The Blog
The Art of Slowness
It is mid-August and the skies are oily with smog. A handful of galleries have pressed pause on their exhibition cycle, the city streets half-buzz, half-empty as vacationers exit the city for reprieve. If we want to talk about seasonal slowness, August is the month when structures loosen and demands slacken. So, perhaps it comes as no surprise that in the sluggish heat of August, where we are forced to slow our bodies to accommodate the environment that I, too, am thinking about slowness in the context of art writing and practice. I’m interested in the ways that slowness is thought of, implied, and practiced in processes of art making and viewership.
Using the Slow Movement as my starting point for thinking about slowness and its many intersections, we can see that slowness works to dismantle normative ideas of production and consumption and exchanges measured and quantitative temporality with affective, qualitative experience. As slowness becomes suffixed to many sectors threatened by corporatization and capitalist acceleration, it may too be a method of critique and embodied thinking in art practice and writing to articulate spaces of ambiguity and poetics and make way for looser structures of thinking and making.
However, the relation between art and slowness is more intimate than a coupled term: art is fundamentally slow. It both embodies and invites slowness, distancing itself from the accelerated flows of production, distribution, and consumption and inviting interaction without aim or definitive result. Art is an anachronistic, slow object that stages itself against time and instead opens itself to multiple temporalities. Art objects are not static representations but objects open to activation by subjective, cultural, and historical interpretation. These next instalments of writing, produced during my stay at Xpace Culture Centre through the Writer-in-Residency program, expand on art’s slowness and the art of slowness to consider temporality and movement in art writing and practice.
-Sara England
Travel journal: Austin and Dallas, TX
Xpace Director Emily Gove recently travelled to Texas and visited the Blanton Art Museum, The Contemporary Austin, the Webb Gallery and Nasher Sculpture Center while exploring Austin, Dallas and Waxahachie. Check out her photos below.
Gran Fury, Riot in Come As You Are: Art of the 1990s at the Blanton Art Museum in Austin, TX
Donald Moffett, Call the White House in Come As You Are: Art of the 1990s
Felix Gonzalez Torres (left) and Gran Fury (right) in Come As You Are: Art of the 1990s
Beverly Semmes, Famous Twins in Come As You Are: Art of the 1990s
Janine Antoni, Lick and Lather in Come As You Are: Art of the 1990s
Alex Bag, Untitled Fall ’95 in Come As You Are: Art of the 1990s
Nikki S. Lee, Projects in Come As You Are: Art of the 1990s
Mariko Mori, Pratibimba #3 in Come As You Are: Art of the 1990s
Lise Haller Baggeson, Mothernism at The Contemporary Austin at Laguna Gloria
Tom Sachs, Miffy Fountain, in the Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park at Laguna Gloria
Paul McCarthy, White Snow #3, in the Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park at Laguna Gloria
Mark Mothersbaugh, Myopia at the Contemporary Austin
Daniel Johnston, Jeremiah the Innocent
Esther Pearl Watson, Running from the Police in Camaraderie at the Webb Gallery in Waxahachie, TX
Inside Ann Veronica Janssens, Blue, Red and Yellow at Nasher Sculpture Center
Doris Salcedo, Plegaria Muda at Nasher Sculpture Center
Mai-Thu Perret, Sightings at Nasher Sculpture Center
Anish Kapoor, Sky Mirror at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, TX. Read more about the Dallas Cowboys art collection here.
Travel journal: Detroit, Akron, Cleveland and Alliance
Our Director, Emily Gove, visited Detroit, Cleveland, Akron and Alliance this weekend – check out her photos below from MOCAD, Cranbrook Art Museum, Akron Art Museum, the Troll Hole Art Emporium, the Feline Historical Museum, MOCA Cleveland, Transformer Station and the Cleveland Institute of Art:
Dave Eggers Prints and Drawings in the Mobile Homestead at MOCA Detroit
Ragnar Kjartansson, Woman in E at MOCA Detroit
Steve Shaw, Gratiot Ave. in Detroit Affinities curated by Jens Hoffman at MOCA Detroit
assume vivid astro focus in Read Image, See Text at Cranbrook Art Museum
Him, a project by Liz Cohen at Cranbrook Art Museum
Sol Lewitt, Wall Drawings 790A and 790B: Irregular Alternating Color Bands at Cranbrook Art Museum
The Troll Hole Art Emporium, home of the world’s largest troll collection
Entrance to the Feline History Museum at the Cat Fanciers Association of America
Original painting by Louis Wain at the Feline Historical Museum
Natalie Lanese, Depthless Without You in Neo Geo at Akron Art Museum
Amy Sinbondit, Singularity in Neo Geo at Akron Art Museum
An installation of digital enlargements of vernacular Kodacolor snapshots printed on fabric by Laura Ruth Bidwell in Unfixed: the fugitive image at Transformer Station
Valérie Blass, Je suis une image in Stranger at MOCA Cleveland, curated by Rose Bouthillier
Sascha Braunig in Stranger
Christine Meder, Sorry in the Open Student Exhibition at Cleveland Institute of Art
Dupont Street Art District
Nude in the Woods, Jessica Groome, Erin Stump Projects.
With many of Toronto’s beloved galleries making the move to Dupont St., I decided to take a walk in the new gallery hub on a shockingly warm November day. With such a high population of contemporary galleries within a couple block radius, there is a real sense of a growing community.
Though at first the street felt slightly quiet and desolate, the moment I exited the underpass just west of Lansdowne and Dupont- the mood quickly changed.
Immediately I felt I was in a new part of the city, one that was clearly in the midst of developing into a unique and creative community.
