneous features (the fixed, “petrified” image of the monument). She thus begins with a blank slate, slowly building up each display until it gains a language of its own, reactivating “memory.”

Conceived prior to Egypt’s uprising and removal of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, the displays stem from a moment when images, words, and thus monuments were emptied of their meaning, and the link between signifier and signified became a “ground zero.”

The debate brought on by Issa’s Material underscores the potential of counter-monuments to recall the past through a production of it. A form in construction, in process, a “material,” as she calls it, has a greater capacity to actualize civic and private memory than the timeless physical structure official monuments have hitherto inadequately attempted to create.

The exhibition is accompanied with an essay by Natalie Musteata.

Iman Issa is an artist living and working in Cairo and New York. Recent solo and group exhibitions include: The Ungovernables, New Museum, New York (2012); Seeing is Believing, KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin (2011); Material, Rodeo, Istanbul (2011); Short Stories, SculptureCenter, New York (2011); and Propaganda by Monuments, Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo (2011). Her video work has been screened at several venues including Transmediale, Berlin; Tate Modern, London; Spacex, Exeter; Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool; and Bidoun Artists Cinema, Art Dubai, Dubai.

Kerri Reid, Souvenirs (California), 2012. Left: rocks found in California; right: copies of rocks found in California, stoneware with underglazes and acrylic paint.

November 2 – December 1, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, November 2, 7 p.m.
MERCER UNION
A Centre for Contemporary Art
1286 Bloor Street West
Toronto, ON, M6H 1N9
T: 416.536.1519
E: sarah@mercerunion.org
www.mercerunion.org
Hours: Tues–Sat 11–6 p.m.

This solo exhibition of works by Canadian artist Kerri Reid provides the first opportunity to consider several related series of works all revolving around the artist’s fascination with dust, debris, shadows and a inclination towards restitution, salvaging and repair. Materials in the exhibition vary from hand-painted ceramic sculptures, documentary drawings, and frame-by-frame erasures of video images, all intricate material processes that consider found natural and synthetic objects as markers of larger metaphysical questions.

Kerri Reid’s short-term residency in Toronto is made possible by the support of Partisan Studios Studios, Toronto.

The exhibition is accompanied with an essay by Sarah Robayo Sheridan.

Kerri Reid is a visual artist originally from Vancouver, BC. She has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally, and has participated in residencies in Vermont, Iceland, Banff, Dawson City, and Saskatchewan. She is currently living in the small rural community of Bruno, Saskatchewan, (population 600), where she works as a distance-education instructor through the University of Guelph while also co-directing (with Tyler Brett) The Bruno Arts Bank, a small music venue/artist residency/coffee shop/art gallery/mini-museum/music and bookshop. Reid also plays bass for The Department, with recent performances in Reykjavik, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, at the Bruno Cherry Festival, and at the Bruno Friendship Centre for Seniors Appreciation Day.

ART TORONTO, 2012
October 26 – 29, 2012
METRO TORONTO CONVENTION CENTRE

 Photo: Phil Anderson

Photo: Phil Anderson

Photo: Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

This year the Art Toronto International Art Fair continues to impress and surpass its previous year in what is the largest exhibition ever. Frank Hyder of Projects Gallery (Miami and Philadelphia) says its about the quality of work that impresses him and partner Helen Hyder. Hyder thought that were fewer galleries this year but the fair was still bigger.

Frank and Helen Hyder of Projects Gallery (Miami and Philadelphia). Photo: Phil Anderson

Julio Nieto, Y Alicia, from Villa del Arte galleries, Barcelona, Spain. Photo: Salomeh Ahmadi

Claudia Alvarez, Girl With Gun and Girl With Hoody.  BlueLeaf Gallery, Dublin 2, Ireland. Photo: Salomeh Ahmadi

Karine Giboulo, Democracy Village (detail), Art Mûr, Montreal. Photo: Salomeh Ahmadi

Richard Kraft, 16 Walkers for Toronto, 2012, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, USA. Photo: Deborah Kanfer

The Fair is expected to attract over 20,000 visitors and art consumers. All the gallery owners I talked with seemed impressed with the Opening Night Preview in terms of enthusiasm and sales. Ron Moore of Moore Gallery said Saturday has always been the best day for sales and this was echoed by other galleries.

Ken Macdonlad of Granville Fine Art Gallery and Ron Moore of Moore Gallery. Photo: Phil Anderson

Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto. Photo: Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

Every year there are special projects that help define the fair and one such project was the Beyond Geography that echoes the Focus Asia component of this years fair . In fact the title comes from a video work by participating artist, Li Ran.

Co-curator Katherine Don of Beyond Geography in front of Ons Aller Belang’s work. Photo: Salomeh Ahmadi

Ye Hongxing, The tempting transitoriness No.9. 2011 (detail of collage), Art Lexing, Miami, USA. Photo: Salomeh Ahmadi

Other projects include the BMW Art Car, this year the Robert Raustenberg’s 1986 Art Car, a BMW 635 CSi.

Robert Rauschenberg 1986 Art Car. Photo: Phil Anderson

The South Asian Visual Arts Collective of Toronto also had works on display including Joshua Vettivelu‘s Glory Hole Installation/Performance. Canadian Art‘s Richard Rhodes curated a series titled Aerials: Prisons , Vistas and Infinities. On display during my visit was Alain Paiement‘s photo aerials works. I missed the accompanying talk by Richard Rhodes. Everyday the display and artist changes.

Another fascinating and pleasing project was Aaron Taylor Kuffner’s The Gamelation – “the worlds first and only fully robotic gamelan orchestra. The sounds created provided a unique and resonating atmosphere in what can be an overwhelming experience of taking in so much art.

Aaron Taylor Kuffner’s The Gamelation. Photo: Phil Anderson

The MOCCA Benefit edition by Toronto artist, Ed Pien was mostly sold out . The water jet cut aluminium multiple was titled Leap. Sales of the work benefit MOCCA . Ed Pien has shown internationally (recently at the 18th Biennale of Sydney 2012) as well as being represented by galleries in Toronto (Birch Libralato) and Montreal (Pierre – Francois Quellette Art Contemporain).

Wil Kucey from LE Gallery  in front of Matt Bahen’s work Rosetta Stone. Photo: Phil Anderson

Art Toronto again offers the Next Galleries program where emerging galleries are offered an opportunity to display the works of new and emerging artists. This years collection of Next Galleries on the West side of the fair floor area included 19 galleries from Toronto, Venice, Montreal, Havana, Los Angeles, Mexico City and New York. Local Galleries included Le Gallery, MKG127, Narwhal, O’Born Contemporary, Erin Stump Projects, Blunt – an art collective, Neubacher Shor Contemporary and General Hardware Contemporary. These galleries offered some exciting works by new artists that demand attention.

Roy Arden from Monte Clark Gallery, Toronto. Photo: Deborah Kanfer

Genaral Hardware Contemporary, Toronto.  Photo: Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

Neubacher Shor Contemporary, Toronto. Photo: Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

 Open Studio, Toronto. Photo: Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto. Photo: Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

Jim Holyoak AGAC, Live drawing. Photo: Deborah Kanfer

A tour.  Photo: Deborah Kanfer

Photo: Deborah Kanfer

Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto. Photo: Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

One of the more pleasing observations I made was the invitation of artists to participate in some of the gallery booths representing them. This is difficult for many galleries with a large roster of artists and for most galleries travelling a considerable distance the cost of bringing artists along becomes prohibitive. At the Winsor Gallery, from Vancouver I talked with artist and photographer Brian Howell about his work. Howell collected a number of shopping carts filled with different objects over a period of about four months. He collected over 40 such carts and then took them to the studio to photograph them. Some 28 photographs became part of an exhibition in April of 2011 at the Winsor Gallery. At the Fair the Winsor displayed about ten of the works. Each photograph told a different story about the person who was moving these belongings in transit in the carts. It was fitting project for Howell, a former journalist.

Brian Howell of Winsor Gallery, Vancouver, BC. Photo: Phil Anderson

Also on hand was artist Angela Grossmann, of Winsor Gallery who talked about her use of working with found objects to display her work, as the piano rolls. The objects had there own history which added to her art work. The opportunity of talking to the artist about their individual work added to the value of the experience and made the work more engaging.

Malcolm Woolff of Woolff Gallery(London, UK) and art work by Russell West. Photo: Phil Anderson

Project Gallery, Philadelphia. USA. Photo: Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

This years Art Toronto offered such a variety of art experiences and Toronto is fortunate to have this kind of event to bring international galleries to Toronto and at the same time showcase the abundance of talented artists that call Toronto home. Now that’s something to take pride in.

