Author: artoronto

Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival
May, 2012 (some show run from April to August)
150 venues in Toronto
Opening: Friday, April 27, 7 – 10 p.m.
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN ART

Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival is the largest of its kind in the world.

Stimulated by the renewed global interest in street photography, this year’s festival explores the theme “Public” in a series of exhibitions, site-specific installations, and events across the city. Drawing attention to social and political issues that are framed by photographic images, the works presented challenge the distinctions between our private lives and the public sphere. CONTACT 2012 highlights how photography shapes collective experience and makes things public. 150 venues show 1000 photographers’ works, a lot to see.

For listing of Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival: http://scotiabankcontactphoto.com/

Please also check out our interview with Darcy Killeen, Executive Director of Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival at http://www.artoronto.ca/?p=9197

Please al so check our picks at http://www.artoronto.ca/?p=9422

Andrew B. Myers, “Inconspicuous Consumption”, 2011……

April 25 – April 28, 2012
Opening: Thursday April 26, 6 – 10 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

Add to your collection, or buy your first piece at PHOTOPIA! The gallery walls will be adorned with a stunning selection of photographs created by talented local artists, both members and friends of Gallery 44. With many pieces priced below $500, there is artwork in every price range.

PHOTOPIA raises funds for Gallery 44’s education and exhibition programs and thus is a fabulous way to support a culture of art in Toronto, and in your own home.

The Supporters Preview on Wednesday April 25, from 6 to 8 p.m, is exclusive to friends of Gallery 44 who have contributed, or would like to contribute $50 or more to the gallery. It features a wine & cheese reception, director’s exhibition tour, and advance sale.

PHOTOPIA opens to the public on Thursday April 26 with our hottest party of the year, featuring an exciting lottery raffle, fantastic food, signature cocktails, special guest DJ, beautiful people and artwork for everyone. Come early to get the piece you have your eye on! Doors open at 6pm.

PHOTOPIA 2012 will feature works by: Misbah  Ali • Peter  Andrew Lusztyk • Tobi  Asmoucha • Sally  Ayre • James Blake • Dr. Roberta Bondar • Mary  Bramley • Jason  Brown • Edward Burtynsky • Marco Buonocore • Robert  Burley • Jamie  Campbell • Alex Coley • Molly  Crealock • Chris  Curreri • Robyn  Cumming • Nathan  Cyprys • Neil  Fenton • Colwyn  Griffith • Jonathan  Groeneweg • Toni  Hafkenscheid • Osheen Harruthoonyan • Shelagh  Howard • Ben  Huang • Jim  Hurtubise • Chris  Ironside • Deborah  Kanfer • Laurie  Kang • Joan  Kaufman • Brendan George  Ko • Kelly  Lamorie • Christine Lucy  Latimer • Surendra Lawoti • Jennifer  Long • Jesse  Louttit • Margarita  McDonald • Sandy Middleton • Andrew B.  Myers • Michael  O’Brien • Lindsay  Page • Oliver  Pauk • Mark  Peckmezian • Catherine  Polcz • Helena  Raposo • Terence  Reeves • Dale  Reid • Eileen  Reilly • Darren  Rigo • Yari  Sacco • Eugen  Sakhnenko • Clare  Samuel • Derek  Shapton • Chris Shepherd • Meera Margaret  Singh • Peter  Sramek  • Greg Staats • Maju  Tavera • Sarah  Thompson • Monica  Vichar • Joan Lillian Wilson • Elise  Windsor • Kirk  Wynter  and more!

View a selection of artwork online: PHOTOPIA PREVIEW GALLERY(http://www.gallery44.org/photopia2012)

PHOTOPIA LOTTERY

Our lottery raffle will take place on April 26th during the opening reception (6-10 p.m.)

Tickets are available now! $10 or a book for $50. Call the gallery (416-979-3941) to purchase a ticket (or a book!)

You could win one of the following prizes:  Aeroplan (160,000 miles) • CONTACT Photography Festival Limited Edition Print  ($1,500.00) • Planet in Focus festival passes  ($180.00) • Stephen Bulger Gallery art publications  ($97.00) • Toronto Image Works gift certificate  ($250.00) • Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival 2 passes  ($160.00) • Dancap Productions – 2 tickets for Beauty and the Beast ($230.00), 2 tickets for West Side Story ($270.00) • Art Metropole prize pack with books and swag ($200.00) • gallerywest Portfolio Review  ($150.00) • LIFT workshop voucher  ($200.00) • Drake Hotel Gift card  ($100.00) • Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre Arena family package ($150.00) • Canadian Opera Company Semele tickets ($140) • Luminato tickets ($175) • Leslieville Cheese Market gift certificate for Cheese Fan Event ($40) • Nicholas Hoare Bookstore gift certificate  ($30.00) • PREFIX PHOTO magazine subscription  ($28.00) • Theatre Passe Muraille – 2 tickets  ($50.00) • Woolfitts Art Enterprises photo paper portfolio pack  ($50.00) • Lomography Store publication  ($50.00) • La Palette Gift certificate  ($50.00) • Saman Design gift certificate for vinyl lettering ($100) • The Black Hoof Gift certificate  ($100.00) • Tarragon Theatre 2 tickets  ($90.00) • Good Egg Workshop voucher  ($75.00) • Canadian Stage Company tickets  ($85.00) • DanceWorks tickets  ($75.00) • Kindle e-Reader with Wi-Fi ($150) • Riverdale Mac gift certificate ($25) • Hopgood’s Foodliner gift certificate ($100)

Buy a ticket today! $10 each at Gallery 44
Draw will be held during PHOTOPIA opening reception, Thurs. April 26, 6pm – 10pm

 

 

 

April 19 – May 13, 2012
Opening: Thursday, April 19, 6 – 8 p.m.
FRAN HILL GALLERY
285 Rushton Road
Toronto, ON, M6C 2X5
Tel: 416.363.1333
E: franhillgallery@bellnet.ca
Hours: Fri–Sun 11–6 p.m or by appointment

Rosalie Lam – Impressions of Sacred Cows: New Paintings

“The acts of travelling and moving to new countries present us with opportunities to explore strange environments, experience foreign cultures and discover ancient traditions. While these discoveries are fascinating, can we fully understand the complexities of these places? Perhaps our creative interpretations are a valid form of knowledge.

While I was living in Vasant Vihar, an upscale district in New Delhi, India, I was fascinated by the cows that visited the neighbourhood daily. Around mid-morning, the herd wandered in front of the gated yards and guardhouses, sharing the right of way with Benzes and Jaguars. As the cows lingered, grazing on stray vegetation and food scraps, house servants in colourful saris offered them buckets of water and chapatti bread. They seemed part of the community.

I enjpoyed the muscular shapes and nonchalant posture of the cows, and was delighted by their inquisitive but calm mood. They let me stand close by and sketch them.

In painting the cows around my neighbourhood, I attempted to capture the mood and movement of these large docile urban beasts, which were surrounded by an element of mystery. in a non-violent manner, the cows assert a strong cultural and religious presence right in the midst of a busy urban life in New Delhi.

In painting urban cows, I am giving them a voice through a foreigners’s eyes.” Rosalie Lam, Toronto, April, 2012

Saturday, April 21 and Sunday, April 22, 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

Thank You!

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.

April 25 – May 19, 2012
Opening:  Saturday, April 28, 2 – 5 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

To be a body, is to be tied to a certain world.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

In Between is a photo and video-based reflection on human and ecological movement and motion. By capturing and deconstructing aspects of movement, new physical and psychological exigencies come into play. From still and contemplative to dynamic and electrifying, the works metaphorically probe control, desire, freedom and the moments that happen in between.

Joan Kaufman is a Canadian multi-disciplinary artist whose practice is based in photography, sculpture, video and sound composition. She produces photographic, filmic, and video constructs that probe the human condition and natural order by examining provocative coping strategies for uncertainty, complexity and change inherent to contemporary life.