Anti-discrimination in the classroom
Academic institutions, particularly Art and Design Schools, tend to be though of as progressive spaces. At least they should be: Art and design is avant-garde and pushes social boundaries. Yet discrimination in the classroom continues to affect many students, particularly indigenous students, women, folks who don’t fit heteronormative gender and sexual binaries, migrant students and folks of colour. It doesn’t stop there though, discrimination in academic spaces keeps potential students from registering in the first place and feeds a wider socio-economic model exclusive of marginalized communities.
In February of 2015, OCAD Student Union’s Student Advocate Robin Fraser, in collaboration with Xpace intern Pablo Munoz and the Diversity and Equity Office put together a workshop on how to address discrimination in the class- room. Pablo generated a document outlining some thoughts that stood out from that conversation and OCAD U’s policy on discrimination. The document also speaks to some of the forms that discrimination can take, and provides some practical tools and procedures based on scenarios.
Download the document here!
Integrated Media Interview Series: Molly Shears
We will be posting a series of interviews our intern Katie Kotler did with a handful of Integrated Media students about their work. we start the series with Molly Shears, enjoy!
Molly Shears is a third-year Integrated Media student. You can see samples of her work at: http://mollyshearsart.tumblr.com/
1. Tell me about your technique and preferred style of animation.
At the moment, my preferred style of animation is to cut and paste different live-action clips and create video collages. I merge and alter the different pieces on After Effects and occasionally I like to go a step further and rotoscope (on paper) the result-whatever works for the specific project!
2. Your work seems to revolve around natural settings, rotoscoping, figures and gifs. One of these natural settings is the ocean. What does that mean for you? How does it resonate?
I didn’t realize it until recently, but shooting nature, the ocean in particular, has been something I’ve been doing since I was a kid. Throughout my life, I’ve spent a great deal of time by the ocean in Nova Scotia, where my family is from. To me, the ocean
resembles a symbolism of familial connections-a reason I collect images of different landscapes and make them into one-it’s a way for me to discuss heritage and genetics. I also love the ocean because of the incredibly profound power it holds: it is so large
and strong and wise.
4. Which artists are you influenced by?
The animators I am most influenced by are Joe Hamilton, creator of the amazing Hyper Geography films, and the sound and video artist Ryoichi Kurokawa.
5. You are now on exchange. What are you learning about your new surroundings and being at a different school?
The school I’m currently doing my exchange in (FAMU, in Prague) is definitely different than OCAD. It’s a film school, so we learn a lot of theory and it’s practical applications. My time here has made me greater appreciate the artfulness and symbolisms within narrative film and how I can apply this to my own work (we watch a lot of movies!). It’s also amazing to be able to create projects with an international group of people-I’ve learned a lot about perspective here.
6. What are you currently working on?
Because I am abroad and have access to a lot less materials while I am here, I have been spending a lot of time working on my writing. I’ve started to work on the script for my thesis next year, as well as some short stories. In a couple of weeks, I’m doing a
“filmmaking bootcamp” with my school, where we go to the woods for a weekend, and return back to Prague having made a film.
7. What do you hope to do after graduating from OCAD?
After graduating from OCAD, I’d love to focus even further on writing and directing short films. I definitely never want to stop creating art. I’m really going to miss being in a school environment, so hopefully I’ll do a Masters degree eventually. My time in Prague has also made me understand the value of working within an international community, so I’d also love to work and travel.
8. What’s been your favourite piece that you’ve worked on throughout your time at school?
So far, I think my favourite piece I’ve made at OCAD is a short video I did last year titled “Recurring, Receding.” I really wanted to create a piece where I collected multiple landscapes and unified them into one entity. The piece fulfilled my constant desire to
work with moving images of the ocean and piece them together.
bye
Current Mood:
Everything seems to be coming to an end. Grad Ex was last night and it showcased a lot of wonderful artists and peers of mine. So much art, so many people, seriously ridiculous. I left early, since I hate large groups of people so I am probably going to go back this weekend so I can actually look at everything. I am really happy for all the medal winners, very amazing and talented friends and artists. Its been a long year, but it was definitely worth it seeing everything thing come together last night.
So, this is my last post ever on the Xpace blog. it has been a really great few months working here and with all the amazing and talented people. Truly a great and memorable experience, I learned so much! The ladies that run this space are sincerely remarkable and it was a pleasure seeing how things go on behind the scenes and to be apart of something really amazing.
It was fun talking to you internet,
c ya l8r
openings and calls for submission
Openings
Thursday, April 30th, 2015
Stellar Living 2015 Preview Reception
Join us for a first look at artworks in Mercer Union’s Stellar Living 2015 benefit auction. The Preview Reception is free and open to the public. Artists will be in attendance. Music by CAM LEE.
Canadian and international artists have generously contributed unique works of art to be sold in support of Mercer Union’s programming and exhibitions in 2015-2016. Works will be on view at Mercer Union starting Thursday 30 April leading up to the live auction Wednesday 13 May.