Photo: Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

Photo: Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

Photo: Salomeh Ahmadi

 Text: Phil Anderson

 

 

November 1 – 7, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 1, 7 – 10 p.m.
THE GLADSTONE HOTEL
1214 Queen West.
Toronto, ON, M6J 1J6
T: 416.533.1374
E: david@blttogo.com
www.SpeakEasyTO.com
Hours: 12 – 5 p.m. daily

SpeakEasy presents their annual Fall Art Fair

A night out for creative types at the Gladstone Hotel

SpeakEasy is pleased to announce it’s Fall Art Fair, a weeklong juried exhibition featuring 29 local artists from a variety of creative backgrounds. The popular biannual event will take place at Toronto’s historic Gladstone Hotel from November 1 to 7, with an opening reception on Thursday, November 1.

After hosting one night art shows for 15 years, SpeakEasy has transformed into two annual weeklong-juried exhibitions open to established and emerging artists from all disciplines. The new extended exhibition hours allow more visitors to see the show, giving artists greater exposure.

Established in 1996 by award-winning contemporary encaustic painter David Brown, SpeakEasy has made a dramatic impact on the local creative community by creating an environment where artists from all disciplines can come together to share ideas, inspiration and innovation. With interest growing year after year, SpeakEasy continues to introduce emerging artists into the Toronto art scene.

The 2012 Fall Art Fair received submissions from 50 artists, 29 of whom were selected based on their creativity and innovation, excellence of execution, originality and technical skill, and fine craftsmanship. Disciplines include photography, printmaking, painting, fiber art, and mixed media art.

Thrilled with the huge number of submissions, founder David Brown expressed the following: “I am always surprised by the diverse talent in our city. There are so many creative and gifted artists here. I am always blown away by the submissions, how different they are from each other and by all the original ideas out there.”

Participating artists:

Mike Ashmore, Painting and Illustration, Edward Bahoric, Acrylic Painting Nils Blondon, Photography Paul Brandejs, Abstract artist who works with acrylic and photography, David Brown, Abstract Encaustic Painting, Antonio Camgemi, Figurative Painting, Blayne Collins, Fiber Based Installation Artist, Mary-Jo Carter Dodd, Photobased artist with 3D effects on the canvas Molly Crealock, Photography, Josée Duranleau, Mixed Media Collage, collages Helder Faria, Acrylic Painting, Micaela González, Acrylic Painting David Harcombe, Photography, John Ide, Drawings Tanya Klochkov, Mixed Media Painting

Iain Macdonald, Painting Valerie Marchand, Mixed Media, Alfred Ng, Hand Cut Paper Sculptures and Drawings, Nancy Oakes, Drawing, Kamelia Pezeshki, Photography, Bill Philipovich Abstract Acrylic Painting, Rhiana Sneyd, Glorified Streetscapes Painted in Oil, Ben Stansfield, oil on panel Karen Taylor, Abstract Acrylic Painting, Mitchell Toker, Collage on canvases & found objects, Virginia Lee, Acrylic on Canvas, Nava Waxman, Ink and water-colour on paper, Benjamin Wieler, thread embroidery on paper, Pawel Zablocki, intaglio Printmaking

 

 

Untitled, 1937 © Estate of André Kertész / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

October 27 – November 24, 2012
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 27, 2 – 5 p.m.
Conversation in the Gallery: Saturday, October 27, 2:30 p.m.
STEPHEN BULGER GALLERY
1026 Queen St. W.
Toronto, ON, M6J 1H6
T: 416.504.0575
E: info@bulgergallery.com
www.bulgergallery.com
Hours: Tues – Sat 11 – 6 p.m. or by appointment

Join us for a conversation between Robert Gurbo, Curator of the Estate of André Kertész, and Stephen Bulger.

This PREMIER exhibition of André Kertész’s “Self-portraits” marks the 100th anniversary of the artist’s first photograph and spans over eight decades of his extensive career.

Selected from a collection of over 1,000 self-portraits, these images offer a fascinating glimpse into the psyche of one of photography’s early masters. In 1912, Kertész received a small format glass plate camera from his mother as a high school graduation present.

He and his younger brother Jenő delved into the medium by taking photographs of each other, as well as their family, friends and street scenes in and around Budapest. Shortly thereafter, Kertész hired a machinist who fashioned a small spring loaded device that he designed for his camera that enabled him to take self-portraits (Kertész later insisted that he had invented the world’s first self-timer for a camera).

