Author: artoronto

August 6, Saturday 2 – 6 pm
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-215.cfm

ANTI-X 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! 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

Joshua Jensen-Nagle, Versailles Gardens II, 2011, archival inkjet print facemounted to plexiglass, 43×43 inAugust 6 – 2 0,  2 0 1 1
Opening: Saturday, August 6, 2 – 4pm                    
BAU-XI PHOTO
324 Dundas St. West
Toronto, Ontario M5T 1G5
T: 416.977.0400
E: info@bau-xiphoto.com
www.bau-xiphoto.com
Hours: Mon-Sat 10-5:30, Sun 11-5:30

Contending Spaces, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in.

August 6 – 2 0,  2 0 1 1
Opening: Saturday, August 6, 2 – 4pm                    
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

The Bau-Xi Galler y in Toronto is pleased to be exhibiting the new work of established Canadian painter, John Barkley, in a solo-exhibition entitled Contending Spaces . This is Barkley’s first exhibition with the Bau-Xi Gallery. Barkley’s paintings explore humanity’s relationship to nature and his existential concerns while experimenting with paint application.

As a boy, John Barkley’s father, an ar tist as well, encouraged him to draw and paint, and eventually took him to paint on sojourns into the country. As a young man, he returned to Ottawa to study. In addition to painting, he is also a dedicated scholar, whose studies and interests factor significantly in his ar t work. His degrees include a Master of Ar ts in Religion, from Carleton University (2001); a Bachelor of Fine Ar ts, Visual Ar t, Magna Cum Laude, Universityof Ottawa (1996); Bachelor of Ar ts, Honours, Psychology, from Carleton University (1989); and a Bachelor of Arts, Law and Psychology, Carleton University. In 2000, he wrote a Master’s thesis which created a new hermeneutic of art, based upon the work of Jung, Tillich, and Heidegger, it was subsequently applied to the work of Roland Poulin.

 John Barkley is an experimental painter living in Chelsea, Quebec. Barkley has been pursuing a professional ar tistic practice since 1996. In the last seven years he has been able to work in his studio, in Wakefield Quebec, as a full time ar tist. Barkley’s works have been exhibited extensively and have been reviewed in LeDroit, The Ottawa Citizen, and The Globe and Mail. His paintings are par t of numerous private and corporate collections

 Untitled (Near North #84-90), 1990, watercolour on paper, 22.5 x 30 inches 

August 6 – 2 0,  2 0 1 1
Opening: Saturday, August 6, 2 – 4pm                    
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

Frederick Hagan’s (1918-2003) upcoming exhibition at Bau-Xi Gallery offers the unique opportunity to experience some of the earliest watercolour paintings produced by this important Canadian artist. These watercolour paintings are vivid, colourful works painted with the fluidity and fascination of Hagan’s talented hand.

 ‘The Near North’ complements two other significant exhibitions taking place in Ontario public gallery institutions this Summer and Fall. FIGURE IN PLACE / FIGURING THE LANDSCAPE: These two exhibitions, to be held at the MacLaren Ar t Centreand the Georgian College Campus Galler y respectively, are an intimate look at how the regional landscape of Muskoka Ontario has played an important role in the landscape and figurative paintings of ar tist Frederick Hagan. Selected landscape paintings dating from the 1940s to the 1990s within the context of his figurative work will establish the importance of “place” and “identity” that underpin the conceptual premise and interest with his use of the figure, establishing a “humanist” trajector y for his highly personalized and innovative compositions in oil and acr ylic painting. Regarding these impor tant exhibitions, Dennis Reid states, “I have every confidence that one day the significance of [Hagan’s] contribution, as celebrated here and in a small handful of earlier exhibitions, will be widely acknowledged, and more to the point, deeply understood. We will all be better for it.” – Dennis Reid, Professor of Ar t Histor y, University of Toronto

Born in 1918 in downtown Toronto, Frederick Hagan exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy by the age of twenty-one, and taught at the Ontario College of Ar t for thir ty seven years. Hagan’s long career as a printmaker and painter has awarded him placement in the National Galler y of Canada and the Ar t Gallery of Ontario, among many other important collections.

 

A Photographic Narrative of Cuba

July 28 – September 3, 2011
Opening and book launch: July 28,  5–9 p.m.
Toronto Image Works Gallery
80 Spadina Avenue, Suite 207,
Toronto, ON,  M5V  2J4
T: 416-703-1999
gallery@torontoimageworks.com
Hours: Mon – Frid 8:30 – 7 , Sat 1 – 3pm.

“This project is a visual exploration of the Cuban dance of life. Cuba is a movement of great hardship and joyous celebration. For 50 years, Cuba’s reality has been dominated by a revolutionary dream of creating a more just society and the crippling economic isolation that has resulted from US policies towards Cuba.”

The focus of this project, however, is not the political. My purpose is not to judge the revolutionary experiment.
But in Cuba, this political reality permeates everything. It is the canvas for every image. And yet, these pictures reflect the fierce independence and enduring exuberance of the Cuban people, and the music and rhythm of the island nation that continues to define the Cuban experience above all else. It’s what keeps drawing me back. It is in this spirit that I share these images with you.

July 1 – November 3, 2011
Design Exchange / Exhibition Hall
Toronto Dominion Centre
234 Bay St.
Toronto, ON M5K 1B2
Tel : 416-216-2126
Email: laura@dx.org
website: www.dx.org
Hours: Mon – Fri: 10 –  5,  Sat – Sun: 12 – 5 p.m.
Fees: Adult $10, Student/Senior $8 DX Members free

Curated by Anne Marie Minardi, Noa Bronstein, Katie Weber and Mark Scheibmayr

As the second largest country with one of the worldʼs lowest population densities, Canada is known for vast open spaces and varied geography. The importance of the great outdoors is such a significant part of our nationhood that Canadian iconography – the beaver, the maple leaf, Group of Seven, hiking in the Rockies, playing hockey on frozen ponds – is indelibly linked to the natural environment. Play > Nation will explore the ways in which our unique landmass has contributed to a national love of the outdoors and shaped our collective interest in outdoor sport and exploration. The exhibition sections will focus on Water, Winter, Forest, and Urban environments. Each section will present contemporary Canadian outdoor and sporting equipment, contextualized by historical examples of earlier models and archival material pertaining to outdoor sport and exploration. The exhibit will chronicle the transition of objects used by First Nations peoples and early Canadian settlers and explorers for survival and transportation to our contemporary use of the same items for sport and hobby. Play > Nation will incorporate a myriad of design disciplines, including apparel, industrial design, graphic design, as well as iconic designs.

Log on to the Play > Nation blog to get a behind the scenes look into how this exhibit is formalized and how the seeds of an idea evolve into a tangible exhibition.

June 3 – August 21, 2011
Chalmers Design Centre/Teknion Lounge
Toronto Dominion Centre
234 Bay St.
Toronto, ON M5K 1B2
Tel : 416-216-2126
Email: laura@dx.org
website: www.dx.org

Curated by Noa Bronstein

Catalyst of change, instrument of power and often the basic currency of shared human experience, the book is a pivotal artifact. Out of Sorts explores the various elements of book design, from typography to cover art and features recognized Canadian book designs. The exhibit traces the history of the book and considers the future of the printed page in the wake of digitization and shifting paradigms.

Robert Motherwell (American 1915-1991): The Three Clowns, 1945, Gouache and ink on paper, 28.6 x 36.8 cm. Purchased with funds from an Anonymous Donor, with support from the Dedalus Foundation, 1998   98/79 ©Estate of Robert Motherwell

June 25 – December 11, 2011
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)  continues to celebrate the Abstract Expressionist movement with an exhibition of drawings by Robert Motherwell. Painting on Paper: The Drawings of Robert Motherwell, on view showcases 55 works from the AGO collection, which houses one of the largest public holdings of drawings by Motherwell.

“This exhibition gives visitors the opportunity to explore the mind and works of Motherwell, an eloquent and passionate Abstract Expressionist,” says Mathew Teitelbaum, the AGO’s Michael and Sonja Koerner Director and CEO. “Painting on Paper enriches the Abstract Expressionist New York experience at the AGO, giving visitors an in-depth look at the artistic process and evolution of one of the movement’s major figures.”

Curated by Brenda Rix, the AGO’s assistant curator of prints and drawings, Painting on Paper demonstrates how Motherwell’s motifs were imagined, refined and revisited over the span of his career by organizing the collection into several major chronological themes, ranging from the 1940s to the 1970s. The works on display were selected primarily from 74 drawings and paintings by Motherwell acquired by the AGO in 1998.

Painting on Paper: The Drawings of Robert Motherwell is generously supported by The Dedalus Foundation. Abstract Expressionist New York: Masterpieces from The Museum of Modern Art is organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. National Bank and Metropia are supporting sponsors of the exhibition.

By Phil Anderson

Chris Shoust: Communicating With The Mentally Ill
Process Gallery – Gallery 1313
July 7-18, 2011

Chris Shoust remembers drawing and writing about the world around him at an early age.

He studied journalism in Windsor, Ontario, worked in radio and then in print in Sault Ste Marie. He continued to purse art and writing in Victoria , B.C. and later in Saskatchewan where he continued his journalism . He received his BFA in Sault Ste Marie and continued to paint.

In his early twenties Shoust experienced mental illness and this was about to bring out this body of work – Communicating With The Mentally Ill. Shoust, still practising his journalistic talents   communicates  now through his art,  sharing this experience.

Shoust joked with me saying” the more his art practise grows the more primitive his work appears “. His early work incorporated more realism. The messages in these recent works are not simplistic but effective in sharing the experiences of mental illness. Everything from housing issues to sexual dysfunction for the mentally challenged are addressed in this exhibit.

Many of the works are colourful and pleasing to look at, occasionally using layers and mixing up the media while others are more graphically disturbing. Shoust displays his talent at putting together these graphic images and colour works. The exhibit was mounted in less of a traditional  gallery setting stacking the work and mounting it with push pins. The artist statement was handwritten to fit with the rest of the installation. There were no titles for the individual works. Shoust used various icons in his work to depict and communicate his experience with mental  illness . He effectively draws the viewer into his experience with these images. The whole exhibit with some fifty works was both imposing and powerful.

Shoust continues to work as an artist in Sault Ste. Marie. More works of his can be viewed at www.chrisshoust.com

Communicating with the Mentally Ill was generously supported by the Ontario arts Council

David Liss, director of MoCCA. September 11, 2011

David Liss, director of MoCCA and Istvan Kantor,September 11, 2011

Istvan Kantor with Lewis Kaye, sound artist / prof at York Univ, September 11, 2011
Istvan Kantor with art collector, rj fleck,  September 11, 2011

Istvan kantor with Roman Borys, cellist, September 11, 2011

Istvan Kantor with his work: 1956 Again,

Rebecca Leung who purchased Kantor’s file cabinet cross September 3, 2011

 Crystal Dawn, August 20, 2011

 Jubal Brown, media artist/producer, Ankixa Risk, artist/designer/producer. August 13, 2011

 artist Janet Belotto and Istvan Kantor, July 23, 2011

Photo by Istvan Kantor

Latest Message from the organizers of the Junction Arts Festival 2011:

“Sadly, the Junction Arts Festival will not be happening this year due to difficult challenges and obstacles created by the certain unworkable situations and Associations.  We feel that the community deserves the best festival possible, but the roadblocks have left us with little time to plan the festival that we want to give you.

We are greatly disappointed from this turn of events”