Author: artoronto

Launch Party, April 25, 2012 7 p.m.
KATZMAN KAMEN GALLERY

artVentures launch party celebrated the inauguration of a new Toronto arts club that focuses on providing essential services and education to emerging collectors. With installation pieces from Braden Labonte’s Alternate History as a backdrop, it was an evening of intimate gathering where art collectors, friends and patrons of the partner galleries, and art enthusiasts mingled over a glass of wine. Also in attendance were Christine Platt, founder of artVentures; Marianne Katzman, owner of  Katzman Kamen Gallery; Yan Wu, programme director at Gendai Gallery; and York Lethbridge, director of operations and development at Mercer Union.

From left to right: Marianne Katzman, owner of Katzman Kamen Gallery, Christine Platt, organizer of the collector’s club, Yan Wu, Programme Director of Gendai Gallery

This new exciting venture is a brainchild of Chrisitine Platt, who has studied contemporary Chinese art and completed Museum Studies before taking her career in Netherlands, China, and UK. While some galleries and arts organizations sporadically host few workshops/lectures on collecting or visits to studios, artVentures is the first of its kind to focus exclusively on the emerging collectors and cater to their budget and style, provide education on conserving and commissioning, as well as facilitate building relationships amongst the collectors and with the artists. For someone who is just starting out on building a collection, this kind of service would be most welcome.

Installation view of  A Complete History of Modernism by Braden Labonte

Yan Wu shares Platt’s enthusiasm and vision when it comes to engaging young collectors and nurturing young artists. “It’s kind of like an ecosystem,” says Wu animatedly. “Especially with the cuts to the public funding of the arts, it’s so important to engage the patrons, rouse some genuine interest.”

Installation view of  A Complete History of Modernism by Braden Labonte

And genuine interest, they got. Throughout the evening, small crowd of art lovers chatted and networked, and many expressed interest in the program.

At $500, a membership to artVentures will get you access to invitation and discounts to partner galleries’ events (Birch Libralato, Diaz Contemporary, Katzman Kamen Gallery, Stephen Bulger Gallery, Gendai Gallery, Mercer Union), and a membership to one of the public galleries. Plus, members are provided with private consultations, “social-learning” events, studio tours, lectures, workshops, and more. For more info, visit their website: www.artventurestoronto.com.

Text by Seowon Bang. Photo: Nicholas Liang

Together We Are (detail), 2011Copyright:© Sanaz Mazinani / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

May 5 – June 9, 2012
Opening: Saturday, May 5, 2 – 5 p.m.
Artist Talk: Saturday, May 5, 1 – 2 p.m. (RSVP as seating is limited)
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

The gallery is pleased to present our first solo exhibition by Canadian-Iranian photographer Sanaz Mazinani. In “Frames of the Visible,” Mazinani examines the disassociation that occurs between an event and its photographic record. Using destabilizing images of war mined from online news media outlets, Mazinani constructs photographic collages that collapse the intimations of the original image, thus creating a new representation of conflict.

Mazinani explores the relationship between perception and representation by drawing from concepts such as censorship, scale, and the body as a site of action or violence. For instance, juxtaposing appropriated images of a female suicide bomber and of media darling Paris Hilton, creates a new meaning that can affect our understanding of an image and how it is used to illustrate and construct history. The geometric patterns created by sequentially coupling, repeating, mirroring, and multiplying her source material references Islamic ornamentation, pairing traditional Eastern and contemporary Western image production techniques. These works examine the radical ways in which individuals perceive the same object with differing complexity. Mazinani seeks to recognize how political realities are represented in photography. She visions the perspectival frames of warfare, while acknowledging the complicated nature of our modern existence in a globalized world.

This exhibition also coincides with the launch of Mazinani’s catalogue, Unfolding Images, published by Bulger Gallery Press in April 2012 and co-authored by Jeremiah Barber, David Fresko and Mohammadreza Mirzaei.

Katharina Mayer, Familie Purdy, London, 2006

May 3 – June 7, 2012
Opening: Thursday, May 3, 7–10 p.m.
Opening remarks by  Aaron M. Milrad J. D., B.A., Counsel at 7:30 p.m.
LAUSBERG CONTEMPORARY
326 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario M5T 1G5
T: 416.516.4440
E: toronto@galerie-lausberrg.com
www.galerie-lausberg.com
Hours: Tues–Sun 12–6 or by appointment

We are pleased to announce the feature exhibit status granted to the solo exhibition of Katharina Mayer: Theatrum Familiae at the 2012 CONTACT Photography Festival.

Mayer’s Theatrum Familiae represents the fourth consecutive solo artist exhibit of the gallery in as many years honored with this status: M+M: Good Timing Bad Timing 2009, James Robert Durant: Tropical Punch 2010 and Lluís Barba: Travelers in Time 2011.

The German photographer Katharina Mayer (born 1958) was a Master student of Hilla & Bernd Becher and Nan Hoover at the world renowned Duesseldorf Kunstakademie associated with such prolific artists as Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Candida Höfer and Andreas Gursky.

In her project familia, a lifelong project the artist commenced in 2001, Katharina Mayer focuses on the life’s most crucial element: the family as a global and universal way of life and what importance it has in communicating ethical and moral values. The photographer visits families in various cities to capture them often in their most familiar context: at home. Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, the image of the family is more complex and varied; Katharina Mayer’s impressive family and group portraits demonstrate this vividly and she sees her purpose to discover this boundary and to experiment with it.  To complement existing works within the familia body of work to be displayed, Katharina Mayer is looking to forge connections in Toronto.

We encourage your support in this unique interactive project.  Lausberg Contemporary would like to extend the invitation to become part of Theatrum Familiae.

April 28 – 29, 2012, 2 -5 p.m.
ANTIX – Centre for Art Crime and Neoism
276 Crawford Street, Toronto
through drive way towards garage
www.istvankantor.com
http://home.interlog.com/~amen/
http://www.hungarianpresence.ca/Culture/Media/kantor

You are invited to:ALLEYWAY RETRO and RECENT GARAGE WORKS – @ ANTIX – Istvan Kantor’s archive/storage/gallery/gift shop at 276 Crawford St., rear, through drive way to garage.

An ad hoc exhibition of Kantor’s lesser known visual art works, marker boards, mixed media paintings, ripout drawings, plunderworks, picketing signs, posters, and other iconic masterpieces…. This is a great opportunity to increase the value of your collection with a new or old Istvan Kantor original, an excellent moment to purchase one of his “bloody worthless horrifying immature sexist plunder” fabrications for only a hundred bux and embellish the walls of your new luxury condo or miserable windowless basement onebedbunker!!! Hallelujah!

Dont miss this opportunity to closely admire the ANTIX Depot that is Istvan Kantor’s storage space and summer gallery, archive of Kantor’s life and crimes, a meeting place for secret conversations, future projects, conspiracy plans, also amazing deals on bloody canvases and many other beautiful Neoist Monty Cantsin artifacts! It is “the Vatican of Neoism”, the secret emergency exit to Neoist eternity… an archive of over three decades of works, from mail-art to machinery, anti-drawings, re-mixed-media paintings, stolen information, broken sculptures, hypersex-manifestos, flaming banners, burned flags, 1001 broken irons, … a spot for revolutionary ideas, conspiratorial gatherings, great deals, mind blowing conversations with Neoist Genii.

                                              The Dollhouse: Dusk #2 (20″ x 30″) Kodak Endura Digital C-prints, 2007 (printed 2011) ed. 10

May 2 – June 9, 2012
Opening: Saturday, May 5, 6 – 9 p.m.
TELEPHONE BOOTH GALLERY
3148 Dundas St. W.
Toronto, ON, M6P 2A1
T: 647-270-7903
E: sharlene@telephoneboothgallery.ca
www.telephoneboothgallery.ca
Hours: Wed and Sat 11–6, Thurs and Fri 11 – 7 p. m.

Do abandoned places still bear the residue of past inhabitants? If we constantly abandon our places, do we lose connections to what sustains us?

The Dollhouse is a suite of 30 photographs that present the transformation of an abandoned farmhouse in rural Manitoba into a life-sized dollhouse. The photographs reveal a degraded wooden house in a flat empty field. Around the back of the house, an entire wall has been replaced with Plexiglas, revealing rooms that have been fully restored and furnished with decor dating from around the time the house was abandoned in 1968. The contrast in the exterior and interior speak to themes surrounding the passage of time, childhood play, memory, reclamation and nostalgia. The Dollhouse delves deeply into exploring the act of dwelling and engaging with a deep sense of place.

We hold inside us a gathering of the places we have inhabited. Places shape our ideas and feelings; at the same time, our ideas and feelings animate places.

Heather Benning created The Dollhouse while serving as artist-in-residence for Redvers, Saskatchewan, about 30 kilometres west of the house near Sinclair, Manitoba. The installation took nearly 18 months to complete.

Celebrating the 5^th anniversary of the installation, this exhibition will feature selected works from the suite of 30 photographs as well as never before exhibited images documenting the creation of The Dollhouse.

April 24 – May 5, 2012
Opening: Friday, April 27, 6 – 10 p.m.
ROBERT KANANAJ GALLERY
1267 Bloor St. W.
Toronto, ON, M6H 1N7
T: 416.289.8855
E: info@robertkananajgallery.com
www.robertkananajgallery.com
Hours: Tues–Sat 11–6 p.m.

OCAD University has produced a collective of versatile photo-based emerging artists; “Reformed” In this group exhibition, recent graduates of the photography program join together to display their thesis bodies of work. Amongst the diverse group of sixteen artists, there are elements of performance, video and still imagery, textiles, and sculptural components included in the photographically centered exhibition.

Participating artists:
Andrew Alan Anderson
Kerry Bellamy
Melissa Jean Clark
Kimberly Mae Fiedler
Ursula Handleigh
Evy Hareven
Vanessa Hussey
Cassandra Maddela
Shannondoah Malloy
Tori Masters
Andrea McIntyre
Brian More
Nigit ‘stil Norbert
Genevieve Pellettier
Josue Prince
Nicole Torres

April 24 – 27, 2012
Daily event: 8 p.m. – 12 a.m.
213 Sterling Road,
Toronto, ON, M6R2B2
E: anne@fashionarttoronto.ca
http://fashionarttoronto.ca/
www.goethe.de/toronto
www.designerscouts.com/

|FAT| Arts & Fashion Week and the Goethe-Institut Toronto have teamed up this year to present |FAT|’s FOCUS GERMANY. Curated in collaboration with internationally recognized Designer Scouts Berlin, |FAT| spotlights Germany to celebrate its rich cultural scene and strong approach to art and fashion. Four festival days will present Germany’s creative influencers to Toronto audiences through a gallery-style photography exhibit, a multi-media art installation, fashion films, and runway collections. This year’s festival is proud to highlight Germany’s long-standing reputation as a driving force in the creative industries of film, art and fashion.

“|FAT| was launched with the idea to expose Canadian culture to the world, and to make Canadian fashion and art more visible internationally,” says |FAT| Executive Director, Vanja Vasic. “The festival aims to connect with creative hotspots like Germany, in order to exchange ideas and be more informed about world trends and the international arts and fashion community as a whole.”

“We love to work with |FAT| for the second time. Their multidisciplinary mix of art and design creates a powerful platform to engage Canadian and German talents,” says Sonja Griegoschewski, Director of the Goethe-Institut Toronto.

“Germany – Berlin in particular – is one of the most influential cultural centres in the world at the moment,” adds |FAT| Artistic Director, Vessna Perunovich.  “We’re interested in their conceptual approach to fashion, which mirrors lFATl’s mandate to present fashion through many art forms.”

|FAT| Focus Germany featured artists:
Katrin Spranger (www.katrinspranger.de)
Esther Perbandt (www.estherperbandt.com)
Von Bardonitz (www.vonbardonitz.net)
Christian Straub (www.cristianstraub.com)
Katja Hentschel (www.katjahentschel.com)
Lisa Shahno (www.lisashahno.com/the-iteration)
Valquire Veljkovic (www.valquire.de)
howitzweissbach (www.howitzweissbach.com)
Tata Christiane is (www.tatachristiane.com)
Juliaandben (www.juliaandben.com)
Sadak (www.sadak.de)
Isabel Vollrath (www.isabelvollrath.com)
Moga E Mago (www.mogaemago.com)
Daniel Bolliger (www.danielbolliger.com)
Thomas Dachs (www.thomasdachs.de)
Valeria Mitelman (www.mitelman.de)
Magnus Ragnvid Chammom (www.ragnvid.com)
Madame Peripetie (www.madameperipetie.com)

For more information please check out
http://fashionarttoronto.ca/2012-schedule/german-focus-photoexhibit/

April 24 – 28, 2012
Daily event: 8 p.m. – 12 a.m.
213 Sterling Road,
Toronto, ON, M6R2B2
E: anne@fashionarttoronto.ca  
http://fashionarttoronto.ca/

A virtual & on-site multimedia art experience. 12 site-specific artist spaces present work ranging from live performances, broadcasts and video projections to interactive photo booths and more. Their projects are as diverse as they are, with artists joining us from as far as Italy, The Netherlands and Germany, and projects testing every limit of their artistic expressions.

Participating artists: 

LIESJE VAN DEN BERK – Draw the Limit (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
KATRIN SPRANGER – Best Before (FOCUS GERMANY) (Hamburg, Germany)
KAT FERNEYHOUGH (NÉE O’SHAUGHNESSY) – Mend (Brampton, ON)
GWEN BRYDSON – Broadcast People (Toronto, ON)
MAJA ZII – Fashion Fetish (Oakville, Ontario)
MARGARET KRAWECKA – Kaleidoscopic Landscape (Toronto, ON)
MICHAEL BOEHM – The Well (Toronto, ON)
FRENCHFRIES STUDIO WITH NATASA FILIMONOVIC – Plumae (Florence, Italy)
UTA LEVAN & Cristian Tonhaiser – TRANSPOLATION (Brooklyn, New York)
PAULA JOHN – Celluloid Dress (Toronto, ON)
TRACY VAN OOSTEN – Dance Frame (St. Catharines, Ontario)

For more information please check out
http://fashionarttoronto.ca/2012-schedule/dressing-room-project-installation-exhibit/

May 5 – 19, 2012
Opening: Saturday, May 5, 2 – 4 p.m.
Bau-Xi Gallery
340 Dundas St. W
Toronto, ON, M5T1G5
T: 416.977.0600
E: toronto@bau-xi.com
www.bau-xi.com
Hours: Mon-Sat 10-5:30, Sun 11-5:30

The Bau-Xi Galleries in both Toronto and Vancouver are thrilled to be exhibiting concur rent solo shows by renowned Canadian painter, Joseph Plaskett. Plaskett’s newest still life oil paintings will be on display at both locations from May 5th – 19th, 2012. An Opening Reception will be held at both galleries on May 5th, between 2 and 4 p.m.

Approaching age 94, I am slowly coming to an end. I no longer paint ever ything in sight as I used to. The human figure is sadly lacking. There is the odd bit of landscape, but it is now still life that dominates my art. The word I choose to describe the quality of a still life is intimacy. I am closer and closer to the small world surounding me and its surroundings. I make constant discoveries. Of course I repeat myself – every artist does, in a sense, but I constantly make new discoveries. This describes the excitement and joy in which I work. I am as in a theatre. The curtain is drawn. I am on stage and must act. My aim is Beauty, or Joy. My work is closer to comedy than to tragedy. I like to introduce qualities such as wit or humour. Strangely, the closer I get, the more difficult it becomes. But enlightenment comes without too much conscious thought. It comes as a surprise. I marvel at having done something that has never been done before. Joseph Plaskett, 2012

Joseph Plaskett is considered to be one of Canada’s most talented and established painters. In 2001, Plaskett was awarded The Order of Canada for excellence in the field of visual art. Since the 1940’s, he has had over 65 solo and group exhibitions, with paintings in major public, private and corporate collections, including the National Gallery of Canada. He has exhibited with the Bau-Xi Gallery, both in Vancouver and Toronto, since 1973. His chosen subjects have always been intimate expressions of everyday life – interiors, still life, and portraits of friends and models. This show will exhibit Plaskett’s most recent still life paintings.

Amirali Ghasemi Coffee Shop Ladies No. 7 2004/5

May 4 – June 16, 2012
Opening: Friday, May 4, 6 – 9 p.m.
Artist Talk: Saturday, May 5, 3 – 4 p.m.
GALLERY 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography
401 Richmond Street West, Suite 120
Toronto, ON M5V 3A8
T: 416.979.3941
E: robyn@gallery44.org
www.gallery44.org
Hours: Tue-Sat  11 – 5 p.m.

For this exhibition, curator Andrea Fitzpatrick has selected the works of Iranian artists Samira Eskandarfar, Amirali Ghasemi, Abbas Kowsari, Zeinab Salarvand, Arman Stepanian, and Sadegh Tirafkan, all of whom live and work in Tehran. Their images express the wit, elegance and sensitivity of the culture, and the individuality of the artists. Gallery 44 hopes that this exhibition will be a process of discovery for the viewer, and an exploration of artmaking as an increasingly important tool in international dialogues.

Artist Biography

Samira Eskandarfar was born in Iran in 1980 and lives and works in Tehran. She studied ceramic engineering before going on to study filmmaking and finally took an MA in animation. Since 2003, she has made over ten videos from which two of her works were purchased by major public collections, including the Tate Modern in London and Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK) in Berlin. Amirali Ghasemi was born in Tehran in 1980. He lives and works in Tehran. Ghasemi is a graphic artist, media artist, and one of the city’s most active curators of emerging artists. He has travelled all over the world to present his own work and to speak about the young generation of Iranian artists. He is the organizer of the Parking Gallery in Tehran, which provides an independent space for community dialogue about contemporary art. Abbas Kowsari was born in Tehran in 1970. He lives and works in Tehran. Kowsari has been a photojournalist and a photo editor at Iranian newspapers since the early 1990s. He has exhibited his work in prestigious group exhibitions in Paris, Vienna, London, Los Angeles, New York, and Torino. Zeinab Salarvand was born in Tehran in 1984. She lives and works in Tehran. Salarvand holds a BA in photography from the Art University of Tehran. In 2008, she won the top prize at the First International Photography Biennial of the Islamic World in Tehran. She has been included in group exhibitions at galleries in Tehran, as well as at the British Museum, London. Arman Stepanian, born in 1956 in Abadan, Iran, lives and works in Tehran. This Armenian-Iranian artist holds a BA in graphic design from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Tehran University. He has been included in many important Iranian biennial exhibitions since 1990, as well as international group exhibitions of Iranian photographic art held in New York, Paris, London, and other cities. Sadegh Tirafkan was born in Iraq in 1965 to Iranian parents, and has lived in Tehran since 1970. Tirafkan graduated from the University of Tehran with a BA in 1990, and since that time has been working in photography, video, and sculpture with solo exhibitions internationally. His work is in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art; the British Museum; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Maison européenne de la photographie, Paris; and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran.

     Illustration from Paddle-to-the-sea by C.Holling, 1941

April 28 – May 20, 2012
Opening: Saturday, April 28, 2 – 5 p.m.
loop Gallery
1273 Dundas Street West,
Toronto, Ontario, M6J 1X8
(3 doors west of Dovercourt).
T: 416.516.2581
E: loopgallery@primus.ca
http://loopgallery.ca
Hours: Wed – Sat 12 – 5, Sun 1 – 4 p.m.

Loop Gallery is pleased to announce exhibitions by loop member Adrienne Trent entitled Ground Classification: Without a Trace.

Inspired by the children’s book “Paddle-to-the-sea” by C. Holling, Trent’s latest exhibition, Ground Classification: Without a Trace, sets up a poetic and at the same time actual representation of a catastrophe. An ancient handmade canoe with large holes in the bottom becomes a survival kit/getaway vessel. The boat is packed with obsolete and some state-of-the-art equipment for survival against the elements (both natural and human created) and is oriented towards the St. Lawrence Seaway awaiting its imminent escape.

Trent is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art, co-founder of Republic, and former member of the Red Head Gallery. She exhibited widely.

Queen from Soho to Spadina, gel pen, graphite, tea and wax on paper, 6″x8.5″ 2012

April 28 – May 20, 2012
Opening: Saturday, April 28, 2012, 2 – 5 p.m.
LOOP GALLERY
1273 Dundas Street West,
Toronto, Ontario, M6J 1X8
(3 doors west of Dovercourt).
T: 416.516.2581
E: loopgallery@primus.ca
http://loopgallery.ca/
Hours: Wed – Sat 12 – 5 p.m. Sun 1 – 4 p.m.

Loop Gallery is pleased to announce exhibitions by artist Nancy Oakes entitled Walking Drawings.

In 2006, Oakes began experimenting with “Walking Drawings,” navigating the city streets while simultaneously producing drawings that captured her lived experience as it happened. Later enhanced with graphite, and stained with tea and wax, the final drawings are believable urban scenes composed of elements encountered separately over time and space. This experiential peripatetic strategy exists at the intersection of all four of Oakes’ key interests: human beings, the urban environment, walking, and drawing.

Oakes is a Toronto-based artist and has exhibited at artist-run centres and public and commercial venues including Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts, A.W.O.L. Gallery, Lehman Leskiw Fine Art, Visual Arts Centre of Clarington (Clarington Gallery), Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition and Gallery 1313. Her drawings were included in the First National Juried Drawing Exhibition at White Water Gallery and Drawing 2012 at the John B. Aird Gallery. Her walking drawing practice was featured on CBC Radio’s “Here and Now”.