To purchase tickets for auction night please visit: http://stellar.mercerunion.org/
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Abbas Akhavan, Stephen Andrews, Jeremy Bailey, Nadia Belerique, Adam David Brown, Anthony Burnham, Sarah Cale, Tammi Campbell, James Carl, Ulysses Castellanos, Georgia Dickie, Dave Dyment, Marcel Dzama, Scott Everingham, Geoffrey Farmer, Robert Fones, Sky Glabush, Martin Golland, Neil Harrison, Colleen Heslin, Aryen Hoekstra, Patrick Howlett, Lili Huston-Herterich, Jeremy Jansen, Kelly Jazvac, Laurie Kang, Garry Neil Kennedy, Karen Kraven, Tiziana La Melia, Nicolas Lachance, Kristiina Lahde, Suzy Lake, Micah Lexier, Jimmy Limit, An Te Liu, Vanessa Maltese, Jenine Marsh, John Massey, Sanaz Mazinani, John Monteith, Gareth Moore, Monique Mouton, Jennifer Murphy, Nick Ostoff, Ryan Park, Roula Partheniou, Ed Pien, Sasha Pierce, Jade Rude, Public Studio (Elle Flanders & Tamira Sawatzky), Derek Sullivan, Monica Tap, Zin Taylor, Jeff Tutt, Alison Tweedle, VSVSVS, Joy Walker, Shirley Wiitasalo, Laurel Woodcock and more…
5PM – 8PM
Mercer Union, a centre for contemporary art
1286 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Ontario M6H 1N9
EVENT PAGE
Jimmy Limit: Surplus
[1] Absorption, Abundance, Ambiguity, Anxiety, Archaeology, Art, Balance, Citrus, Collapse, Commerce, Commodity, Culture, Desire, Digestion, Digital, Distribution, Economy, Everyday, Excess, Failure, Foam, Frustration, Future, Growth, History, Humour, Isolation, Longevity, Luxury, Mediation, Memory, Modern, Money, Network, Precarity, Production, Profit, Reality, Redundancy, Saturation, Solution, Storage, Strange, Success, Superfluous, Surplus, Time, Translation, Ubiquity, Uncertainty, Unnecessary, Yellow.
Supported by the Ontario Arts Council.
with thanks to Kronenbourg.
6PM
Clint Roenisch Gallery
190 Saint Helens Avenue, Toronto,
Ontario M6H 4A2
EVENT PAGE
jESSE HARRIS
Opening Reception: Thursday April 30, 2015 / 6 – 9pm.
* Dress Code: The artist has requested that those attending the opening reception wear striped attire.
For additional information please contact the gallery:
[email protected]
+1 (647) 347-3316
Cooper Cole is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Toronto-based artist Jesse Harris.
Prison took away her freedom, but not her dreams… In a triumph of art over adversity, a promising young dancer is sent away to prison where she realizes her dream of producing a performing arts show featuring her fellow inmates. This Women-in-Prison genre exploitation film suggests a problematic portrait of the artist in the lead role. The 1980s dance-crave-derived, direct-to-video market Musical Jailbird Rock is a product and result of the accelerated commercial fad economy. Not surprisingly, the project was conceived by the head of a movie distribution company with the two words and original title “Prison Dancer”. In this exhibition, Jailbird Rock is reframed as an artwork. Harris re-presents the movie for the consideration of marketings role in cultural production and identity. Jailbird Rock will be exhibited on period video monitors alongside original promotional materials and artwork from each stage of the movies dubious marketing. Amidst the popular celebration of 30 year anniversary editions, Jessie Harris provides a competing reflection with an assertion of incorrectness.
MURDER… MUSIC… MAYHEM…!
The exhibition will also include a selection of painting, sculpture and silkscreens that reflect the artists continued references to media studies, subliminal messages found in advertising, brand icons and Pop Art. These new works speak to the relationship between repetition and reproduction in an overcommunicated consumer culture.
“Without pain there is no art” – Jessie Harris in Jailbird Rock aka Prison Dancer aka Can’t Shake The Beat (1985)
Jesse Harris (b. 1981, Toronto, Canada) graduated with a BA (Honours) from the University of Guelph in 2007. Recent and forthcoming solo and group exhibitions include, Cooper Cole, Toronto, Canada; Tomorrow, Toronto, Canada; The Journal, Brooklyn, USA; Side Effects Gallery, Brooklyn, USA; Night Gallery, Los Angeles, USA; The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada; Plug in ICA, Winnipeg, Canada; amongst others. Harris lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
Jesse Harris
Jessie Harris
April 30 – May 30, 2015
Opening Reception: Thursday April 30, 2015 / 6 – 8pm.
* Dress Code: The artist has requested that those attending the opening reception wear striped attire.
6PM – 9PM
COOPER COLE
1161 Dundas St. W, Toronto,
Ontario M6J 1X3
EVENT PAGE
Nicholas Pye: Rise and Fall
Birch Contemporary is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new works by gallery artist Nicholas Pye as part of this year’s Scotiabank CONTACT Photography festival. ‘Rise and Fall’ will be comprised of a selection of fourteen images from a larger a body of photographic work produced in Ireland and France in 2014.
“Patience, observation, performance; In Rise and Fall I study and intervene with light, architecture, and lens. Through occupying these spaces, my intention was to create still photographs rooted in duration. These works manifest themselves through both the performativity of light and the performativity of the figure – each treated as equal subjects. The selection process for the environments photographed was done after spending much time in each physical space, watching and experiencing distinctive change to the quality of light at various periods of the day and night. Within these considered spaces, performances where enacted as a response with the intention to echo the type of affect and physical charge each space conjured. By embodying these spaces for the lens, I create works that reflect the psychological nature between presence and absence. This is realized through the representation of what the light reveals in the frame, what darkness obscures, and by how much the figure wittingly divulges for us.” – Nicholas Pye
Alongside the exhibition, ‘Rise and Fall’ also gives its title to a new Nicholas Pye artist’s book, available as a signed and numbered edition of 350 and including essays by Sky Goodden and Faye Mullen alongside images of all Rise and Fall works. This editioned artist book is published by Sebastian Frye’s Swimmers Group Publishing.
6PM – 9PM
Birch Contemporary
129 Tecumseth St, Toronto,
Ontario M6J 262
EVENT PAGE
SELF PORTRAITS OF THE 416COLLECTIVE
It is indeed a challenging theme, as the one every month.
how does our artists portrait themselves physically thru painting, drawing, photography or even sculpture.
You are invited to come out and check the result,
Thursday 30th of April at 7pm til 11pm
Music by The Boom Bap Trio
7PM – 11PM
416 Gallery
404 queen east, Toronto,
Ontario M5A 1T3
EVENT PAGE
Gallery TPW Grand Opening
Join us on Thursday, April 30th to celebrate the launch of Gallery TPW’s new space at 170 St Helens Ave.
Thursday, April 30, 2015, 8 pm – 10 pm
Gallery TPW
170 St Helens Ave
Come by for food, drinks and a special installation/performance by Tough Guy Mountain as we commemorate the opening of our new home.
Gallery TPW’s newly transformed space contains a 1,200-square-foot main exhibition space and a 330-square-foot flexible gallery space and public engagement hub. With two exhibition spaces, Gallery TPW will provide greater opportunity and flexibility for showing still and time-based work as well as the ability to host public discussions, lectures, educational programs and curatorial workshops.
Situated on St Helens Ave, Gallery TPW places itself in a rising arts district adjacent to other contemporary art galleries such as Mercer Union, Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, Katzman Contemporary, Daniel Faria, Robert Kananaj Gallery, Scrap Metal and Clint Roenisch Gallery.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council.
8PM – 10PM
Gallery TPW
170 St Helens Ave
Toronto, ON M6H 4A1
www.gallerytpw.ca
EVENT PAGE
No Ceremony
Celebrate No Ceremony with us.
No Ceremony is a themeless Art Show bringing together works from Toronto friends and residents Hieram, Justin Peroff, Kimikimo, Paul Vermeersch and Talwst. Music selections by Brendan Canning will be provided on opening night with special guests to be announced. Sounds pretty chill. See y’all there.
http://www.paulvermeersch.ca/
http://www.kimikimo.com/
http://talwst.com/
http://www.hieram.blogspot.ca/
http://brendancanning.com/
Milk Glass
1247 Dundas Street West., Toronto,
Ontario M6J 1X6
EVENT PAGE
Friday, May 1st, 2015
la mirada en el otro conexiones / confrontaciones the spanish national photography prize
La Mirada en el Otro: Conexiones / Confrontaciones.
The Gaze in the other .Connections /Confrontations
The Spanish National Photography Prize as part of Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival is a collective exhibition that brings together for the first time, a wide variety of artists who have been awarded with the Spanish National Prize for Photography.
The exhibition, curated by Artendencias, Carmen de la Guerra and Javier Díez, becomes an anthology of the history of Spanish photography over the last sixty years, visualizing unsuspected links among the works of very different artists. When viewing the exhibition as a whole, we can observe how the development of individual artists has been consistent with the transformations
of Spanish society, from the fifties to the present day.
Before arriving to Toronto the exhibition has toured through Madrid, Lisbon, Tokyo, New York, Ljubljana, Washington, Miami, México DF, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, Asunción and La Paz.
PHOTOGRAPHER – AWARD YEAR
Gabriel Cualladó (1994)
Cristina García Rodero (1996)
Humberto Rivas (1997)
Alberto García-Alix (1998)
Chema Madoz (2000)
Toni Catany (2001)
Joan Colom (2002)
Carlos Pérez Siquier (2003)
Ramón Masats (2004)
Ouka Leele (2005)
Pablo Pérez-Mínguez (2006)
Manuel Vilariño (2007)
Bleda y Rosa (2008
Edward Day Gallery
952 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario
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Public Installation – Contacting Toronto: Expanding Cities
Expanding Cities Takes Over Toronto’s Warden Subway Station for CONTACT Photo Festival, May 1 to 31, 2015.
Featuring noted Mexican artist, Alejandro Cartagena’s images on 55 advertising posters, converting Toronto’s Warden subway station into a distinctive exhibition space. The exhibition also threads throughout the city’s subway system, via a series of videos by Kingston, Ontario art duo, Julia Krolik and Owen Fernley reaching more than one million daily commuters.
An official public installation of Scotiabank CONTACT, Toronto’s annual photography festival, the 9th annual Contacting Toronto addresses issues of transportation, suburban development and sustainability. Curated by Sharon Switzer.
For more information and to see images and videos from the installation, visit www.contactingtoronto.ca
Contacting Toronto: Expanding Cities is co-produced by PATTISON Onestop and Art for Commuters, in partnership with Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, with financial support from the Ontario Arts Council.
CONNECTED EVENTS
Alejandro Cartagena: Learning from Latin American (Sub)Urbanism
Artist talk, followed by a conversation with author, Shawn Micallef.
Friday, May 8th at 6:00pm
Location: OCADU, 100 McCaul Street, Room 230
This event is co-presented by CONTACT, Latin American-Canadian Art Projects Speaker Series (LACAP), OCAD University (Photography Department), and Circuit Gallery.
scotiabankcontactphoto.com/events/420
Alejandro Cartagena: The Photobook
Cartagena will teach a two day workshop focused on photo book history, edit and sequencing methods.
Wednesday, May 6th – Thursday, May 7th
Location: Gallery 44 Centre For Contemporary Photography, 401 Richmond St W, Suite 120.
This event is co-presented by Gallery 44, Centre for Contemporary Photography, CONTACT, LACAP and Circuit Gallery.
scotiabankcontactphoto.com/workshops/457
Warden Subway Station
Warden Avenue and Saint Clair Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario
EVENT PAGE
CONTACT- Island Projects
Claudette Abrams
Teresa Ascencao
Yuula Benivolski
Sarah Bodri
Dianne Davis
HΩLY JÅCKÅL
Brendan George Ko
Anne O’Callaghan
Geoffrey Pugen
Adrian Stimson
Reception May 14, 7pm–10pm
ISLAND PROJECTS explores how different artists’ perspectives expand an experience of the same place. The artists in ISLAND PROJECTS are exhibiting photography, video, and documentation of performances and site-specific installations. Their work variously reflects experiences of engagement with place, community, history, narrative, and collaborative practice at Artscape Gibraltar Point and on the Toronto Islands.
Artscape Gibraltar Point
443 Lakeshore Avenue., Toronto Island,
Toronto, Ontario
EVENT PAGE
Public Studio: The Accelerators
ARTIST STATEMENT
The Accelerators is an apophenia in which connections and patterns exist perceptually—pull one thread and five more present themselves: In the same year as the French Revolution, gunflint, barrels of rum, mirrors, brass kettles, and lace hats were offered in exchange for a tract of land, known as The Toronto Purchase; Marie Antoinette’s Bol Sein, produced by the Sèvres porcelain factory on the eve of the Storming of the Bastille, is shown for sale as a limited edition reproduction in the December 2014 New York Times Style Magazine; Georges Besse, CEO of Renault, is assassinated by leftist radical group Action Directe in 1986, the same year the Mississaugas of the New Credit submit their land claim against The Toronto Purchase; Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo, after his critical success with The Battle of Algiers, fails to complete his next film on the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, declaring himself “impotent;” After decades of postcolonial fallout, the Algerian Kouachi brothers murder eleven at Charlie Hebdo magazine for racist portrayals of the prophet Mohammed. Drawing on events spread across time and place, The Accelerators presents a deterritorialized axonometric view, an impossible but all-seeing position that examines the network of contemporary social space within a constellation of re-imagined images.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Public Studio is the collective practice of Elle Flanders and Tamira Sawatzky. In this exhibition, they are joined by Linda Sormin, David Miller, Steve Reaume, Alex McKay, Tory James, and Lili Huston- Herterich.
Elle Flanders completed her PhD at York University’s newly created practice-based research visual arts program in 2014 and has mentored with some of the art world’s most notable artists including Mary Kelly and Martha Rosler at the Whitney ISP and Rutgers University respectively. Flanders has a long history of community engagement and has created award-winning films and installations. Her longstanding interest in the personal, social and political implications of landscape and place have led her, in collaboration with Sawatzky, to produce site-specific public art installations that are immersive and that re-examine the role of audience as participant/witness by way of an aestheticized experience.
Tamira Sawatzky is an architect and artist working in Toronto. She worked for the award-winning firm MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects from 1998-2010. In 2010, she founded Public Studio Architecture and Public Studio with her collaborator Elle Flanders. In addition to an ongoing architectural practice, her most recent art work includes: The Dialogues (2014), a series of short films displayed on outdoor LED advertising screens and on subway station monitors commissioned by the Toronto Urban Film Festival and Drone Wedding (2014), an eight-channel video work for the Ryerson Image Centre.
Flanders and Sawatzky are currently working two large-scale public art commissions in Toronto launching in 2015.
6PM – 9PM
O’Born Contemporary
131 Ossington Avenue, Toronto,
Ontario M6J 2Z6
EVENT PAGE
CONTACT 2015 Launch Party
Celebrate the launch of the CONTACT 2015, with opening receptions for “Part Picture,” and “Past Picture: Photography and the Chemistry of Intention” The public installation “Demolition Site,” by Jihyun Jung, will also be on view in the MOCCA courtyard.
“Part Picture” explores the reaction of a group of young North American photographers to the ubiquitous presence of digital images. By placing photography in conversation with other artistic mediums—particularly painting and sculpture—the artists create hybrid works that are only part picture.
“Part Picture” is curated by New York based artist, writer and curator, Chris Wiley and organized by MOCCA and Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. The exhibition features works by Lucas Blalock, Ellen Carey, Ryan Foerster, Jan Groover, John Houck, Barbara Kasten, Owen Kydd, Elad Lassry, Mariah Robertson, Erin Shirreff, Josh Tonsfeldt, James Welling, and Chris Wiley.
More info: http://scotiabankcontactphoto.com/primary-exhibitions/439
“Past Picture: Photography and the Chemistry of Intention” draws works from the extraordinary holdings of late nineteenth and early twentieth‐century photographs in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada to present images by some of photography’s most innovative and influential inventors and practitioners. The photographs on view represent key aesthetic and philosophical sensibilities of some 150 years of photographic production. Presented as part of the award‐winning [email protected] partnership program.
“Past Picture” is curated by Jonathan Shaughnessy and Ann Thomas, and organized by MOCCA and the National Gallery of Canada. The exhibition features works by Anna Atkins, Anton Bruehl, Share Corsaut, Adrien Majewski, Ralph‐Eugene Meatyard, László Moholy-Nagy, Charles Nègre, Paul Outerbridge Jr., Man Ray, Albert Renger‐Patzsch, Franz Roh, Gary Schneider, Paul Strand, Hiroshi Sugimoto, William Henry Fox Talbot, Étienne Léopold Trouvelot, and John Vanderpant.
More info:
http://scotiabankcontactphoto.com/primary-exhibitions/440
In MOCCA’s courtyard and media-retail space, a public installation of Jihuyn Jung’s “Demolition Site” draws from his personal experience of losing his childhood home. The Korean artist trespassed on construction sites to photograph the demolition of of low‐rise apartments slated to be replaced with high‐rise dwellings.
“Demolition Site” is curated by Bonnie Rubenstein and organized by Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival in partnership with MOCCA.
More info: http://scotiabankcontactphoto.com/public-installations/378
7PM – 10PM
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA)
952 Queen St W, Toronto,
Ontario M6J 1G8
EVENT PAGE
Post-Human Rights Tribunal
rtist statement: “PARTY PEOPLE […] RAVING” – Scooter
*+cyber shamanism
*+virtual pilgrimage
*+*transhumanism
.*. art show
.+transcendental experience
c++~~ PARTY
_.:Post Human Rights Tribunal :._ is not your typical white-wall boring small gallery event you keep getting Facebook invites to. Get ready for hyper realistic Sims 5 inspired photography, cyber shamanistic shrine throne for transcendental meditation (in public) and a virtual pilgrimage through Galleria Mall & much much more ++. We bring the internet to you IRL.
To further your experience, we will be joined by some live performers
Please welcome:
Cale Weir of Tax Haven
Yosefa Rina of Treazure Preshus
& one of our very own founders
psyberbully.com
Brought to you by your friends of Tumblr.Hell, except this time even better.
~~~~~~~
JOIN US for a dance party afterwards
8PM
The White House Studio Project
277.5 Augusta Avenue, Toronto,
Ontario M5T 2M1
EVENT PAGE
Saturday, May 2nd, 2015
Mixed Art Conference
The aim of this multidisciplinary art conference is to co-create an inclusive dialogue about racialized mixed identities and lived realities through an intersectional lens.
*FREE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED – LIMITED CAPACITY*
“Un-Conference”: attendees and facilitators will be able to engage with one another in dynamic group discussions filled with peer-to-peer sharing and learning. The contributions of all racialized participants are encouraged to be represented, acknowledged and honoured.
Multidisciplinary: the event promises to deliver something for everyone. There will be a curated art exhibit, live artistic performances and opportunities for attendees to co-animate the space.
Keynote Speakers: M.I.X.E.D. is proud to have community activist and educator Kim Katrin Milan and professor Dr. Minelle Mahtani to deliver opening and closing remarks at our inaugural event.
Community Building: Meet the phenomenal facilitators and amazing artists representing decades of working within intersecting communities. The mixed race experience and its intersections will be featured in our breakout group discussions and the day’s performances.
Self Care: Throughout the day, information and resources will be available to assist with possible triggering. We will also be featuring a wellness group exercise lead by Zainab Amadahy for some self-care debriefing at the end of the event.
Accessibility: We would like to have as many individuals participate in the event by reducing boundaries where possible. Gender neutral bathrooms will be available and the space is wheelchair accessible. Light refreshments and lunch will be served and the event is Pay What You Can but no one will be turned away at the door. We ask all attendees to come scent-free.
M.I.X.E.D. is meant to be as safe a space as possible for all attendees which means no forms of racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, discrimination based on age, class, weight, creed, immigration status, xenophobia, transphobia, transmisogyny, cissexism, etc. will be tolerated.
9AM – 6PM
YMCA Greater Toronto Area Teen Council
20 Grosvenor St, Toronto, Ontario M4Y
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Elizabeth Zvonar: THE CHALLENGE OF ABSTRACTION
Daniel Faria Gallery is pleased to present THE CHALLENGE OF ABSTRACTION, Elizabeth Zvonar’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.
Abstraction is challenging. Hang Looser.
Doubleheader alludes to Etant Donnes without the predictable outcome.
We play to our wishes not to their rules. Aim for high standards and no drama.
It’s the gaps that change the sequence. Dangerous to step out of line and lethal not to.
Happy Together. No matter how they toss the dice.
Home Sweet Home. Be it ever so humble.
Join the resistance. Stop being right and see where wrong goes.
Working in both collage and sculpture, Elizabeth Zvonar’s work utilizes strategies of aesthetic seduction and sex often found in advertising as a means of teasing out a possible metaphysical or supernatural undercurrent. THE CHALLENGE OF ABSTRACTION draws on advertising imagery found in luxury good magazines from an earlier era and fuses it with that found in contemporary fashion magazines. Zvonar’s positioning and iconization of the subject highlights their ability to act as the sacred.
In keeping with her commitment to material exploration, Zvonar’s current body of work explores expanded sensory mechanisms that trigger devotion by pairing visual and tactile objects with scent. Adopting the tools of ritual found in a variety of spiritual practices and merging them with the production of sculptural objects, Zvonar is interested in the interplay between the invisible and the physical world. During the installation process Zvonar will burn incense that has a specifically commissioned west coast scent. The partially burned sticks will remain as an element of the concrete cast sculptural objects. This quiet act, observed in the remains of the partially burned incense stick, reinforces the sacrosanct relationship of the meditative ritual of arrangement. Focusing on our culture’s enthusiasm for reverence, Zvonar makes work that both questions and opens up the possibility of the extraordinary.
Elizabeth Zvonar graduated from Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design in 2001. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Canada at Artspeak; Western Front; Contemporary Art Gallery; Mercer Union; Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery; Vancouver Art Gallery; Oakville Gallery; Presentation House; among others. Internationally in New York, Australia, Japan and Belgium. In 2008, Zvonar was the inaugural artist at the Malaspina Print Research Residency and was an artist in residence at the Banff Centre for the thematic Cosmic Ray Research. Zvonar received the 2009 City of Vancouver Mayor’s Award for Emerging Visual Artist; in 2011 she was presented with the Emily Award for outstanding achievement by an Emily Carr alumna. From 2012-15 Zvonar held the post of City of Vancouver Artist in Residence. Her work has been seen most recently in Canada in the group show On Stage, Recent Acquisitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery and in her the solo presentation, I really do believe the best thing a person can do with themselves is expand their mind at Gallery 295. Zvonar was the 2015 recipient of the Shadbolt Foundation’s VIVA award.
4PM – 6PM
Daniel Faria Gallery
188 St Helens Avenue, Toronto,
Ontario M6H 4A1
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Maryse Larivière: Love Sex Dreams: Your Delusion, My Reality
Fuck your negativity, your cynical crap and your boredom. Wipe that frown upside down. Don’t bring your bitching to Love Sex Dreams, the newest digital lounge and crusingworld to hit the downtown core. You think you’re fucking special? Nobody’s special at Love Sex Dreams. Everyone is glamorous, sexy, brilliant. We have social capital, secret codes, cigarettes, sexy objects, art objects, fetish objects, birds, fingers, a magic carpet, party lights, booze, a giant candle, dripping wax, an Italian pornstar-politician and an interview with her ex. Love Sex Dreams is pure seduction, pure surface. And nothing’s more seductive than the surface. Touch it lightly, playfully. Whisper to it. Tease it. Make quick breaths. Perfect. At Love Sex Dreams, everyone’s invited but nobody’s getting laid.
Arthur R. Rose
Maryse Larivière’s practice crosses art, literature, politics and theory; it takes the form of text, performance, sculpture, collage and video. Her work has recently been presented at Susan Hobbs, Toronto; Galerie Maguire, Montreal; Battat Contemporary, Montreal; CCA, Glasgow; and Parker Branch, London. Originally from Montreal, Larivière received her MFA from Guelph University. She is currently a PhD candidate in Art & Visual Culture at the University of Western Ontario, specializing in art writing and artist novels. Concurrent project includes Where Wild Flowers Grow, an experimental novel and solo exhibition at Kunstverein Toronto from April 18 to May 9.
*The beer for this opening is generously provided by Kronenbourg 1664 *
7PM
8-11
233 Spadina, Toronto, Ontario
EVENT PAGE
Sunday, May 3rd, 2015
DPXA Year-End Screening 2014-2015
Animations and Performances by OCAD U students. 8pm Doors Open, Screening starts at 8:30pm and Performance by James Knott 9:30pm. Full program TBA.
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8PM
Handle Bar
158 Augusta Ave
Toronto, ON
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Call for Submission
HYPERLINK v2.0 /// Call For Submissions
Deadline: May 10th
APN IS NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS FROM THE PUBLIC TO BE FEATURED ON OUR UPCOMING ANNUAL PUBLICATION:
// HYPERLINK v2.0
30 min. limited edition VHS
Showcasing experimental video art.
No limitations, all styles will be considered.
Submit works around and under 5min.
// SEND VIDEO ART, GIFs, SHORT FILMS & MP3s TO:
[email protected]
[Subject line: Hyperlink Submission]
DEADLINE MAY 10th @ MIDNIGHT
// Screening of HYPERLINK v2.0 at 8-11
JUNE 27th, 2015
(event details TBA)
Additional Information: LINK HERE
Xpace’s Annual Call for Submissions
Deadline: may 23rd, 2015
OUR UPCOMING SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS 5 PM ON SATURDAY MAY 23, 2015. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO CAREFULLY READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT THE SUBMISSION PROCESS.
Xpace Cultural Centre accepts proposals of all media from student and emerging artists, curators and/or designers. Our programming committee meets twice yearly to consider submissions.
Xpace does not accept submissions over email. Please mail or drop off submissions to: 2-303 Lansdowne Ave, Toronto, ON M6K 2W5 c/o The Programming Committee.
THERE IS A PROPOSAL WRITING WORKSHOP ON SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015 at 1pm. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO BRING IN PROGRESS PROPOSALS FOR FEEDBACK.
Submissions (for all spaces) must include:
1. Proposal Application Form (download at xpace.info/submit)
2. Project Description (500 words max): The project description should give a clear and concrete description of the work you are proposing for installation at Xpace. Please specify which exhibition space you intend the work to be exhibited in. All of our spaces consider site specificity, so please take that into account in your description.
3. Statement (250 words max): The statement should give a description of your overall practice as it relates to the specific project you are proposing for installation at Xpace.
4. Technical Description (250 words max): The technical description should include a list of all foreseeable technical requirements including equipment and materials necessary for installation within Xpace (this does not include materials to create the work).
5. Curriculum Vitae (Max 3 pages): Your CV should include education and exhibition history, as well as any relevant experience, reviews, etc. Xpace only shows the work of student and emerging artists/curators/designers – Please make sure that you fall within our mandate before submitting.
6. Visual Support Material with accompanying Support Material List (5-10): Please maintain consistent labeling of your image files (Ex. JSmith_FlowerPainting.jpg). We do not accept Power Point files for image submissions. Video and audio files should be a maximum of 3-5 minutes in total. Please make sure that all files are Mac compatible.
Make sure that everything you submit is clearly labeled with your name and contact information.
Please take a look at our programming archives to get a sense of the types of exhibitions that Xpace has programmed in the past.
If you have any questions about the proposal process please contact either Adrienne Crossman at [email protected] or Brette Gabel at [email protected]
DUE TO HIGH INTEREST, XPACE WILL ONLY ACCEPT SUBMISSIONS RECEIVED THROUGH OUR FORMAL SUBMISSION PROCESS AS OUTLINED ABOVE. THE PROGRAMMERS ARE HAPPY TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS BUT CANNOT ACCEPT INFORMAL SUBMISSIONS.
Please note that applications will not be returned. Applicants will be notified within 3 months of their proposal’s status. Xpace thanks all applicants for their interest.
Additional Information: LINK HERE
Come Up to My Room: Call for Submission
Deadline: May 15th, 2015
Come Up To My Room (CUTMR) is an alternative design exhibition that provides a platform for experimentation outside the norms of art and design, at the edges between intention and interpretation. Freed from the constraints of traditional practice, CUTMR encourages spatial exploration that engages our senses, our memories and our perceptions of reality. The exhibition challenges participants to push their everyday practice by offering a blank canvas upon which to explore new themes and ways of working. Framed within the backdrop of the historic 120-year-old Gladstone Hotel, CUTMR invites artists and designers to create site-specific, immersive installations that stimulate the imagination and encourage discussion and dialogue between contributors and visitors alike.
The 13th installment of CUTMR will take place between January 21 and January 25, 2016. We invite you to summit proposals as individuals or as collectives, and multidisciplinary teams are encouraged. This call is open to Canadian and international participants. For more information please visit: comeuptomyroom.com
Come Up To My Room 2016 is curated by Jana Macalik and Nuria Montblanch. Founded in 2004 by Christina Zeidler and Pamila Matharu, it is produced by the Gladstone Hotel and lead by Chris Mitchell, Noa Bronstein and Britt Welter-Nolan. Past curators also include Jaclyn Blumas, Noa Bronstein, Robert Cram, David Dick-Agnew, Elise Hodson, Katherine Morley, Caitlin Plewes, Caroline Shaheed, Jeremy Vandermeij, Deborah Wang and Britt Welter-Nolan.
KEY DATES
Submissions Due: May 15, 2015
Pop Up Exhibition (2nd Floor): January 21 to 25, 2016
Long Run Exhibition (3rd and 4th Floors): January 7 to April 3, 2016
Reception 7-10pm (2nd Floor): Saturday, January 23, 2016
Love Design Party (TODO Closing Party): Saturday, January 23, 2016
PROCESS
The Come Up To My Room (CUTMR) curatorial process is unique in that we select the artist/designer/teams for room installations based on their portfolios and then work with them in an open dialogue to create site-specific installations based on their personal vision. We choose you, but we don’t know what you will do with your space until we “come up to your room.” With this kind of curatorial process as the core premise of the show, CUTMR reinvents itself each year and is never presented the same way twice.
Describe your practice and show past projects and provide a loose description of what you would like to do (optional), but focus on showing us your potential. There is one rule though, in order to give designers equal opportunity to participate, we ask that you always submit for a new idea — so if you have done a room last year please do not apply for a room this year.
Additional Information: LINK HERE
Emerging New Media and Electronic Artists
Deadline: May 18th, 2015
In its 14th year, the InterAccess Emerging Artists Exhibition, curated by a selected emerging curator, features new media work from local and national early career artists, artists transitioning to new media/technology practices and upper year post-secondary and graduate students. InterAccess is a leading voice on the international new media arts stage and this exhibition offers artists a platform for early professional development. Former participating artists and curators have gone on to work and exhibit at such institutions as the Doris McCarthy Gallery, The Walter Phillips Gallery, Western Front, Trinity Square Video, Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art, Space Media Arts in London UK, FACT, Liverpool, and Transmediale in Berlin.
The 2015 selected curator is Amber Christensen, a researcher and curator who studies feminist/queer curatorial and media arts practices. She has recently curated film/video for Vtape and Neutral Ground and is a member of the Pleasure Dome Film and Video Curatorial Collective, and an organizer with the Feminist Art Conference.
This year’s premise, proposed by the emerging curator, is inspired by the intersection between queer/feminist/transgender/genderqueer art practices and technology. Submitted work does not have to explicitly address feminist and queer subject matter in its content; the call asks for work that is produced by artists whose practices and/or approaches are in some way informed by feminist/transfeminist/queer philosophies, in whatever way the artist defines this for themselves. The call is open to artists of all genders/sexualities. We encourage submissions of new media works in the form of sculpture, installation, immersive environments, video, audio, performance, interactive art, and web-based projects. All works submitted must be exhibition-ready. Submissions must be received by Monday, May 18, 2015 at 11pm EST.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
• Project description and artist statement (1 page)
• Detailed description of technical requirements. Please outline materials provided by the artist (software, audiovisual equipment and materials expected from InterAccess)
• Current CV (3 pages max).
• Support materials for proposed project/piece previous works.
• Image files: 72 dpi and no larger than 1600px in height or width
• URLs can be submitted for large video works.
For more information and digital submission instructions, visit the Emerging Artists Exhibition website.
Additional Information: LINK HERE
Meet our 2015 summer residents!
We are excited to introduce the three participants in Xpace’s 2015 summer residency for graduating OCADU students! This group will spend two weeks at Artscape Gilbraltar Point in August. Each artist will be featured in a solo exhibition in one of our spaces in September; the writer will write accompanying essays for each exhibition.
Genevieve Wallen
As a curator and art historian, Geneviève Wallen is interested in issues of ethnocultural representational spaces. She believes that the inner workings of cultural consciousness not only affect daily experiences, but also shape how individuals perceive themselves and how they perform their social interactions. Geneviève is a candidate in the Criticism and Curatorial Practice program at OCAD University (2015) and holds a BFA in Art History from Concordia University in Montreal (2012). She recently curated the exhibition There Is Always More than What We Perceive (2015) featuring the works of Michèle Pearson Clarke, Abdi Osman, and Natalie Wood.
Nyssa Komorowski assisting with screen print workshop at Patterns Magazine launch party in the APATHY/ACTION residency. OCAD U Student Gallery, Toronto. 2015.
Nyssa Komorowski
Nyssa Komorowski’s interdisciplinary art practice is varied extensively in medium and includes print, publication, performance, photography, music, poetry, collage, sculpture and installation, and more. Her practice has two distinct outcomes: public or social engagement, and personal healing. She uses self- portraits and made or found symbolic objects to express and explore memories and emotions of trauma.
Katie Morton, Surfin USA
Katie Morton
Working with a variety of materials, combined with carnivalesque sensibilities and satirical attitudes, Katie Morton’s work uproots constraints of societal norms to portray multidimensional empowered and empowering women. Morton utilizes personal experience and play to reposition the subject and self in idealized or nonsensical settings.
