Author: artoronto

Video still from Linearity (2009)

June 27 – July 8, 2012
Reception: Thursday, June 28, 7 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.

Gene Mastrangeli —TERRAIN VAGUE////////PSYCHOTOPES  Video Works
These videos are the initial catalysts for the extensive project “Design in the Void” (Terrain Vague////////Psychotopes///////Architecture)

“Architecture’s ultimate project is to sustain the originality of experience: it does so by catching its occupants in their own disorientation.” – Giles Prince from AA’s Discourse of Events.

It is the question “Where am I?” and the sustaining of this question that drove my exploration in the project “Design in the Void” (Terrain Vague – Psychotopes –Architecture). For the purposes of this work the site I am using is Toronto’s north-western rail corridor, from the bridge over King St. in Liberty Village where the site leaves the streets to cut against the city grid through Parkdale to the bridge over the space at Dundas St. Within this stretch of land there are sub-sites that I have focused the video work. I am proposing that these partially obsolete sites are an opportunity for the creation of a different kind of urban space. This requires one to view these vague terrains through a psychotopic lens to show an alternative way of seeing and thinking in and about these spaces in relation to the city beyond. The psychotopes that I’m referring to in this project are a series of short video works which explore a “moment of hallucination” within the vague terrain.
Terrain Vague: An ambiguous landscape, a void, a space in a deterritorialized state, a fray in the urban fabric. The term terrain vague (vague terrain) was developed by the Spanish historian and theorist Ignasi-de Sola-Morales and refers to greater and perhaps less precisely defined territories, connected with the physical idea of an “ambiguous landscape” in its potentially exploitable state but already possessing some definition to which we are external.

Psychotope: a process of decreation and recreation, a reterritorialization that occurs within a deterritorialized space. This is a provocation that manifests itself in the vague terrain. It is a perspective offered by the “exteriority” of the site on the “interiority” of the city, or on itself in contrast to the “interiority” the city. The psychotopes are site specific experiments in video form. The idea of the psychotope was initially presented by Austrian architect Richard Neutra in his book “Survival through Design” (1969). Neutra expanded the concept of a biotope (an area usually small and of uniform environmental condition) by introducing the psychotope (an area of physical and mental recreation for humans)

June 27 – July 8, 2012
Reception: Thursday, June 28, 7  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.

Gallery 1313 presents Potluck, a group exhibition of emerging textile artists from Sheridan College’s 2012 Crafts and Design, Textiles graduating class. The exhibition will include works in such areas as print, garment construction, quilting, felt sculpture, embroidery and paper making.

Potluck, its title inspired by the collaborative nature of craft, features the works of eleven fibre artists specializing in a range of fibre art disciplines and production practices.

Represented in this exhibition are Chamila Belleth, Tiffany Canha, Sarah Davies, Mary Desrosiers, Natalie Eldershaw, Brittni Gazendam, KayTor, Keisha Mohammed, Christina Obuch, Laurika Samuels and Francie V.

The exhibition was made possible by the artists’ collective fund raising efforts during their time at Sheridan, the oversight of fibre and multimedia artist Monica Bodirsky, professor and advisor to the group for their graduating term, and the efforts of participant Mary Desrosiers, acting coordinator of the exhibition.

Sasha Pierce, Cycle (detail), 2011. Courtesy of Jessica Bradley Art + Projects and the artist

June 23 – August 12, 2012
Opening: Saturday, June 23, 2–5 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

trans/FORM
Matter as Subject > New Perspectives

Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art

Curated by David Liss

This exhibition features eight Toronto artists exploring new approaches to producing artworks whose meaning and essence are revealed through the materials from which they are made. Working primarily in recognizable media such as painting, sculpture and installation, they combine found, vernacular and traditional materials with lo-tech, industrial and handcrafted processes. Astutely resourceful, informed by various conceptual strategies and working with an open attitude of experimentation, their inventive processes are meant to animate the latent expressive potential of matter, transforming materials into a coherent, poetic language of form. For these artists materiality is the core subject of their work. trans/FORM presents new perspectives on form, meaning and material that are essential to the -very definition of art.

trans/FORM is the most recent installment of MOCCA’s ongoing PLATFORM TORONTO series of exhibitions, initiated in 2002, showcasing the histories and practices of the Toronto contemporary art scene. Previous exhibitions in the series include Synthetic Psychosis, (2002), examining new approaches to painting; Impulse Archaeology, (2005), celebrating the seminal 1980s art magazine Impulse; Love/Hate: New Crowned Glory in the G.T.A., (2007), a broad survey of divergent practices and trends; Empire of Dreams, (2010), a thematic exhibition exploring our relationships to the built environment; and This Is Paradise, (2011), a retrospective survey of the art scene in Toronto during the 1980s. In addition to the exhibition’s focus on materiality, trans/FORM features work by an emerging generation of artists living and working in Toronto. The exhibition is organized by MOCCA and is curated by Artistic Director and Curator, David Liss.

Jaime Angelopoulos received her MFA from York University, and BFA from NSCAD University. She has participated in group exhibitions and artist residencies internationally and recently presented solo exhibitions at Parisian Laundry, Stride Gallery, and YYZ Artist Outlet. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ALDO Group, York University, and the Bank of Montreal have acquired her works.

Georgia Dickie graduated with a BFA from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 2011. She currently lives and works in Toronto. Her work addresses the complexities of contemporary object-based practice, and is characterized by a deep interest in found materials and their inherent limitations. She has shown in a number of group shows in Toronto including at Thrush Holmes Empire, MKG127, and Erin Stump Projects.

Aleksander Hardashnakov lives in Toronto. Along with Hugh Scott-Douglas and Tara Downs, he is the founder of Tomorrow Gallery.

Niall McClelland grew up in Toronto, attended school in Vancouver and returned to Toronto where he now lives. His work has been published in Modern Painters, Canadian Art, Hunter and Cook, and Adbusters. McClelland was included along with Ellsworth Kelly and Richard Serra in the show Black To Back And Light at Clint Roenisch Gallery in 2009.

Derrick Piens is a Toronto based sculptor who works primarily with plaster, wood, and found objects, creating large-scale hybrid constructions. Derrick received his MFA from Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX) in 2007, and BFA from NSCAD University (Halifax, NS) in 2005. In 2009 Derrick was a resident artist at the Toronto School of Art.

Sasha Pierce holds an MFA from the University of Waterloo. She has exhibited at ACME, Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, Susan Hobbs Gallery, Cambridge Galleries, and The Macdonald Stewart Art Centre. Pierce was awarded Honourable Mention in the 2009 RBC Canadian Painting Competition.

Jennifer Rose Sciarrino received a BFA in photography at Ryerson University in 2006. Sciarrino works in various mediums including sculpture, installation, and photography. Engaging materiality and mimicry, she utilizes many techniques in sculpture and drawing to attain forms and surfaces in unsuspecting materials. She has exhibited at Red Bull 381 Projects, Narwhal Art Projects, and The Power Plant.

Hugh Scott-Douglas studied at Pratt (2005) and OCAD (2010). Scott-Douglas makes work that refers to production itself, to its consumption and to its container, using visual cues gleaned from minimalism and op art. The central dialectic of the work springs from the tension between the need for a rigid authority figure, on the one hand, and the very possibility of establishing such an authority, given that it is so easily subverted by its own parts.

Elizabeth McIntosh, Untitled (With Round Feet, 2005. Collection of the NGC, Ottawa.

June 23 – August 12, 2012
Opening: Saturday, June 23, 2–5 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.

Josef Albers, Ron Martin, Luanne Martineau, Elizabeth McIntosh, Claude Tousignant, Richard Tuttle.

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

Showcasing iconic works from the 1960s to the present, The Shape of Things examines the translation of form from one state to another while tracing a shifting attitude toward a more engaged viewing experience. In this exhibition, a dynamic tension is created between pieces by Joseph Albers, Ron Martin, Luanne Martineau, Elizabeth McIntosh, Claude Tousignant and Richard Tuttle as notions of pure geometry and colour are materialized and then deconstructed in hybrid works that inhabit the gallery. Paintings sensuously slouch and stretch as though reaching to the ground; canvases ardently cling to the walls while sculptural forms assert their presence as they occupy the architectural space. The shape of these things is at once obvious and obscure as here it is our attuned encounter with each work that determines meaning.

June 13 – June 24, 2012  
Opening: June 14, 2012  7 – 10 p.m.
Gallery 1313

The reception for this group exhibition of photographers was well attended, and the works displayed the varied talents of these young fourth year students from the York undergrad program. Aidan O’Boyle’s Breast Plates with images on the centre of plates was a great example of how varied and diverse the works were.

Briar Murawski’s book, Antemortem, an archive of concentration camp images, was powerful.

  Visitors check out the work of Briar Burawski

Alex Clarke’s Issues With, a series of portraits of cats with art quotes from the likes of Jeff Wall , Damien Hirst and others, injected a little humour into the exhibit. It is great to see photography works outside of the usual slot of Scotia Bank Contact, and these students showed some strong works.
Archival Thoughts, a group exhibition of fourth-year photography students from York University, continues at Gallery 1313 until and including June 24. The artists exhibiting are Alex Clarke, Partrick Eugster, Andrey Osipov, Michelle Hodgson, Aaron Macfadyen, Ian Bethune, Jordan Browne, Briar Murawski, Aidan O’Boyle and Monika Wahba.

Artist Ian Bethune

Artist Jordan Browne

Artist Patrick Eugster

Artist Monika Wahba

Text and photo: Phil Anderson

Power Ball – Quarter- Life Crisis
Thursday June 14, 2012  8:30 p.m.
The Power Plant
231 Queens Quay West
Toronto, ON M5J 2G8

Celebrating its first 25 years, The Power Plant’s major fundraiser, the Power Ball, was a lively event with over 1700 quests attending and raising some $350,000. The party brought out a diverse crowd of artists, a bit of Bay street, some celebrities, the fashion set and people just wanting to support the Power Plant’s contemporary arts programming.

The Quarter–Life Crisis theme was meant to reflect some of our experiences in life in the first twenty-five years. DJ Alex Merrell and Diego Armand supplied the music. The VIP Lounge offered a performance by Dragonette sponsored by Grey Goose Vodka and Soho House.

Philippe Blanchard’s installation of multicoloured (RGB) prints lit by LED strobe lights was impressive. The 11 metre by 11 metre installation with geometric shapes was computer controlled. The movie Tron came to mind at one point, but perhaps I was time traveling to when I was twenty-five. You can check out his other works at www.philippeblanchard.com
Sarah Febbraro’s futuristic talk-reality show, Future Talk, was entertaining. Party goers could volunteer to be interviewed and unload their thoughts.
The Main Hall had projected animations by Jesi the Elder above the dance floor and the bar was framed by roses. The dancing really got going by about 12 with some enthusiasm fuelled by alcohol and a good DJ to boot.

The Main Room also had a giant tree with a swing—the Kobo tree. Kobo’s attached had quotable bites displayed. Around the corner in another room artist Marisa Hoicka presented another installation where she is secluded in a room where viewers can only make contact with her through a series of buttons and buzzers.

The Power Ball started in 1999 and continues to be the major fun party to be at in the city, and you get to support contemporary art at same time.

party Outdoors
Range Rover Gets a write up
Range Rover Gets a Makeover

  Sheelagh Keeley, Arnauld Maggs, Spring Hurlbut

 Sarah Robayo Sheridan (Mercer Union), Kate  MacKay (Images Festival), Artist Luis Jacob

 Performer Sarah Febbraro (in black dress) and family

 Jian Ghomeshi & companion

 Kate  MacKay (Images Festival), Sarah Robayo Sheridan (Mercer Union), Yan Wu (Programme Director of Gendai Gallery)

 Stephen Kitt and Helen Hung

 Powell Macdougall and friend

Alex Mcleod

Other Party Guests

 
Chef Marc Thuet cooked up a spit roasting bison which party goers devoured in neat little sandwiches.

Note: While I can still vaguely remember what it was like to be twenty-five years old, I forgot to get the names of some quests who graciously allowed me to take their photo. Should you recognize a face, please do not be shy and email artoronto.ca with the identities of anyone who might not want to go un-announced.

Text and photo by Phil Anderson

June 28 – August 12, 2012
Opening: Thursday, June 28, 6 – 9 p.m.
DAVID KAYE GALLERY
1092 Queen Street West
(entrance on Dovercourt)
Toronto, ON M6J 1H9
T: 416.532.9075
E: info@davidkayegallery.com
www.davidkayegallery.com
Hours: Wed – Fri 11 – 6, Sat – Sun 11 – 5 p.m

The Gallery is closed from July 8 to 20, 2012.

Birds, Tea Cocks & Umbrellas highlights three aspects of ANN MORTIMER’s exemplary ceramic output. She has long been an advocate of ceramics as a legitimate sculptural art form and has worked for many years gaining national and international honours and respect.

This exhibition, at the DAVID KAYE GALLERY, coincides with a larger exhibition titled, Ann Mortimer: In Series, at the Burlington Art Centre, June 23 – August 27, 2012.

June 28 – August 12, 2012
Opening: Thursday, June 28, 6 – 9 p.m.
DAVID KAYE GALLERY
1092 Queen Street West
(entrance on Dovercourt)
Toronto, ON M6J 1H9
T: 416.532.9075
E: info@davidkayegallery.com
www.davidkayegallery.com
Hours: Wed – Fri 11 – 6, Sat – Sun 11 – 5 p.m

The Gallery is closed from July 8 to 20, 2012.

ROSALIND explains, “These paintings are explorations of ‘portals’ as both subject and metaphor. Portals connect two locations in time and space. They represent transition, the passage between one state and another, the space(s) between things. They can be a way in, through, or out.”

Turvy, machine routered plywood, 2012

June 23 – July 15, 2012
Opening: Saturday, June 23, 2-5 p.m.
Q&A Session: Sunday, July 15th, 2-3 p.m.
loop Gallery
1273 Dundas Street West,
(3 doors west of Dovercourt).
Toronto, Ontario, M6J 1X8
T: 416.516.2581
E: loopgallery@primus.ca
http://loopgallery.ca
Hours: Wed – Sat 12 – 5, Sun 1 – 4 p.m.

Turvy continues Smirle’s exploration of geographies of otherness, translated from aerial maps into hand and laser cut drawings. These works explore a narrative at the intersection of light, shadow, time, and place with special attention to how navigation and data-capture technologies twist and ‘tirve’ our world view, and how we as viewers are equally subject to observation by others.

Smirle is a mixed media artist whose work explores how new technologies distort our view of the world, and how we in turn are viewed by these mechanisms designed to track our movements. Smirle’s work is included in private and corporate collections in Canada, Australia and Europe. Her work was selected for inclusion in The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, published by Princeton Architectural Press. She is currently a MFA Candidate at Concordia University.

Unity Quilt (detail) and Truth Offering (installation, detail) mixed media, 2012

June 23 – July 15, 2012
Opening: Saturday, June 23, 2-5 p.m.
Q&A Session: Sunday, July 15th, 2-3 p.m.
loop Gallery
1273 Dundas Street West,
(3 doors west of Dovercourt).
Toronto, Ontario, M6J 1X8
T: 416.516.2581
E: loopgallery@primus.ca
http://loopgallery.ca
Hours: Wed – Sat 12 – 5, Sun 1 – 4 p.m.

Intrigued by Fibonacci’s number sequences, sacred geometry and our inter- connectedness with everything, Sacred Connections launches Babyn’s mixed media ‘Unity quilt’ with ‘truths’ contributed from the general public. The quilt is shown with depictions from sacred geometry and the natural environment, as well as a mixed media installation designed to receive truth offerings from gallery visitors to facilitate the ongoing growth of the ‘Unity Quilt.’

Babyn obtained her BFA in Drawing and Painting at the Ontario College of Art and Design. She and her husband relocated from Caledon, Ontario to Saskatoon in the early spring of 2011. Babyn has participated in group and solo shows in Ferrara Italy, Toronto and the surrounding area, with galleries that include Propeller, Spin, loop, SGI, and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. She has been a loop member since 2003.

June 20 – July 1, 2012
Opening: Thursday, June 21, 7 – 10 p.m.
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

Propeller Center for the Visual Arts is pleased to host the 15th Annual Curated Exhibition Sincerely Yours on Thursday, June 21, 7 – 10 p.m. at Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts.

“The kernel, the soul—let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual valuable material of all human utterances—is plagiarism.” – Jonathan Lethem

“I fake it so real that I’m beyond fake.” -Courtney Love

“Ever wondered what an authentic experience felt like? You know—a feeling that you were reasonably sure was yours’ and yours’ alone; a gesture that didn’t inevitably collapse into a set of chiches; having an idea that didn’t already have a citation index attached to it; the premise that you, your thoughts and your actions were in any meaningful way unique? I keep thinking at some point in my past, I must have had an authentic feeling—but certainly not lately. For the most part, I–like most artists I know–have come to an uneasy peace about the whole thing, figuring that “mediation is me” and besides, authenticity is so twentieth-century. But I continue to be haunted by one particularly troubling aspect of this equation: if authenticity is now accepted in most quarters as a cultural construct rather that an existential truth, then how the hell do we recognize sincerity anymore. Or is sincerity, like its corollary authenticity, contingent on a world outside ourselves? And if so, what does it mean for individuals who produce work based on notions of intuition and self-expression?

The exhibition has taken as its premise the idea that sincerity is a contested term in contemporary art practice. All of the artists chosen for the exhibition have in some way addressed the challenge of the authentic in a particular way, each coming to the problem with a specific critical strategy. A number of works in the show address a certain longing for a graspable authentic experience that seems somehow just out of reach. There are others for whom our thoroughly mediated world of experience is what constitutes the “new” authentic. Still others see authenticity as simply a social construction, and thus the act of addressing it in art is, at its core, ironic. Together, the works in this exhibition provide an intriguing snapshot into the challenge of being an artist–and in essence locating the self–in this complicated thing we call contemporary art.”

– John Kissick

Participating Artists: