Author: artoronto

  • Eve – Photography by Bill Filiou

    Eve

    September 7 – 18, 2011
    Opening: Thursday, September 8,  7-10pm
    GALLERY 1313
    1313 QUEEN STREET WEST,
    TORONTO, ON M6K 1K8
    T: 416 – 536-6778
    E mail: director@g1313.org
    www.gallery13131.org
    Hours: Wed – Sun 1- 6

    Toronto photographer, Bill Filiou has been practising his craft for over twenty one years.
    One of his primary photo subjects has been photographing women. He has done this tastefully while also exploring their sensuality. The Eve project started as a storyboard as Filiou starts his work on paper using his ability to draw. He hopes to have the viewer think about his photographs.

    Bill Filou was born in Antartiko , Florina Greece in 1959
    His previous exhibits include Woman on Water – Lensfactory Gallery 2010, New Gallery – Contact Photography Festival 2010, Love Struggles, Gallery 1313 2008, The Habit, 2005 – MOCCA & Gallery 1313.

    Filou has been influenced by photographs of Edward Weston & Newton as well as others
    He works in digital format and film. Filou has printed this series on his own with a professional printer.

  • Subconscious Vista, paintings by Jen Mann

    September 7 – 18, 2011
    Opening: Thursday, September 8,  7-10pm
    GALLERY 1313
    1313 QUEEN STREET WEST,
    TORONTO, ON M6K 1K8
    T: 416 – 536-6778
    E mail: director@g1313.org
    www.gallery13131.org
    Hours: Wed – Sun 1- 6

    In her first solo exhibition Jen Mann explores themes of nature, spiritualism, fantasy and discovery in her series of paintings entitled ‘Subconscious Vista’.

     A strong narrative carries throughout the show and dream worlds unravel, where each character has their own tale. These heroes are paired with crystals, flowers and bird spirit guides to cross
    into landscapes of the subconscious, thick with magic and cosmic power.

    To contact the artists: www.jenmann.com

  • The Queen West Art Crawl

    September 16-18, 2011
    Queen West between Bathurst and Roncesvalles
    Parkdale Community Development Group 
    T: 416.516.8301
    E-mail: pia@parkdaleliberty.com
    www.parkdaleliberty.com
    www.queenwestartcrawl.com

    All events are free

    One of Toronto’s leading Art Shows, taking place along Queen West between Bathurst and Roncesvalles, the Queen West Art Crawl offers the city more than just any Art Festival.
    Along with the Outdoor Art Show & Sale, the KidsZone, Parkdale Nightcrawl and QWAC Walks and Talks that the Queen West Art Crawl offers, there are also special deals for everyone to enjoy before and after their visit to QWAC, September 16-18.

    The Queen West Art Crawl (QWAC) promotes meaningful interaction between art and people in the neighborhoods of West Queen West and Parkdale in Toronto.The annual festival highlights and exhibits the work of professional artists, and presents new ideas via art scholars and curators, artists, and art lovers. This event is brought to you by Parkdale Community Development Group.

    The Parkdale Community Development Group is a non-profit organization that works with community partners to foster the healthy social and economic development of Parkdale for the benefit of its residents and businesses.

  • CHANGING STAKES – CONTEMPOARY ART DIALOGUES WITH DUBAI

    September 9 – October 29, 2011
    Opening:Friday, September 9, 2011, 7:00 pm   
    PANEL DISCUSSION:
    Saturday 10 September, 4 PM
    Mercer Union,
    A Centre for Contemporary Art
    1286 Bloor Street West
    Toronto ON, M6H 1N9
    T: 416.536.1519
    E-mail: sarah@mercerunion.org
    www.mercerunion.org
    Hours: Tues-Sat 11-6

    Participating artists: Haig Aivazian (Sharjah/New York), Abbas Akhavan (Toronto), Amir Berbic (Dubai/Chicago), Lamya Gargash (Dubai), George Katodrytis (Dubai), Armin Linke (Berlin/Milan), Nikolaj Skyum Bendix Larsen, (Copenhagen/London), Hajra Waheed (Montreal).
    Guest curator: Srimoyee Mitra

    PANEL DISCUSSION Saturday 10 September, 4 PM
    Participating artists: Haig Aivazian, Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen and Hajra Waheed in conversation with Srimoyee Mitra

    Changing Stakes – Contemporary Art Dialogues with Dubai is an exploration of experimental and critical art practices that have emerged over the last decade to grapple with the dramatic rise of the city. This exhibition is a search for a complex language to examine the impact of the large-scale infrastructural developments in Dubai, mapping their effect on how the location’s history and culture are being shaped.

    Marketing itself as an exclusive oasis for limitless consumption, Dubai stands as an icon of late capitalism and unrestricted development projects in the 21st Century. These ambitions manifested themselves in the rapid rise of large-scale constructions that transformed the landscape from a modest port surrounded by an arid dessert to the site of luxury housing projects, business districts, malls, hotels, parks and golf courses, an artificial coastline and islands with idyllic sandy beaches. While the booming oil and housing markets fueled these developments and captured the imagination of tourists, investors and the high-end expatriate workforce, crucial challenges such as transparency, sustainability and the spatial division of its geography along socio-economic, cultural and racial lines were not addressed.

    Using photography and video installations, archives, found objects and ephemera, the artists in the exhibition develop nuanced critiques of everyday life in the hyperbolic city. Each artwork challenges simplistic modes of viewership and underscores the zeitgeist of Dubai—a condition of transition and uncertainty that resonates internationally.

    Mercer Union, a centre for contemporary art acknowledges the support of its staff, volunteers and members, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council. Armin Linke’s participation has been made possible by the Goethe-Institut and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura. Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen’s participation is supported by the Danish Arts Agency.

  • Under the Jerusalem Sky : Contemporary Art for the Jewish Soul

    September 14 – 18, 2011
    Opening: Wednesday, September 14, 2011,  7 p.m.
    Couvert $80 per person
    Nikola Rukaj Gallery
    384 Eglinton Avenue West
     T: 416-635-5491
    E-mail:ileventhal@jerusalemfoundation.ca
    Hours: Mon – Sat: 10 – 6, Sun: 12 – 6pm

     
    Under the Jerusalem Sky is a contemporary exhibition inspired by the beauty and allure of Jerusalem, showcasing extraordinary work in acrylic, textiles, silver, photography, beadwork and Judaica.

    Exhibiting artists: Beverley Abramson, Rikki Blitt, Joanne Circle, Chana Cromer, Temma Gentles, Sue Krivel, Zahava Lambert, Ian Leventhal, Cesan d’Ornellas Levine, David and Haya Nativ, Dorothy Ross, Rochelle Rubinstein, Melanie Siegel, Yair Stern, The Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Textiles, Lezlie Winemaker, Adi Zur

    All proceeds from the tickets and art sales will directly help Jerusalem’s young people realize their potential through educational, recreational, and career development programs at the Morasha Community and Cultural Centre.

  • ISTVAN KANTOR – CLOSING CRIME

    Saturday, September 10,  2:00 – 6:00pm
    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

    I’m scheduled for a two months European tour of performance/video/installation works starting
    October  1st in Hungary. Unfortunately I havent received the needed financial support for execution. I must raise $5000 to make it happen!!!
     

    I offer 50 new paintings for sale @$100 each.

    You are invited to the The last event of this year’s summer gatherings at Istvan’s Neoist archive and hard-art-space , a week before his two months tour would begin in Hungary, Transylvania, Poland, Holland, Germany…

    Come to wish good luck, shake hands, kiss, say goodbye and to witness a farewell blood x -performance…

    Your last minute purchase of an original Monty Cantsin will be also appreciated…
    a great variety of immortal masterpieces are available for as little as 100bux a piece!

    Come and celebrate the end of the summer with mindblowing ideas at the Temple of Desperadoes and learn more about the Diabolic Personalia and Secret Archives of Istvan Kantor / Istvan Kantor’s ANTIX Depot 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 / mostly every saturdayday aft from 2pm to 6pm/ with special invited guests /Come with a juice or beer, bring your friends, look around, sit down, have a great afternoon… while the Rentagon is out on vacation, we R right into revolution!

    Istvan Kantor’s artistic practice incorporates robotic sculpture, video, performance, mixed-media installation, painting, sound, and various other action-based social-mediums like the open-pop-star movement of Monty Cantsin and the world wide network of Neoism. Neoism is a transmission interface and revolving platform to gain public support and media attention for its users.
    Kantor employs all his skills and talents to constantly surprise and fascinate. “I swear to God, I’ll never make any boring art!” he declares with bold determination, irony and wit, holding up a picketing sign.
    His main interest lies in creating work that establishes a discussion within and around the conflicting territories of institutional authority and cultural gentrification. In this regard Kantor’s work investigates the revolutionary and scientific aspects of artistic practices that attempt to surpass the conventional models of creative experience.
    Istvan Kantor is Hungarian-born, Toronto-based artist. Recent and upcoming solo exhibitions include: Monty Cantsin Was Here, Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, febr/2011; Made in Estonia, installation, Tallinn, may/2011; Selected works, St.Istvan Museum, Szekesfehervar, Hungary, oct/nov 2011 Upcoming group exhibitions include: Interakcje Festival, Piotrkow, Poland, may/2011; WRO Biennale, Wroclaw, Poland, may/2011

    Istvan Kantor aka Monty Cantsin is also known as a noise/music artist, electro-instrumentalist and singer of the Toronto based Red Armband. He has recorded and released over a dozen albums of songs and noise works since the early 80s.

  • Lea Vivot: Radiant Emotions

     “In the Beginning”, by Lea Vivot

    September 14 – October 14, 2011
    Opening Remarks: Rossana Magnotta, Sept 17, 1:30pm
    Artist Talk (Canadian Art/Gallery Hop) Sept 24, 2pm
    CANADIAN SCULPTURE CENTRE
    500 Church Street
    Toronto ON M4Y 2C8
    Tel: 647.435.5858
    Email: gallery@cansculpt.org
    Hours: Tuesday – Friday 12-6; Saturdays 11-4

    Radiant Emotions explores the divine energy of creation.

    Lea Vivot is an internationally-renowned artist who resides in Kleinburg, Ontario. She was born in Sumperk, Czechoslovakia and is active in sculpture, drawing and printmaking. Presently she creates in Kleinburg, New York, Acapulco, and the Czech Republic.

    Vivot studied at the Prague School of Stage Design in Czechoslovakia, the Academia di Brera in Italy, the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, and the Art Student’s League in New York. Her career as an artist began in the seventies when she began working on bronze sculptures. She quickly became internationally known for her over life-size bronzes, such
    as the “Lover’s Bench” and has since made “benches” her trademark. Vivot’s sculptures are full of humanity as she often depicts families, couples, mothers, and children. The large scale of her work calls for interaction with her viewers who naturally enjoy occupying the same space
    as the bronze figures. On her benches, Vivot likes to include inscribed messages by people from all walks of life. For example, various additions of The Secret Bench, Lost Paradise, found in Montreal, Toronto and New York, all have handwritten messages expressing the hopes and fears of children.

    The Secret Bench of Knowledge, which is in front of the National Library of Canada, in Ottawa, bears a message of the joy and value of reading. Writers from Canada and abroad, as well as the general public have left inscriptions on this bench. Vivot’s desire to have her work invite interaction from viewers demonstrates both the importance of sculpture and its role in society. The Secret Bench of Knowledge, like all of her sculptures, tells a story. She once said; “knowledge belongs to all, and what is not written is forgotten.”

    Radiant Emotions will showcase some of her more intimate works on public view for the first time.

  • 3rd Annual Schomberg Village Street Gallery Juried Art Show and Sale

    Saturday & Sunday, September 17 & 18
    10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day
    It’s worth the drive to Highways 9 and 27
    only 45 minutes North of Downtown Toronto
    For further information contact:
    Greg Locke – Co-Chair
    T: 905 939-7147
    greg@gothamglassworks.com or
    Jane Binions at info@artssocietyking.ca

    Visit the Schomberg Village Street Gallery and enjoy this outdoor juried fine art sale along Schomberg’s historic Main Street. King Township has one of the highest per capita populations of artists in Ontario, and Schomberg is where they gather! Come and meet them.

    This show celebrates local AND regional artists across media including oil, acrylic, glass, photography, jewellery and intaglio. Artists’ styles range from traditional to contemporary to abstract.

    Schomberg’s eclectic Main Street has proven itself an ideal outdoor setting to explore and buy great, original art for any setting. Main boasts one of King Township’s best restaurants and several eateries, pubs, gourmet coffee shop and decorator stores.

    Many other local events are happening in town during the show – see Schomberg.ca for more – but be careful – you might just “Fall In Love With Schomberg!”

    Have a look at this year’s artists and location map at SVSG.ca.

  • Simon Fujiwara: Welcome to the Hotel Munber

    Simon Fujiwara: Welcome to the Hotel Munber

    September 24 – November 11, 2011
    Opening: Friday, September 23rd, 8-11PM

    THE POWER PLANT CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY
    231 Queens Quay West
    Toronto, Ontario M5J 2G8
    T: 416.973.4949
    E: info@thepowerplant.org
    thepowerplant.org
    Hours: Tues-Sun 12-6, Sat 12-8, Open holiday Mondays

    Through performance, short stories, installationsets, lectures, and novels, British-Japanese artist Simon Fujiwara scripts and performs his own biography as fiction. Often weaving his own personal history into broad social events, Fujiwara constructs parallel histories that he presents through his role as raconteur and dramaturge. Playing multiple and often conflicting roles — from archaeologist and eroticist to architect — Fujiwara’s seemingly multifarious identities both establish and erase themselves within his shadowy narratives, forming a complex, fleeting portrait of the contemporary individual.

    To read more about the exhibition, please visit thepowerplant.org.

  • The Plot

    The Plot: Keren Cytter, Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys, Isabelle Pauwels

    September 24 – November 6, 2011
    Opening: Friday, September 23rd, 8-11PM

    THE POWER PLANT CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY
    231 Queens Quay West
    Toronto, Ontario M5J 2G8
    T: 416.973.4949
    E: info@thepowerplant.org
    thepowerplant.org
    Hours: Tues-Sun 12-6, Sat 12-8, Open holiday Mondays

    Artists working in film and video have long engaged questions of narration and structure, truth and fiction. The Plot brings together the work of artists who share approaches to non-linear narrative. They use structural breaks, an economy of means (or its aesthetic) and the employment of film as a stage upon which amateur actors (or their proxies) consider history, human relationships and the space created by the camera. The Plot explores film and video not only as a tract upon which scenes are enacted, broken and re-spatialized, but as a scenario, a deception and a scheme.

    To read more about the exhibition, please visit thepowerplant.org.

  • Derek Sullivan: Albatross Omnibus

    Derek Sullivan: Albatross Omnibus

    September 24 – November 20, 2011
    Opening: Friday, September 23rd, 8-11PM

    THE POWER PLANT CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY
    231 Queens Quay West
    Toronto, Ontario M5J 2G8
    T: 416.973.4949
    E: info@thepowerplant.org
    thepowerplant.org
    Hours: Tues-Sun 12-6, Sat 12-8, Open holiday Mondays

    The Power Plant’s 2011 commission Albatross Omnibus by Toronto-based artist Derek Sullivan involves new artist books, and a drawing and installation project. The commission’s core is a series of 52 limited edition books produced through print-on-demand technology. One full set of books is displayed in a grid-like formation hanging from wires at a height that visitors must use a stepladder to reach. Fourteen copies of each book will be available for purchase in the gallery shop, with each title exclusively available for a single day of the 52 days of the exhibition. Each of the 52 books has its own title, while the full set shares the name Albatross Omnibus.

    To read more about the exhibition, please visit thepowerplant.org.

  • China: made in Canada by Harlan House

    HARLAN HOUSE, EE-I-EE-I-O (two views), 2011, mixed media, 40 X 22 7/8 X 13 3/4 in.

    August 18 – September 25, 2011
    Opening: on Saturday, September 10th, 2-5pm
    DAVID KAYE GALLERY
    1092 Queen Street West
    (entrance on Dovercourt)
    Toronto, ON M6J 1H9
    416.532.9075
    www.davidkayegallery.com
    Hours: Mon., Tue. by appointment
    Wed. – Fri. 11:00 – 6:00; Sat., Sun. <11:00 – 5:00
    NOTE: Gallery closed August 28 – September 6

    This exhibition of new work by Harlan House is the culmination of his two years of research (facilitated by a Canada Council grant) studying large-scale ceramic production – a particular specialty of the Sèvres porcelain factory in France. Combining his first love of painting with his expertise in making fine porcelain ceramic objects, Harlan House tackles issues that address the insidious and widespread spread of ubiquitous fast-food products. In addition, he takes to task large discount department stores that have insinuated themselves into the marketplace thereby displacing smaller shopping establishments.

     Meet the artist at the exhibition’s opening reception on Saturday, September 10th. Harlan is also giving a lecture at the Gardiner Museum on Friday, September 23rd. (West Gallery)