When Kertész was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army in 1914, Jenő sent him an ICA Bebe camera, which had a magazine of seven plates that allowed him to work more fluidly. During this time he frequently took self-portraits that were sent home. In many of these photographs, Kertész would often pose in conversation with his fellow subjects; in an effort to make the images look natural, creating an atmosphere of interaction and comradery. In these photographs, Kertész skillfully becomes a participant and an observer from within the photograph. We often find him slightly off to the side, actively watching the image while it is being taken. This became a methodology that he would use time and again in the future. After returning home from the war, he floundered through various careers. Frustrated by his inability to find fulfilling work, he wrote in his diary, “I am a nobody.” However, he continued to produce photographs during this time, including various self-portraits where he would present himself posed in a variety of situations and occupations such as an artist, a country bumpkin, a successful businessman, a scholar, a beekeeper and he even photographed himself in drag. In these selfportraits, Kertész appears to have used the medium in an effort to establish a personal identity and credibility – as if trying on different hats in an attempt to define himself.

Despite living with a deep sense of self-doubt, Kertész, for the most part, presented himself as happy and successful in these photographs.

With great trepidation, and at the insistence of his girlfriend Elizabeth, whom he would later marry, a despondent Kertész moved to Paris in 1925 in hopes of establishing himself as a photographer. Although lonely, poor and wracked with self-doubt during his first years in Paris, Kertész made great efforts to convince his family otherwise. He sent home many self-portraits depicting himself as settled and successful. Seeing right through his pretense, his mother and family responded by urging him to return home for a hot meal, friendship and family.

Kertész moved to New York City in October of 1936 where he struggled professionally and personally for decades. Here his self portraiture became bifurcated; while many images illustrate his despondent nature, others present a more upbeat attitude – the latter clearly representing his hopes and aspirations rather than the hard reality that New York life had presented. During this time he also began to make what could only be defined as projected self-portraits – photographs of inanimate objects, buildings or even other people that he said reflected his state of mind and which he insisted were selfportraits. Lost Cloud, 1937, and Melancholic Tulip, 1939, are some of the better known photographs that he defined as such. Looking at his entire oeuvre with this notion in mind reveals a wealth of images that, while not strictly self-portraits, obviously represent self reflection and take on deeper meaning.

The autobiographical imprint of his work is explored in an essay by Robert Gurbo, Curator of the Estate of André Kertész, which will be featured in an upcoming publication about these remarkable photographs by this extraordinary artist.

Thursday, November 1, 2012, 6:30 – 11:00 p.m.
ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO
317 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON M5T 1G4
T: 416.979.6648
www.ago.net
www.ago.net/1stThursdays.

The second installment of 1st Thursdays at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) will build on the excitement of the program’s sold out October launch, as the AGO and Aeroplan, an Aimia company, announce the winner of the $50,000 Grange Prize 2012 for contemporary photography live in Walker Court on November 1, 2012.

Jo Longhurst, Suspension (1), 2012, vinyl, 366 x 218 cm (dimensions variable)

Bringing together an impressive roster of artists, live music and art projects, 1st Thursdays are interactive art nights out featuring a variety of performances, pop-up bars, art-making activities, artist and curator tours, talks and live events. As the name suggests, 1st Thursdays take place on the first Thursday of each month, as the AGO opens its doors to adults 19+ from 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Cash bars are set up throughout the galleries and visitors can explore the AGO throughout the night.

Toronto-born fashion sensation Stacey McKenzie will host The Grange Prize 2012 winner event in Walker Court and will move the party into high gear at 8 p.m. McKenzie is known for her appearances on Canada’s/America’s Next Top Model and for her international modelling career, appearing in Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Flare and Vibe, among other magazines. The much anticipated award will be presented by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, a London–based artist duo who served on The Grange Prize jury this year.

During this celebration of all things photographic, party-goers are invited to experience the history of photography with the Tintype Studio and the experimental black and white panoramas featured in the exhibition Josef Sudek: The Legacy of a Deeper Vision. Guests are invited to feel the glare and heat of the paparazzi as they walk the red carpet, before assuming the role themselves as part of the AGO’s first visitor photo contest.

Josef Sudek (Czech, 1896-1976), Mannequin on the Lawn from the series A Walk in the Garden of Lady Sculptor, 1953-57, gelatin, silver print, 40 x 29.8 am. Art Gallery of Ontario anonymus gift 2000. AGO/Courtesy Anna Fárová estate © 2012, 2000/58

Following The Grange Prize winner announcement, musical guest DIANA will collaborate with local photographic artist Laurie Kang for a very special performance. Katie Stelmanis of Toronto indie band Austra will follow with a ground-stomping DJ set.

ShopAGO continues its DesignTALKS, a series of lectures by leading local designers focused on small space design. Architect, interior designer, teacher and critic Tania Bartolotto hosts this month’s talk from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. She will shed light on her unique process that utilizes design as a vehicle for maximizing our health and well being in the places where we live, work, learn and play. The AGO’s U.K.- born artist-in-residence Mark Titchner has a new exhibition in the Young Gallery and visitors are invited to get a sneak peek of his work on their way though FRANK restaurant.

Tickets for November’s 1st Thursday are on sale now. Regular-priced tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Admission for AGO Members is $8 in advance and $10 at the door. Tickets can be booked online by visiting www.ago.net/1stThurdays. Party-goers are encouraged to buy tickets early, as the October launch of 1st Thursdays sold out, with rush tickets available only.

Visitors in front of Diego Rivera’s mural. Photo: Mauricio Contreras-Paredes

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). Autorretrato con monos, 1943 (Self-Portrait with Monkeys, 1943), oil on canvas, 81.5 x 63 cm. The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection of Mexican Art. (C) Banco de Mexico Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museum Trust, M.D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Once guests have paid the entrance admission for 1st Thursday, they will be offered the opportunity to purchase $10 tickets to see Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting. The exhibition will be open until 9:30 p.m., with the last entry at 9 p.m. AGO members enter the exhibition for free. Please see more about it at http://www.artoronto.ca/?p=14707.

ABOUT THE GRANGE PRIZE 2012

On November 1, 2012, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and Aeroplan, an Aimia company, will announce the winner of The Grange Prize 2012, Canada’s only major art and culture prize whose winner is chosen entirely by public vote. Two artists from Canada and two from the United Kingdom have been shortlisted to compete for the $50,000 prize. Online voting is currently taking place at www.thegrangeprize.com and is open until 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 30, 2012. Selected by a jury of leading Canadian and British photography experts, the artists on this year’s shortlist share a fascination with the world of images that surround us every day — from fashion editorial and sports photography to landscape images and crime scene documentation. They include Annie McDonell and Emmanuelle Léonard of Canada and the U.K.’s Jason Evans and Jo Longhurst. Please also see more about it at: http://www.artoronto.ca/?p=13865.

October 26 – 29, 2012
CANADA’S ONLY MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY
INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR, RETURNS TO TORONTO 
METRO TORONTO CONVENTION CENTRE
North Building, Exhibit Hall A & B
255 Front Street West
T:1-800-663-4173
www.arttoronto.ca,
info@arttoronto.ca
Hours: Fri-Sat, 12-8pm; Sun-Mon, 12-6pm.

Art Toronto returns this fall with yet another stunning exhibition of modern and contemporary art from around the world. From October 26th to 29th collectors, curators and art enthusiasts will converge on Toronto to experience the latest edition of Canada’s premiere art fair. The four-day fair will showcase exhibits by more than a hundred leading and emerging galleries from 23 countries, with over 18,000 collectors, curators, and art enthusiasts expected to attend over the course of the weekend.

Antonio Santurio, Eros, Galerri Begona Malone, Madrid, Spain

Sandro Martini. “Dipanando Pittura”. Installation. Church of Luogo Pio, Livorno, Italy, De Luca Fine Arts Gallery, Toronto, Canada

On show will be thousands of works of art by some of the world’s finest artists. Though the fair does not open for another month, several major themes and trends have already began to emerge among the offerings. These themes represent many of the larger trends that can be seen throughout the art world and are referenced in the work of several notable artists.

Yung Ho Chang + FCJZ: Materialism, Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

Focus ASIA 2012 Art Toronto is delighted to announce FOCUS Asia 2012 a continuation of the annual initiative designed to highlight influential topics in contemporary art. Focus ASIA 2012 will feature both established and emerging gallery from the world’s largest continent in a section devoted specifically to contemporary Asian art. This invitation-only section of the fair will be curated by the well-regarded managing editor of Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Zheng Shengtian and independent curator, Katherine Don.

Nomoto Hirohito, Façade 16, ed.7, Lambda print , 42.0 x 61.9 cm, 2011, Osaka, Japan

In addition to exhibiting galleries, the curatorial direction of Art Toronto’s flagship exhibition and the commissioned Benefit Edition will highlight art and artists from Asia. A dynamic and engaging program of panel discussions, presentations and docent-led tours will complement these initiatives. Previous topics addressed at Art Toronto include video, the relationship between fashion and art, solo exhibitions by established Canadian artists, a survey of contemporary Austrian art and an examination of emergent practices among young Berlin artists.

Ed Pien Special Limited Edition multiple at MOCCA Booth
A special limited edition multiple by renowned Toronto-based artist Ed Pien will be sold over the course of the fair. Proceeds from the sale will support the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art.

Ed Pien, Leap, 2012, 12″ x 21 ¾” x 1/8″ inches; waterjet-cut metal; Multiple Courtesy of the artist, Birch Libralato, Toronto and Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain, Montréal

Installation Art
Installation and site-specific art has been a major current in modern art for many decades. Aaron Taylor Kuffner’s The Gamelatron which will be installed in the entrance hall to the fair. The Gamelatron is the world’s first and only fully robotic gamelan orchestra. This site-specific installation will literally set the tone for visitors as they enter the convention centre and make their way to the main exhibition hall.

Performance Art
At this year’s Opening Night Preview artists Tibi Tibi Neuspiel and Geoffrey Pugen will present a new performance piece entitled The Tie Break: Hurdles. The work will re-enact a famous moment in sports history with excruciating detail.  The hurdles will be set up throughout the exhibition hall thereby immersing the evening’s guests in the action.

POWER TALKS: Organized by the Power Plant
Power Talks is a co-production of Art Toronto and Toronto’s Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. Every year the Power Talks present influential art-world figures who discuss their work in the context of the city’s largest art fair. This year’s talks feature:
* Philip Tinari is Director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, an independent museum with an annual viewership of over half a million visitors.
* Nigel Prince is Executive Director of the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver.
* Angeline Scherf is the Chief Curator at ARC, the contemporary department of the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris.
For schedule please check: http://www.arttoronto.ca/schedule/

October 31 – November 24, 2012
Opening Reception: Tuesday, October 30, 6 – 9 p.m.
THE RED HEAD GALLERY
401 Richmond St. W., Suite 115
Toronto, ON, M5V 3A8
T: 416.504.5654
E: art@redheadgallery.org
www.redheadgallery.org
Hours: Wed–Sat 12–5 p.m.

The Red Head Gallery presents Nile Blue by artist Janet Bellotto, an installation that engages a story intrinsic to understanding aspects of transformation and change.

Nile Blue was inspired by the natural world’s golden ratio (where the nautilus is often referenced), and what do we consider to be our natural environment. It considers how we may be losing the magic proportion, the golden ratio that nature had provided for us, proportions that the nautilus’ spiral shell exemplifies. This installation consists of a large lenticular photograph, a video, and a nautilus sculpture that emits sound. As visitors walk by the photographic image to view the video, the image also moves. It uses the process of lenticular (flip photography- like blinking eyes postcards) thus the scales of the “creature” appear in motion, producing a wave type of effect. Magnetic membership cards are available for the visitor to take and keep. They can use the card to activate the video by swiping it through a card reader. The video could be seen as a type of “Noah’s Arc”, it contains animals that are considered as prey, documenting species that are threatened or vulnerable. “Nile Blue” refers to a color that is greenish blue, but it is also a dye used as a biological stain for cells, which changes from blue to purplish red as an indicator.

Janet Bellotto’s work encompasses sculpture, installation, photography, video and performance. Water flows through her work: oceans and waves, submersion and reflections, in-between states that are fluid and aqueous. In her installations, the surfaces/spaces scintillate and radiate as a way to suspend the viewer’s belief. Her practice also encompasses curating and writing, and engages in projects that promote cultural exchange.

Janet Bellotto has exhibited in various cities including Beijing, Dubai, New York, Mexico City and Venice. A few recent exhibitions/projects include: 2011 Contemporary Crosscurrents: Portraits and Electronic Arts, Streaming Museum in Dubai (www.streamingmuseum.org); A Cozy Lie, Redhead Gallery, Toronto; 2010 – 12th Cairo Biennale, Cairo, Egypt; Drowning Ophelia, Stratford Gallery, Stratford; 2009 – Point of Encounter, Tashkeel, Dubai; 2008 – In-Situ, The JamJar, Dubai; WAVE, The LAB, New York City; 2007 – Dehisce, kkprojects, New Orleans, USA. Bellotto is represented by De Luca Fine Arts, Toronto.

The artist gratefully acknowledges the support of Zayed University’s Research Incentive Fund and Professional Development grant for Nile Blue.