Kaufman has exhibited nationally and internationally; is the recipient of Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and Manitoba Arts Council grants; and has works in both public and private collections.  www.joankaufman.com

First Hero by Andreea- Alta Mihartescu

April 18 – 29, 2012
Opening: Saturday, April 21, 2 – 5 p.m.
GALLERY 1313 Cell Gallery
1313 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON, M6K 1K8
T: 416.536.6778
E: director@g1313.org
www.gallery13131.org
Hours: Wed–Sun 1:00–6:00 p.m

“I create mixed media from charcoal, ink, water colors and oil to digital photography, computer art and video experiments. Each of my projects consists of multiple works grouped around specific themes and meanings. My HEROES series is characterized by a rough, violent and ironical approach displayed using only strong black and white contrasts and it is concentrated on spontaneous emotions rather than traditional conventions. I used insertions of realistic heroes inspired from the classicism, romanticism, renaissance and baroque along with added texts elements to provide clues to content and interpretation and also representing biting commentary meant to be my
own reaction against the human society’s post media condition.” Andreea- Alta Mihartescu

Klie Jackson, Untitled

April 18 – 29, 2012
Opening: Friday, April 27, 6 p.m.
GALLERY 1313 Main, Process & Window Box Galleries
1313 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON, M6K 1K8
T: 416.536.6778
E: director@g1313.org
www.gallery13131.org
Hours: Wed–Sun 1:00–6:00 p.m

Beginning in April of 2012, Ryerson’s School of Image Arts will host its 17th annual graduate and end of year show: Maximum Exposure. The exhibition showcases the works of 150 – 200 emerging photography, new media and film based artists within Ryerson University.

Maximum Exposure provides the emerging student artists of Ryerson’s Image Arts program with a platform to launch their careers into the arts and visual communications industries, while offering the public insights into the talent operating within the university.
From April 1 –  29, Maximum Exposure will host 7 independent exhibitions which will take place at three venues in Toronto and their surrounding area: The Gladstone Hotel, Gallery 1313, and Gallery 99 @ 99 Sudbury.

An established component of Maximum Exposure, this inclusive two-week long showcase of work produced by the third year Photography students foreshadows their thesis projects of the following year. The work found in this exhibition can be seen as the germinating concepts, ideas and motifs that will shape and direct the careers of these emerging artists and photographers.

Singing Yelling at the Wind

April 14 – 28, 2012
Opening: Saturday, April 14, 2-4 p.m.
BAU-XI GALLERY
340 Dundas St. West
Toronto, Ontario, M5T 1G5
T: 416.977.0600
E: toronto@bau-xi.com
www.bau-xiphoto.com
Hours: Mon-Sat 10–5:30, Sun 11–5:30

Bakes’ paintings deal with light and atmospheric motion or wind in nature. Kevin Chong wrote for the Globe and Mail, “Her brooding wind-swept scenes highlight tensions not only between the sky and land, but also between the physical landscape and the world of the mind.”

Exhibitions of her work can be found at the Bau-Xi Gallery in Vancouver and Toronto, as well as the Foster/White Gallery in Seattle. Her work has been placed in numerous private collections across North America and Europe, and in permanent collections such as Emaar Properties, Dubai, UAE, Enunciate Conferencing, Toronto Dominion Bank, UBC Psychiatric Hospital, Vancouver General Hospital, and St. Paul’s Hospital.

Sheri Bakes is credited as painting mentor for the NFB film entitled ‘Bone, Wind, Fire,’ written & directed by Jill Sharpe. This film is based on artists Georgia O’Keefe, Emily Carr & Frida Kahlo and has recently won “Best Canadian Film” at FIFA in Montreal. Click here to view a clip.

Sheri Bakes is a Canadian painter living and working in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. She received a BFA from the Emily Carr University in 1998, and began exhibiting with the Bau-Xi Gallery in 2002.

Opening Reception: Thursday, April 5, 7–11 p.m. 
GALLERY 1313 

WHAT JUST HAPPENED: Magnolia Banda-Marín, Marta Franco, Ian Hahn, Cory
Manley, Jasmine Mujkanovic, Alex Yardley

OCAD U’s Thesis Exhibition of Sculpture and Installation Students second exhibition opened, and to much celebration, on April 5 . Friends, colleagues, faculty and art enthusiasts had an opportunity to explore the new works by graduating students.

The exhibition by Christos Damianos, Detained in the Cell Gallery and Window Box Gallery grabbed visitors’ curiosity as the floor of the gallery was covered in sunflower seeds.

Ulysses Castellanos and Christos Damianos

Performance artist Ulysses Castellanos dropped by to see Detained. OCAD U faculty members George Boileau, Ginette Legare, Claire Brunet and Ian Carr–Harris were also there to see their students’ work.
The pieces worked well in the space and everyone seemed pleased to see the finished works.

Text and Photo by Phil Anderson

Opening: Friday, March 23, 8–11 p.m.
THE POWER PLANT CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY

Two very exiting exhibitions opened on March 23 at the Power Plant. Speak, memory, is based around the premiere of Kerry Tribe’s new film project, There Will Be ________. This exhibition examines her ongoing interest in memory and the history and apparatus of film.

Patrons of The Power Plant at the spring 2012 opening party, 23 March, 2012. Photo by OhhhJoeyPhotography.

Patrons of The Power Plant at the spring 2012 opening party, 23 March, 2012. Photo by OhhhJoeyPhotography.

Dissenting Histories: 25 Years of The Power Plant is a dynamic project designed to exhibit, activate, reconsider, and put into dialogue the gallery’s rich histories. Concurrently, the project will provide space for sifting through materials, an opportunity to explore the archive as archive. There will always be new material to look at and it will be worth taking a closer look to see all the details.

Patrons of The Power Plant in the Dissenting Histories gallery space at the spring 2012 opening party, 23 March, 2012. Photo by OhhhJoeyPhotography.

Patrons of The Power Plant in the Dissenting Histories gallery space at the spring 2012 opening party, 23 March, 2012. Photo by OhhhJoeyPhotography.

Patrons of The Power Plant at the spring 2012 opening party, 23 March, 2012. Photo by OhhhJoeyPhotography.

 

April 14  – May 19, 2012
Opening: Saturday, April 14, 8 p.m.–late
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

This installation draws upon the ecological effects of vibration and the history of sonic warfare. Historically, sound has been an ideal medium for the performance of psychological warfare because of how efficiently it evokes events and locations. Whether declarative, as with anthems or artillery, or deceptive, as with sonic decoys or surveillance, the audiosphere is well disposed to militarization. Inside the gallery, aural encounters occur in two strains, one territorial, via the ground walked upon, as much felt as heard; the other aerial, via a sonic beam that occasionally sweeps the visitor unannounced like a wandering ghost. Instrumentation of the floor composition is comprised of tank maneuvers, explosions, earthquake frequencies, helicopters and other heavy equipment. These field recordings were filtered, processed and edited together with a variety of sine and sawtooth waves. Conceptually, the floor composition suggests the residual infrastructural sounds of military action. Three subwoofers and three buttkickers are installed below the topography upon which the visitor walks and feels the composition. The wandering beam composition is comprised of sirens, trumpets and bagpipes—instrumentation that is traditionally declarative and historically associated with warfare or police states. The instruments are deployed without their traditional melodies, resulting in single notes and drones. This piece is played through an HSS (Hyper Sonic Sound) speaker mounted on a gimbal in the ceiling. This sort of speaker generates a highly directional sound beam which is not discernible unless the beam is pointed directly at the listener.

This exhibition is presented in collaboration with the 25th annual Images Festival, April 12 – April 21.

For more information visit the Images Festival.

Deborah Stratman is a Chicago-based artist and filmmaker interested in landscapes and systems. Her films, rather than telling stories, pose a series of problems—and through their at times ambiguous nature, allow for a complicated reading of the questions being asked. Many of her films point to the relationships between physical environments and the very human struggles for power, ownership, mastery and control that are played out on the land. Most recently, they have questioned elemental historical narratives about freedom, expansion, security, and the regulation of space. Stratman works in multiple mediums, including photography, sound, drawing and sculpture. She has exhibited internationally at venues including the Whitney Biennial, MoMA, the Pompidou, Hammer Museum and many international film festivals including Sundance, the Viennale, Ann Arbor and Rotterdam. She is the recipient of Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships and she currently teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago.