Author: artoronto

© John Monteith© John Monteith, (de)Construction (re)Construction #5, Oil on Layered Drafting Film, 2012

 

September 7 – October 6, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 6, 6 – 9 p.m.
Artist Talk and Catalogue Release: Saturday, September 29, 2 – 4 p.m.
O’BORN CONTEMPORARY
131 Ossington Avenue,
Toronto, ON
T: 416. 413. 9555
E:info@oborncontemporary.com
www.oborncontemporary.com
Hours: Tue-Sat, 11-6 p.m. and by appointment

It is with pleasure that O’Born Contemporary celebrates Memorial Day, a new body of work by artist John Monteith.

Two conversant series, one painted and the other photographed, comprise the exhibition and synthesize the artist’s most ambitious effort to date. A thread apparent in Monteith’s practice from its inception, the intrusion into the interstices of elusive facts of being is now pulled taught. As a species, our memories come to bear on us through relationships with not only people, but the enormous, stony spaces through which we pass in both our daily urban and more transient, exploratory lives. We reverberate with histories and politics that do not necessarily belong to us, though it takes an artist of Monteith’s caliber to parse this sensation out.

Memorial Day spans the materiality of photography and painting while addressing real attendant anxieties. The works on display witness a redefinition of the photograph, convincing us that the same name can be given to a work that hasn’t actually been created by the exposure of photographic paper to light or with digital code. The physicality and ultimate accessibility of Memorial Day is seductive. Whether it is the playful games the painted forms perform in front of our eyes or the visceral photographs that send a rush up our spines as we look at them, Monteith’s most recent work demonstrates his mastery of material and the relevance of his practice.

Divided into two collusive sub-sections Memorial Day is a series of neo-formalist abstractions in oil on layered drafting film and a group of composite photographs each built from one hundred unique yet identical images taken over a span of time.

Representing urban space, architecture and institution, Monteith constructs his paintings and photographs from fragmented images. These works suggest a spatial fluidity, contingent and subjective. Installed in a theatrical mise-en-scene the disparate works in Memorial Day reframe their architectural subjects as atmospheric, fluid representations of the places we traverse and inhabit, residing with the memories we construct around these shifting and contingently temporal spaces.

JOHN MONTEITH was born in 1973 in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada and graduated in 2008 from the MFA program at Parsons the New School for Design. Monteith’s work has been represented internationally in a number of solo and group exhibitions including K-48 “Kontinuum,” No Soul For Sale at both the Tate Modern, London and X Initiative, New York, The New York Art Book Fair at PS 1.

Additional projects include “Living Room” commissioned by Flux Factory in collaboration with openhousenewyork, and “River’s Edge”, a site-specific installation for the DUMBO Art Under The Bridge Festival. His most recent solo exhibition, Lost Highway, was exhibited at O’Born Contemporary in December 2010.

In 2011 Monteith was the resident artist at CAT Cologne, in Cologne, Germany and will be participating in an Artists Residency program with The School of Critical Engagement in Beijing, China this coming May 2013.

Monteith’s work is featured in a number of international private and corporate collections including the TD Bank Canada, and The New School in New York. His press and publications include Charley, C Magazine, www.artinamericamagazine.com, October, The Huffington Post, K-48, Petit Mort: Recollections of a Queer Public, The New Yorker, British Good Housekeeping and Toronto Life.

Monteith has been awarded grants from The Canada Council for the Arts and the Toronto Arts Council. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

September 5 – 3o, 2012
Opening Night Party: Wednesday, September 5, 7 – 11 p.m.
STEAM WHISTLE GALLERY
255 Bremner Blvd.
Toronto, ON, M5V 3M9
T: 416.362.2337 x 246
E: info@steamwhistle.ca
www.steamwhistle.ca
Hours: Mon–Thurs 12–6, Fri–Sat 11–6, Sun 11–5 p.m.

The Rock N’ Roll Art Show tour continues!

Jonathan and Brooke invite you to view their original artwork — A new style incorporating photos of famous musicians and other performers within abstract paintings and designs. These images come from the legendary Bruce Cole Collection of photographs.

Bruce Cole is a legendary rock photographer who for many years took pictures of some of the most famous musicians in the world. Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Bryan Adams, Bob Dylan, Anne Murray, Rush and an endless list of others all found themselves on the other side of Bruce’s lens.

Now in 2012, artists Brooke Opatowski and Jonathan Hiltz are taking Bruce’s most iconic images and incorporating them into gorgeous abstract artwork creating something incredible.

The Rock n’ Roll Art Show is the collaboration of these three artists coming together to create original work, containing some of the world’s most famous performers. Interested buyers can attend and purchase works at the touring exhibition of these paintings or can contact this website to order a custom-made painting with a famous artist of your choice!

We invite all interested art and music lovers to experience this exciting new work. (Certificates of authenticity by the photographer are available).

www.jonhiltz.com

 

August 17 – 31, 2012
Opening: Friday, August 17, 2012, 7  -9 p.m.
MUSEUM OF INUIT ART GALLERY

On August 17, the Museum of Inuit Art Gallery, home of the Global Inuit Art Project, had the rare opportunity to host master artist Jaco Ishulutaq from Nunavut for several gallery events. Visitors enjoyed Ishulutaq speaking vividly about his inspirations, his process and particular artworks in the current gallery solo show: “Stories from the North.”

Jaco Ishulutaq speaking of his art surrounded by viewers at his opening on August 17th,  in the Museum of Inuit Art Gallery.

During these events, Ishulutaq detailed some of the stories that his narrative artworks depict. For instance, in “Mother and Child” you see a mother holding a disk with a child held on her back. Ishulutaq explained that the disk is a game the mother is playing, and that the child is happy to help the mother as they have a typically close relationship; familial relationships are an important aspect of Inuit culture. The organizers took several videos of Jaco Ishulutaq discussing his works, which you can soon see in the gallery.

Jaco Ishulutaq,  Mother and Child

Jaco Ishulutaq during his visit explained his techniques, how to carve whale bone carefully using small power tools and the finest grade of sandpaper to create his high gloss finishes. He also gave a live demonstration, spending Saturday making a small sculpture outside the museum.

Jaco Ishulutaq working outside of the Museum

Jaco Ishulutaq’s visit to Toronto was sponsored by the Canadian Arctic Producers, Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association and the Museum of Inuit Art.

The show will continue to run throughout August.

Christine Pratt

Jeroen Eisinga, Springtime (detail), 2010 – 2011. © Jeroen Eisinga

 

August 24 – September 16, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, September 7, 8 – 10 p.m.
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN ART
Project Room
952 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON, M6J 1G8
T: 416.395.0067
E: info@mocca.ca
www.mocca.ca
Hours: Tues–Sun 11:00–6:00 p.m

Curated by Andréa Picard and presented in collaboration with the Toronto International Film Festival Future Projections.

Presented with the generous support of the Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Hal Jackman Foundation

“Artists are often said to reveal the inscrutable order of things. Some go further and provocatively test the delicate equilibrium between humans and natural forces, and even life and death. Such an artist is Dutch daredevil Jeroen Eisinga. Following in the footsteps of his countryman Bas Jan Ader (who lost his life at sea during a performance), Eisinga consistently ventures into uncomfortable terrain, challenging not only his own limits but our very ways of seeing and making sense of the world.

In Springtime, his latest film installation, Eisinga conducts a simultaneously grotesque, spellbinding, and potentially life-threatening performance, evoking both horror and awe as he withstands a swarming of nearly 200,000 bees. The unstable image flickers with both the grain of 35mm film and the growing, living shroud of buzzing insects, inviting powerfully visceral reactions while at the same time drawing to mind a host of rich and varied art-historical references, from medieval portraiture and nineteenth-century freak-show catalogues to Andy Warhol and Richard Avedon.

Bee-bearding is a custom thought to have begun in Russia in the 1830s (though some claim that it derives from England in the eighteenth century), and continues to this day as a bizarre competitive hobby. Working in an unabashedly Romantic mode, Eisinga reclaims the practice from sensational grotesquerie and invokes the sublime, pitting human will against the power and terror of nature while challenging the limits of spectatorial endurance. Presenting an image that will be unwatchable to some and monumental to many, Springtime is accompanied by a suite of never-before exhibited “test” photographs that detail the meticulous preparations that preceded the production, and offer countless haunting enigmas of their own.”  Andréa Picard

Jeroen Eisinga was born in Delft, Netherlands. He was educated at the art academy in Arnhem, the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, and in scriptwriting at the American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles. He has made several short art films, including Het zesde zintuig/The Sixth Sense (94), The Green-eyed Monster (00), Cool Lakes of Death (04) and Springtime (11).  Eisinga has recently exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Schiedam, NL (11) and at The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (12), Washington DC, USA.

Guy Ben-Ner, Stealing Beauty (detail), 2007. Digital video (DVD), 17:40min. Collection NGC, Ottawa. ©Postmasters Gallery, New York.

August 24 – October 14, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, September 7, 8 – 10 p.m.
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN ART
Media/Retail Space | NGC@MOCCA
952 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON, M6J 1G8
T: 416.395.0067
E: info@mocca.ca
www.mocca.ca
Hours: Tues–Sun 11:00–6:00 p.m

Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art and the National Gallery of Canada

Tel Aviv-based Guy Ben-Ner has received international acclaim over the past decade for his narrative-based videos that feature the artist and real members of his family as actors. Stealing Beauty, 2007 is a wry and poignant tale filmed in IKEA store showrooms during business hours in which a father attempts to teach lessons to his children on the virtues of private property.

Jamelie Hassan, Midnight’s Children(detail),1990. Collection of Museum London.

August 24 – October 14, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, September 7, 8 – 10 p.m.
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN ART
Main Space
952 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON, M6J 1G8
T: 416.395.0067
E: info@mocca.ca
www.mocca.ca/
Hours: Tues–Sun 11:00–6:00 p.m

Curated by Melanie Townsend

Organized by Museum London, generously supported by Salah Bachir and Jacob Yerex

“This survey exhibition traces four decades of art-making by London, Ontario artist Jamelie Hassan and presents a body of work that intertwines her enduring interests in text, language, memory, personal history, and identity.

Her pioneering practice steadfastly asserts that artists have a responsibility to address the critical issues of our time, while her geographical location in the ‘regions’ of Southwestern Ontario grounds her practice. Yet despite the influence of here, Hassan’s work is equally influenced by there—as experienced through her research and travels in Asia, the Americas and the Middle East, and Lebanon, the homeland of her parents.

At the Far Edge of Words features important works from throughout the artist’s career. Common Knowledge, 1980-81, a mixed media installation comprised of ceramic objects and watercolour paintings, documents and replicates items of significance from Hassan’s domestic environment: the jawbone of a caribou, a sardine can, curls of Birch bark, books, letters, a flower—all personal momentos of her life. The work is among the earliest pieces inspired by her heightened focus on the everyday. Among the watercolour paintings are facsimiles of rejection letters from the Department of Immigration, denying her grandmother and uncles entry into Canada, marking the introduction of family history into her work.

Hassan’s first film project, The Oblivion Seekers, 1985, began with a childhood memory and a search through private and public archives. The film juxtaposes archival and family film footage of celebratory dancing and singing, seamlessly moving between sites in Canada, the United States, Lebanon and Egypt, and is a powerful record of individual identity situated against the backdrop of political tension in the world.

The exhibition also includes photographic documentation of Hassan’s watershed installation, at London, Ontario’s Forest City Gallery, Beyrouth… is war art?, 1980. Here black and white images that document a destroyed wall at the artist-run centre are juxtaposed with images from Beirut, Lebanon, photographed by Hassan during the country’s civil war in 1979. Neon has also featured prominently in Hassan’s more recent works. The exhibition includes several new neon works— (Manuscript Page) 2005, ن 2009 and dar’a, 2010—created in response to an Arabic/Persian manuscript.

Over the course of her career, Hassan’s approach to artmaking has been distinguished by her use of a wide range of media (ceramics, watercolours, bookworks, photographs, video, and installations) from which she selects an approach best suited to the task at hand. Watercolours, for example—swift and portable and comprising much of the work she makes when travelling—capture the immediacy of personal engagement. At the Far Edge of Words includes early paintings from travels in the late 1970s; Qana, Lebanon, 2006, a series of newer ink drawings created in response to the Israeli bombings of the Lebanese town; and a series of watercolour paintings, entitled Curfew, 2007, created in response to the curfews imposed in Rangoon by Burma’s military dictatorship.

The title of the exhibition, At the Far Edge of Words, pays homage to Palestinian poet laureate Mahmoud Darwish, evoking a line from his poem, “I am from there”. The poem begins “I am from there. I have memories,” concluding: “I learned all the talk and dismantled it to construct one word: country.” Melanie Townsend

Hassan’s work is represented in numerous private and public collections including the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa); the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto); the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery (Vancouver); the Art Gallery of Windsor (Windsor); The McIntosh Gallery (London); and Museum London among many others. In 2001, she was a recipient of the prestigious Governor General’s Award in Media and Visual Arts.

 

 

 

 

August 22 – September 2, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 23, 7 – 10 p.m.
GALLERY 1313 Cell 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.

 

Mike Saturno | Valentino Visentini | Hal Rodriguez | Daniel Ablan | Carlotta James | Patrick T. Lo | G.Andrew Harry | Melanie Hillock | Bruce Baklarian | Yasmin Benhan | Jonathan G. Mainou | Ines Aguileta-Sharpe

 

The Toronto Walk Project presents the photography and sound documentation of some of the liveliest neighbourhoods of Toronto from morning to evening. The walking journey of visual and audio data gathering took place on  August 27, 2011; by chance, the same day of the funeral of NDP leader, Jack Layton. Five teams consisting of a photographer and a sound recordist /reporter hit the streets for close to ten hours to capture material as they walked along. None of the crewmembers except the project director had met with their team mates before, turning the task of documenting the city into an exhilarating experience.

The idea behind the making of this project is simply to celebrate the beautiful city we live in, the Toronto Walk Project is the platform where one can view and/or hear some of the city’s streets, colours, citizens, stories, sounds, and all the small nuances that make it so unique.

www.torontowalkproject.com

 

August 22 – September 2, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 23, 7 – 10 p.m.
GALLERY 1313 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.

“My pen-and-ink series Dis/semblances investigates the problem of mimesis as it extends into the temporal dimension. In each work, the technologies of representation and image reproduction, as developed by photography, screen printing and the photocopier, are both referenced and emulated. Ordinary photographic images are selected at random out of history, altered digitally, then meticulously hand copied directly onto illustration board. The process is perpetuated until there emerges a collection of seemingly unrelated moments from time, inviting the viewer to draw new relationships and meanings among the data so presented. The resulting images resemble those produced by screen print or early daguerreotype (an effect of the metallic reflective ink), but are in fact several times removed from their original subjects. Warhol once said that the copy of a copy is an original; in my work, not only the copy, but the process of replication itself, is flagrantly simulated. As the poles of virtuosity and replication are collapsed, the boundaries that contain and define our ideas of originality, realism and authenticity blur. History is presented not so much as the selection and assemblage of finite facts, but as the (re)production of simulacra.”  Marc S. Cohen

Matt Macintosh, Abstract

August 22 – September 2, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 23, 7 – 10 p.m.
GALLERY 1313 Main 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.

Emerging Artist Summer Exhibition with painting, photography and mixed media works.

Curated by Phil Anderson.

Some of the 29 participating artists include:

Claude Abrams
Natalie Arpin
Jill Claeys
Mel Coleman
Stephanie Deum
Eric Euler
Joel Fullerton
Giovanni
Susan Horodyska
Paul Kilbertus
Adelaide Lo
Matt Macintosh
Gregg McGivern
Laura McInnis
Heidi McKenzie
Alli Melanson
Kristine Mifsud
Sarah Sands Phillips
Kim Stanford
Michelle Tourkan
Vanesa Trillia
Couzyn Vanheuvelen
Shanna Van Maurik
Megan Ward
Kayla Whitney
Nikki White
Bradford Wilson

 

August 15 – 26, 2012
PROPELLER CENTRE FOR THE VISUAL ARTS
984 Queen Street West
Toronto, Ontario M6J 1H1
T: 416-504-7142
E: gallery@propellerctr.com
Hours: Wed/Sat: 12-6 pm, Sun: 12-5 pm

Sculpture Comes to Life

Aphrodite: Photography Exhibit by Kendall Townen

Think 50 Shades of Grey only tasteful. Visiting this photography exhibit inspired by classic nude sculpture will spark feelings ranging from sensual to gruesome; but no matter what you feel, you will want to look longer.

Aphrodite, an exhibit presented by photographer Kendall Townend at the Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts, is a black and white series that uses Hellenistic draping and strategic lighting to cast stark shadows across nude female torsos. The result is an almost uncanny interpretation of the photographer’s inspiration for the show: sculpture.

“The work has been evolving over a two year period,” says Townend. “By drawing from nude sculptures from antiquity to present, I want to evoke reactions ranging from sensual and erotic to the macabre.”

Each of the 32 images in the series is different although each evokes a similar combination of movement, yearning, lust and struggle. The model is captured in a variety of poses, which explore the real-life side of classic sculpture. Townend has masterfully deconstructed the ancient art and with his lens, captured images of its original inspiration, the human body.

About the Photographer

Townend is a seasoned Toronto-area photographer with a variety of tastes and styles. Just last year, he published an open edition book Journey from an Island. 2005 marked the completion of an 18-year project Children of the Landscape, which was acquired by the Mira Godard Collection. Having graduated from the Ryerson Photographic Arts program Townend’s career has flourished as both a corporate photographer as well as an artist who captures personal and often polarizing images which, no matter how you feel about them, will move you.

For more information – www.ktownend.com or email: ktownend@sympatico.ca

2nd Annual
JUNCTION DESIGN CRAWL
Be Guided by the Lights

Friday, August 24, 2012, 7 – 11 p.m.

A Night of Special Events for Your Pleasure
Hosted by Your Favourite Shops!

TELEPHONE BOOTH GALLERY is bringing the experience of PARKS CANADA to the Junction.

Film projection:
“Mystic Morning”  Directed by Jamie Travis
nationalparksproject.ca (Courtesy of FilmCAN / Primitive Entertainment)
Music by Ohad Benchitrit, Don Kerr, Casey Mecija

Artwork: Tara Cooper, Clint Griffin, Daryl Vocat, Laura Peturson, Julia Vandepolder + more!

Special Guest:  Shannon Gerard’s CARL WAGON!

The CARL WAGON Bookmobile is a gallery, printshop, studio, library, reading room, classroom, and community project—all contained within a 1988 VW Westfalia campervan!!

The central ethos of the CARL WAGAN Bookmobile is KEENERISM.

HOW MANY BADGES CAN YOU EARN?

The Junction Design Crawl is organized by a group of independent business owners in the Junction neighbourhood of Toronto. Come to participating shops to see innovative design displays, participate in one-of-a-kind installations, savour exotic snacks, and hear great live music.

All businesses who are participating on the evening will have white lights strung up outside of their shops, making it easy to navigate the evening.

Participants:
Russet and Empire
Phillipa C. Photography
SMASH
Opticianado
Articulations
MASON Design
Mjolk
Narwhal Art Projects
Telephone Booth Gallery
+ MORE

Evan Penny, Evan Penny and Old Self: Portrait of the Artist as He Will (Not) Be #1, Variation of 4, 2010, 2010, silicone, pigment, hair, fabric, aluminum, 76 x 86 x 59 cm (sculpture). Private collection

 

September 20, 2012 – February 20, 2013
ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO
317 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON M5T 1G4
T: 416.979.6648
www.ago.net
Hours: Tue & Thurs–Sun 10–5:30, Wed 10–8:30

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) welcomes internationally renowned Toronto-based sculptor Evan Penny home with a large solo exhibition opening September 20, 2012.

Evan Penny: Re Figured will feature over 25 of Penny’s larger-than-life sculptures, each painstakingly crafted from layers of pigmented silicone, human hair, fabric and resin. Blending abstraction and figuration, Penny’s hyper-realistic sculptures straddle the line between object and image, presenting the human form both as it is and as it can be when imagined through the distorting lens of photography and digital media.

Filling the fourth floor of the AGO’s Vivian and David Campbell Centre for Contemporary Art, Evan Penny: Re Figured shows the artist’s evolution over the past decade, highlighting in equal measure his technical skill and fresh thinking. Accessible, often familiar and sometime vaguely monstrous, his works engage audiences, young and old alike, on various levels.

Curated by Daniel J. Schreiber of Germany’s prestigious Kunsthalle Tübingen, the exhibition includes notable works from various series including Anamorph, No One In Particular and L. Faux among others. Also featured will be one of the most popular works in the AGO collection, Stretch #1 (2003), which features a face whose natural proportions have been elongated.

“Evan’s strikingly original sculptures have essentially created a genre” said Matthew Teitelbaum, director and CEO of the AGO. “Born in South Africa and raised in Canada, his work has been shown across the world for years, and it is with delight that we welcome him home with his first solo exhibition at the AGO.”

In addition to his massive sculptures, the exhibition provides a glimpse of Penny’s engagement with other media, including photography, offset printing and 3D scanning. A former special effects expert whose film credits include Oliver Stone’s film JFK, Penny’s grasp of these media — and his ability to use them interchangeably — is evident in the precision and imagination of his works.

“Evan’s artistry is a powerful yet playful display of human emotion and expression,” said Nancy Campbell, AGO curator of record for Evan Penny: Re Figured. “His signature techniques, often presented in portrait busts with skewed proportions or unusual colour schemes, are perfectly showcased in the works presented here.”

In 2011 the AGO celebrated the opening of the Weston Family Learning Centre with the installation of numerous plaster models created by Evan Penny as part of his working process. The Gallery invites all visitors to have a unique hands-on experience with these models in the Weston Family Learning Centre.

The AGO is the last stop for Evan Penny: Re Figured following exhibitions at Germany’s Kunsthalle Tübingen, the Museum der Moderne Salzburg in Austria, and Italy’s Museo delle Arti Cantanzaro. The exhibition runs until Jan. 6, 2013.

A 176-page catalogue has been published to accompany the exhibition. Edited by Daniel J. Schreiber, with an essay by David Moos and texts by Alberto Fiz, David Moos, Daniel J. Schreiber and Veit Ziegelmaier, Evan Penny: Re Figured is available at shopAGO.

This exhibition is organized by the Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany in association with the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Events and highlights for Evan Penny: Re Figured include:

AGO MEMBERS’ PREVIEW

Wednesday, September 19, 10 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.

AGO members enjoy free admission to Evan Penny: Re Figured and are invited to attend a special members-only preview of the exhibition. Visit ago.net for more information.