The Mending Lounge at Craft Ontario

New documentation up on my website of the project I contributed to The Mending Lounge this past spring at Craft Ontario. Check it out here: http://www.tara-bursey.com/recent/

Call for Submissions: Repair Centre

New project alert!  Check out the following call for submissions and throw something my way if you're interested!

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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Repair Centre
at the Peter McKendrick Community Gallery
Artscape Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie Street, Toronto
Curated by Tara Bursey and sponsored by the Wychwood Barns Community Association

Repair Centre invites artists to submit art and project proposals that explore the politics, pragmatics, poetics and aesthetics of repair. This exhibition will take place at the Peter McKendrick Community Gallery in July of 2015.

Drawing on the past function of the Wychwood Barns TTC streetcar repair barns, Repair Centre will examine the function and principles of repair to restore, renew, maintain and heal. This call for submissions invites artists to consider artistic acts of repair as a means of engaging issues related to (but not limited to) architecture, ecology, the material world, DIY, labour, skilling and deskilling, the aesthetics of repair, human relationships, performativity and the borderlands between art and life. This exhibition proposes repair as an opportunity for re-invention, re-incarnation and an experience beyond a simple means to an end.

Please send the following materials for consideration:
-- A project proposal of new work, or a statement about previous work you are submitting for consideration (one page maximum, pdf format)
-- 3-5 jpgs of previous work (72dpi; 1024 x 768 pixels) or web links to video or audio
-- A corresponding image list (pdf format)
-- An updated CV and Bio (pdf format)
-- Contact information

Please send proposals to tara@tarabursey.com by July 15th, 2014. Please label all email submissions as REPAIR CENTRE SUB in the subject line.

(becoming) The Logic of Memory at Hamilton Artist's Inc.

Image: Corinne Duchesne, Sybil, 2013. Mixed media drawing on mylar.

I'm unbelievably excited about the following exhibition which opens at The Inc. next week, featuring the work of Corinne Duchesne, Peter Horvath and one of my textile art heros of all time, Anna Torma.  It was an honour and a privilege to be asked to write the catalogue essay for this show.  Don't miss this one, folks!

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[becoming] The Logic of Memory
Corinne Duchesne, Peter Horvath, Anna Torma

January 23 – March 1, 2014

Opening reception: Thursday, January 23, 7:00 – 9:30pm

Art Crawl: Friday, February 14, 7:00 – 11:00pm

To paraphrase Deleuze, we can only function in the present, but we are always in motion, always becoming. Our past makes up who we are, but by contemplating these moments of the past, we are no longer remembering, we are constructing something new, in turn effecting our future understanding of the present.

Each of the artists in this exhibition explore the concept of memory. Their diverse perspectives weave together and encourage visitors to consider notions of memory, nostalgia, time and loss. Corinne Duchesne’s layered mixed media drawings on mylar philosophically consider loss as a locative site of memory, using grief as an anchor to merge anthropomorphic forms with objects. Peter Horvath’s 2-channel video installation, Memoir, compares and juxtaposes the biographical similarities between his mother Eva and friend Denise, who both emigrated to Canada from Hungary, albeit decades apart. The installation is structured to reflect upon the nature of memory, manipulating the space between truth and fiction, past and present. Anna Torma’s technically rich textile installations reflect on the nostalgia of home, her immigrant heritage, the natural environment and maps the human body recalling the synapses of the brain.

Combined, through the use of these personal assemblages, the works in this exhibition reflect on the location and constructed nature of memory and it’s ability to influence and shape our understanding of ourselves in the present.

A catalogue essay by Tara Bursey will accompany the exhibition.

Hamilton Artists Inc.
155 James Street North, Hamilton
http://theinc.ca/

Meryl McMaster: In-Between Worlds at the AGH Design Annex

Meryl McMaster, Wingeds Calling, 2012, digital chromogenic print. Courtesy of Katzman Contemporary

While things have been a little quiet on this blog as of late, I've been working away behind the scenes on two exhibitions that both open on February the first.  The bulk of the preparations have been for an exhibition at Pier 8 in Hamilton called Winterlore, a series of outdoor installations that draw from international folk symbols and stories that will animate the pier during Hamilton Winterfest's all ages kick-off event.  More to come here on that exhibition shortly.

A satellite exhibition of the incredible work of emerging photographer Meryl McMaster will, as part of Winterlore, be showing concurrently at the AGH Design Annex.  This show will give the Pier show a presence on James Street North during and after the kick-off event.  Meryl's show was recently announced on the Design Annex's website. Many thanks to the Design Annex and my collaborator Melissa Bennett for drawing Winterlore (and me!) into their 2014 exhibition program!

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Meryl McMaster: In-Between Worlds
On view February 1 to March 22, 2014
Curated by Melissa Bennett and Tara Bursey
Presented in association with Winterlore,
A Hamilton Winterfest exhibition
hamiltonwinterfest.ca

In-Between Worlds explores bi-cultural identities through photographs of a lone figure in the landscape. Identity and myth are intertwined here, in dialogue with the codes of photographic representation. As self-portraits, these images expose the vulnerable subject, inviting viewers to consider themselves as characters in this theatrical yet open-ended narrative. McMaster’s Aboriginal and Euro-Canadian identities have informed this work, wherein she incorporates ideas of liminality. For McMaster, “In-Between Worlds is a sequence of moments that appear out of the ordinary and can be interpreted as being in a state of suspended belief.”

This exhibition is presented in association with Winterlore, a Hamilton Winterfest exhibition that runs as part of the Winterfest Kick Off event on Saturday February 1st, 3-10 pm at Pier 8. Curated by Tara Bursey, Winterlore features dynamic art installations by ten artists. The works draw on winter folklore, stories and symbols from around the world, in celebration of the diverse cultures of Hamilton.

The Design Annex exhibition space features experimental contemporary art installations by artists from Hamilton and farther afield. Exhibition receptions are held on the second Friday of each month during the James Street North Art Crawls. 

The Design Annex provides artists with a new location in which to present works in all media, including new media. The space welcomes Hamilton residents and visitors to engage with contemporary art in a highly visible and accessible venue in the heart of Hamilton’s James Street North Arts District.

Artscape Youngplace

 Heather Nicol

 Debbie Adams in Stairmasters

 Hanging tapestry in the SKETCH Admin Hub

 UnArchive exhibition title wall

 David Adam Brown at the Koffler Gallery

Vacant studio on the 2nd floor

Gorgeous visuals abound at the grand opening of Artscape Youngplace on Tuesday night.

Swarm at Hamilton Artists Inc.

As a newly-minted Hamiltonian, I thought I'd push myself to make a new little piece of work for this upcoming show at Hamilton Artists Inc.  Over 100 pieces will be included-- lots of great affordable art that will be suitable Christmas gifts, I imagine.  Support local artists and go to the opening this Thursday if you're in the 'hood.

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SWARM
Hamilton Artists Inc. Annual Members Exhibition
November 21- December 21, 2013
Opening Reception November 21, 7:00- 9:30pm
Closing Reception December 21, 1:00-3:00pm

This years Annual Members Show, SWARM implies the combined industrious strength of many persons or things; as a verb, to swarm is to move towards – to approach, though not necessarily resolve – a common purpose as a group that is constantly in motion rather than standing still.

With over 100 pieces from our membership, SWARM is a salon style exhibition of scultpure, video, painting, print, drawing, collage, and photography.

Hamilton Artists Inc would like to thank our generous SWARM exhibition sponsors La Cantina and Luscious D’s.

Hamilton Artists Inc.
155 James Street North,
Hamilton ON
(at the north west corner of James and Cannon Streets)

UnArchive and Stairmasters at Artscape Youngplace

I have nearly reached the end of two consecutive contracts with Artscape and these amazing exhibitions are the culmination of them!  UnArchive and Stairmasters, curated by the amazing Heather Nicol (with research and curatorial assistance from yours truly), are important parts of the official opening of Artscape Youngplace at 180 Shaw that happens tomorrow. Come and see the first phase of Unarchive (more work will be added to the exhibition until the official exhibition opening on Jan 7th), amazing artwork and artifacts, and an astounding update to a beautiful example of Toronto's built heritage. Register to attend tomorrow's public opening here. Lots more info about the Artscape Youngplace project can be found on their website.

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Unarchive

Phase One: November 19, 2013

Exhibition opens January 7 - March 30, 2014
Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw Street

www.artscapeyoungplace.ca

Featuring new works by: Ian Carr-Harris and Yvonne Lammerich, Dave Dyment, Lee Henderson, Nina Levitt and Jessica Vallentin with selected items from the Givins/Shaw Junior Public School historic archives, and artwork by students at Givins/Shaw Junior Public School.

Curated by Heather Nicol

Curator’s Talk & Tour: January 7, 2014, 7:00 to 9:00 pm

Opening Vernissage: January 9, 2014, 7:00 to 9:00 pm

Unarchive features new works by artists Ian Carr-Harris and Yvonne Lammerich, Dave Dyment, Lee Henderson, Nina Levitt and Jessica Vallentin, who have been granted access to the rich Givins/Shaw Junior Public School archival collection comprised of records and data, photographs of classes and teams, trophies and plaques, scrap books, press clippings, snapshots and more, packed into locked closets and an over-stuffed vitrine. This remarkable treasure trove has inspired and provoked creative responses in sculpture, installation, assemblage, text and photo based works. The exhibition also features historic and pedagogic displays, along with artworks by current Grade Four, Five and Six students from the Givins/Shaw J.P.S.

As this elegant school building’s transformation into the innovative Artscape Youngplace draws to a close and the dust finally settles, Unarchive will unfold in synch with the architectural completion. November 19 marks the first phase of the project; the fully realized exhibition will be on view from January 9 - March 30, 2014, with an opening vernissage taking place on January 9 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm and a curator’s talk and tour on January 7 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.
Unarchive and Stairmasters inaugurate the Artscape Youngplace Hallway Galleries, an impressive new public exhibition space at Artscape Youngplace, soon to be the largest cultural institution in the West Queen West area. The galleries span more than 9,000 square feet of spectacular corridor and stairwell space across three floors and are open seven days a week with free admission.

Image: Lee Henderson



Stairmasters


Debbie Adams, Melissa Fisher and Seth Scriver

Curated by Heather Nicol
November 19, 2013 – March 30, 2014

Artscape Youngplace,
180 Shaw Street

Announcing a new era of creative intervention at 180 Shaw Street, the North, South and West stairwells at Artscape Youngplace have been transformed into site-specific installations. Often-overlooked architectural zones, the liminal, in-between and connective qualities of these spaces are expanded upon by artists with wide-ranging practices spanning animation, design, sculpture, book and film making. Using vinyl as their medium, these “stairmasters” playfully explore the material’s associations with signage, temporality and mutability, inviting viewers on an experiential ascent or descent as they explore Artscape Youngplace in its inaugural season.

This project kicks off the new Artscape Youngplace Hallway Galleries, which span more than 9,000 square feet of spectacular corridor and stairwell space across three floors, and are open seven days a week with free admission.
Heather Nicol, a Toronto-based multi-disciplinary artist with a studio at Artscape Youngplace, is the curator of the two inaugural exhibitions, UnArchive and Stairmasters. Nicol previously curated and produced Art School (Dismissed) on this site in 2010, an intervention which responded to the decommissioned Toronto District School Board property prior to its renewal by Artscape.

Curator’s Talk & Tour: January 7, 2014, 7:00 to 9:00 pm

Reception: January 9, 2014, 7:00 to 9:00 pm
www.artscapeyoungplace.ca

Image: Debbie Adams

Telling: An Audio Survey of Parkdale

November is almost upon us, as are three exhibitions I've been working away on for the past few months!  First up: An exhibition of audio art in public spaces around one of my very favourite Toronto neighbourhoods, Parkdale.  See below for details.

TELLING: AN AUDIO SURVEY OF PARKDALE

Various venues around Parkdale

November 6th-30th

Reception: November 7th, 7-10pm


Panel Talk: November 13th, 7pm

Curated by Phil Anderson and Tara Bursey


With participating artists: Luis Jacob, Myfanwy Ashmore, Zeesy Powers, Shannon Gerard, Paul Aloisi and Jaclyn Meloche

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” 

― Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Telling: An Audio Survey of Parkdale is an exhibition of site-specific audio works that will animate familiar and hidden spaces across Parkdale. Each participating artist has chosen a different site along Queen Street West as a starting point to engage and explore the history and character of one of Toronto’s most storied and diverse neighbourhoods. This exhibition pays tribute to the real and mythic spaces, stories and people important to the exhibition’s participating artist/residents.

This exhibition will tell the story of the Pigeon Lady of Parkdale, a local landlady who was known to feed hundreds of pigeons that would flock to her street corner each day. The sound of pigeons outside of Capitol Espresso will serve as an aural memorial for one of the neighbourhood’s former residents. In Gallery 1313’s courtyard, a representation of horses using sound and visuals recalls where police horses were led to the back stable house, a space which is part of the current home of Gallery 1313.  At Bacchus Roti, the sounds of the Gardiner Expressway-- which when created caused several hundred Parkdale homes to be demolished for its construction-- is juxtaposed with an image of the lakeshore, serving as a reminder of the often complicated relationship between nature and the built environment. These and other stories conjured by participating artists will reside with the public as works of art, encouraging current residents to tell and trade their own stories, thus taking an active role in the creation of a collective community history.

A panel discussion featuring Judith Doyle (Professor, OCADU), Shawn Micallef (Author/Editor/Co-Owner, Spacing Magazine; Columnist, the Toronto Star) and Darren Copeland (Artistic Director, New Adventures in Sound Art [NAISA]) will invite the public to engage in discussion about the works featured in the exhibition, as well as the use of audio technology in contemporary art practices. Moderator will be Russell Smith, cultural writer for the Globe and Mail and author of several books.

This exhibition is presented in partnership with the following local businesses: Capitol Espresso, Bacchus Roti.

Media contact: 

Phil Anderson, Director, Gallery 1313 

416-536-6778 or 647-918-6606

http://www.g1313.org

sophia bartholomew at Gallery 1313

Next week, an artist named sophia bartholomew is turning Gallery 1313's window box into a food dehydrator...!

sophia bartholomew
EPLE SLANG
Gallery 1313 Window Box
October 2013

Gallery 1313’s window box is west-facing and receives direct sunlight. Taking the gallery’s particular physical conditions as a starting point, EPLE SLANG will transform the gallery into a solar dehydrator for the duration of the exhibition.  While video and new media are popularly thought of as durational mediums, this work explores how ‘static’ physical materials might also be experienced as something durational – moving and changing over time.  The window box transgresses the distinction between interior and exterior space, complicating understandings of self and of city – it offers us that possibility, it asks us that question.

sophia bartholomew is an artist currently based out of Fredericton, New Brunswick.  Creating contexts through the use of installation, performance, and language, her projects aim to enact situations of moderate discomfort and generative moments of not knowing.  Recent projects include installations for The New Gallery (Calgary), ROOM 321 (Banff), Topdown Bottomup (Vancouver) and The Crying Room (Vancouver), with upcoming projects for Roadside Attractions (Toronto) and Third Space (Saint John).  

There are so many reasons for my general absence-- relocating, family matters and more.  However, even without these factors, I've been pretty occupied with longer-term curatorial and research projects as of late to the point where more frequent posting has become kinda difficult.  There's some really exciting stuff coming down the pipeline in November and February '14 that I will post about sooner or later....!

Colleen McCarten and Shannon Lea Doyle at Gallery 1313

I organized the following window installation of work by OCAD's Material Art and Design 2013 medal winner, Colleen McCarten which opens tomorrow.  Pop by the gallery between 7-10 pm to check it out, as well as the other exhibitions opening in Gallery 1313's main space, cell and process galleries.  As always, I will write an exhibition text to accompany the installation, which can be scooped up at the gallery.

Colleen McCarten
FABRICATE
Gallery 1313 Window Box
September 2013

Colleen McCarten’s installation Knit Wire is part of a larger body of work titled Fabricate, a multi-media textile exploration that investigates the intersection of textiles and assumed value. Across a variety of media, this project employs a recurring technique of line and repetition to signify the basic components of textile construction. Through decontextualized representations of textiles, this exploration asks:  Does changing the material, scale, or technique alter the value of the piece?  If so, is it a sexist devaluation of a medium, or merely about the ability to understand the time and effort put into another process?

Colleen McCarten is a textile artist and designer based out of Toronto. She recently obtained a BDes from OCAD University, where she was awarded a medal recognizing her thesis work in Material Art and Design. Prior to attending OCAD, Colleen studied Horticulture at Niagara College and received a Diploma in Fashion Design from George Brown College.

Sadly, with all the whirlwind activity pertaining to both the Fear of Punk//Fear of Art show and our recent move, I didn't have a chance to post here about the last exhibition in Gallery 1313's vitrine.  Shannon Lea Doyle has a few things with Colleen McC-- she is also an OCAD medal winner and her work shares an interest in textile-related techniques.  Here is a photo of her ethereal installation, Somehow Connected, which came down a couple of days ago and looked incredible in the late afternoon sun.

Fear of Punk / Fear of Art

I am in the middle of pretty intense work towards this exhibition that my main man and I are putting on together.  I really could go on and on about the motivations behind this show, but for now I will just leave this post as a declaration of the fact that it happening in just under a month.

This is kind of an exhibition of international punk art, though the number of artists we could include was greatly limited by the space we secured-- a teeny gallery across the street from Central Tech.  The show features a great group of artists that could be simply described as 'punk' artists making artwork within and around punk rock music (though in a lot of cases, this description is only a small piece of the puzzle).  Fear of Punk / Fear of Art includes several artists from NYC, a few from  the midwest and west coast, Canada, and as far away as Mexico City and France.

Stay tuned for more info in the coming weeks!

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FEAR OF PUNK / FEAR OF ART

Alex Ratcharge (France)
Alexander Heir (NYC)
Emma Maatman (LA)
Erick Lyle (NYC)
Heather Benjamin (NYC)
Jill Pucciarelli (NYC)
Leah Wishnia (NYC)
Matthew McGarry (Rochester)
Nathan Gattis (Chicago)
Paul D'Elia (LA)
Sam Ryser (NYC)
Shiva Addanki (NYC)
Spoiler (Montreal)
Tara Bursey (Toronto)
Weird Luke (NYC)
Yecatl Peña (Mexico)
and more.

Curated by Ben Needham and Tara Bursey

August 2-4, 2013
Communication Art Gallery
209 Harbord Street, Toronto
http://www.communicationgallery.net
Opening Party:  Friday, August 2, 2013.  7-10 pm

Presented as part of Zine Dream 6, an annual small press art fair
http://zinedream.com

Punk is everywhere.  From malls to museums, the influence and imagery of punk’s past has largely been absorbed into mass culture.  Despite this, contemporary DIY punk rock sits firmly outside of the mainstream, and at both regional and global levels is stronger than ever.  The visual culture that surrounds it is variably dark, threatening, chaotic, smart, funny, mysterious and questioning.

Fear of Punk / Fear of Art highlights the creative output of current punk artists, bringing their work out of its usual context while exploring intersections between punk rock, art and print culture.  The purpose of the exhibition is to celebrate contemporary punk art while sharing it with a broader audience.  The exhibition includes drawing, sculpture and printed matter that draws inspiration from horror, the occult, sex, despair, popular culture, art history and urban life.

For more information, contact ben.t.needham@gmail.com or tara@tarabursey.com

https://www.facebook.com/events/267288286747509/

Images, from left to right: Alexander Heir, solo exhibition poster design; Alex Ratcharge, Maximumrocknroll t-shirt design; Leah Wishnia, Garden of Earthly Delights screenprint; Heather Benjamin, Shut Up t-shirt design.

This Week

Two shows I'm involved with in some capacity are opening this week.  On Wednesday, Ancestry and Artistry: Maya Textiles from Guatemala opens at the Textile Museum.  I've worked as Curatorial Assistant on this (amazing) project on and off since 2011, so this is huge deal.  Still more work to do before Wednesday, but the show is shaping up beautifully.

James Gardner's FRANK is a window installation at Gallery 1313 and will mark the first installation I programmed for the gallery's window box.  This one opens the next day, Thursday the 30th, from 7-10pm.  From the release:

FRANK is an ever-evolving entity of insulation foam. He has been built up, cut apart and stuffed into rooms and awkward spaces again and again, and will continue to be again and again. The sculpture in its many incarnations is an experiment in the language of abstract sculpture and undermines conceptions of a finished and static work of art.  FRANK aims to achieve a complexity of form and colour through a constant reworking of material and by visually exploiting and developing the affects of duration and exposure on an unstable medium.

James Gardner is an artist and member of VSVSVS, a collective and artist-run centre based out of a warehouse in the portlands of Toronto.


Action!

Call For Submissions

I just got a new gig curating the Gallery 1313 Window Box Gallery.  FYI:  Past "emerging" artists are a-okay, too. Added bonus:  I plan on doing a critical piece of writing/conducting an interview with all exhibitors, for publication on G1313's website in tandem with the exhibition.  Interested in showing?  Submit!

Gallery 1313 is looking for submissions of site-specific work from emerging artists for our Window Box Gallery.

The Window Box is a projectile-like space that facilitates the production of innovative work.  It is located outside Gallery 1313’s main entrance in the courtyard of 1313 Queen Street West in Toronto. The Window Box is west-facing and receives direct sunlight.  Because of this, the space cannot accommodate video work.  Heat and light sensitivity should be considered.  The space is 66.5 inches high by 25 inches wide by 22 inches deep.  Shows generally run for one month.

While all submissions are welcome, work that considers the history and character of Parkdale are encouraged.

Submissions should include the following:

- 3 jpgs of recent or proposed work with image information (title, dimensions, date, media)
- A detailed description of the proposed work including hanging information (less than one page in length)
- An updated CV and Bio

Submission Deadline: April 26th, 2013

Please send all submissions to:
tara@tarabursey.com

Gallery 1313
1313 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON. M6K 1L8
http://www.g1313.org/

Patti Smith and Beat Nation

Patti Smith, from her exhibition Camera Solo 

Last week was a luxurious one in that I managed to find the time to take in two art shows in two days.  I went to the preview of Patti Smith's photography exhibition, Camera Solo, at the AGO.  The next day, I braved the snow and embarked on a rather hellish walk to Harbourfront to check out Beat Nation at the Power Plant.  Boy, was it ever nice to spend a few hours outside of my own head (which is constantly consumed by thesis work), looking at the work of other artists.

The Patti Smith show was an interesting one for a few reasons.  The exhibition was gorgeously installed-- a clean and uniform installation of small photographs with nice touches like ephemera placed sparingly on weathered wood tables, persian rugs, church pews facing a video projection, and a huge Italian fishing net in the middle of the main gallery. Despite the exhibition's pitch-perfect style, a telling moment for me was when I took in a photograph taken by Robert Mapplethorpe of Patti-- not the iconic one of her on the cover of Horses, but another one of her looking long-limbed and awkwardly confrontational...in other words, it was pure Patti.  After drinking in this photograph for several minutes, it became obvious just how artless Smith's photographs were in comparison.  The exhibition reminded me of my ambivalence towards Patti Smith's work, whose artistic career has been (in my humble opinion) rather uneven.  The thing is, you'd never guess it from all the attention she has been showered with.

Jordan Bennett, Turning Tables (2012)

Continuing the theme of intersections of art and music, Beat Nation: Hip Hop as Indigenous Culture at the Power Plant was worth the walk.  I especially loved Jordan Bennett's Turning Tables (pictured above), which plays Bennett's voice learning his native tongue, Mi'kmaq.  Also really stirring were two of the exhibition's video works-- 10 by Dana Claxton and Nicholas Galanin's Tsu Heidei Shugaxtutaan Part 1 and 2.  Recommended!

//The Annual// at the Gladstone Hotel

Just found this great post about my participation in //The Annual// on the Gladstone Hotel blog.  Check it out!

http://gstoneblog.com/the-annual/preview-the-annual-tara-bursey/

// THE ANNUAL //
Thursday October 25 to Sunday October 28, 2012

// THE ANNUAL // is the Gladstone Hotel’s annual independent contemporary art event, offering an open and fertile ground for engaging and emerging practices. Over the course of four days, // THE ANNUAL // brings together artists, curators, and collectives to present new work and site-specific installations.

// THE ANNUAL // features artists Tara Bursey, Soon Cho, Shlomi Greenspan, Brady Gunnell & Mikhail Mansion, Thea Jones, Maria Flawia Litwin, Isabel M. Martinez, Faye Mullen, Jen Spinner, Laura Taler, and keep it UP guest-curated by Zach Pearl & Caoimhe Morgan-Feir and featuring artists Andrew MacDonald, Johnson Ngo, and Cecilia Tiburzio.

// THE ANNUAL // 2012 is curated by Noa Bronstein and Deborah Wang

Gallery Hours:

Friday and Saturday, 2PM – 10PM
Sunday, 2PM – 6PM

Admission: $5

Programme:

Thursday, October 25 – Opening Reception, 7PM – 10PM, Free
Friday, October 26 – Designers Support the Arts with guest DJ Katey Morley, 7PM – 10PM, $5
Saturday, October 27 – Raw Foo, video art screenings, presented by Zach Pearl, 8PM – 10PM, $5
Raw Foo will feature: Dennis Envoldson, Jennifer Chan, Josh Studham, Mark Kasumovic, Sarah Ann Watson, Sara MacLean, Tracy Van Oosten, with audial/visual performance by Frank Tsonis during intermission

This We Know... at Harbourfront Centre

This We Know... 
An exhibition of recent work by students in the Aboriginal Visual Culture Program at OCAD University

Part of the Planet IndigenUS Festival
At Harbourfront Centre
August 10 – 19, 2012

Works by students in the Aboriginal Visual Culture Program at OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design) University will highlight the diversity and beauty of the artworks they’ve produced this year. Our students’ work is accomplished, critical, experimental and personal, issuing from a place of enquiry and commitment.

The artists in the exhibit are Tara Bursey, Alexa Hatanaka, Cody Kullman, Morena Lopez, Melissa Penney, Janet Romero, Cheyenne Twiner, Georgina Walker, and Isaac Weber, and Glenna Matoush with Robert Houle and the students of Rethinking Abstraction from an Aboriginal Perspective.

The goal of the Aboriginal Visual Culture Program (ABVC), established in 2008, is to foster and disseminate Indigenous culture through art and design to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. The courses emphasize collaboration, innovation and the integration of traditional practices and emerging technologies. ABVC students benefit from an interdisciplinary university environment that blends academic rigour with the experimental freedom of the studio.

The ABVC totem is nigig the otter. The otter represents the spirit of OCAD students with his playfulness, dexterity, inventiveness and curiosity, and inspires the OCAD faculty with his boundless energy and joy. Like an artist the otter dives deep into the depths of the unknown and emerges with a tool upon which to crack open the shell of his imagination. These are the characteristics the Aboriginal Visual Culture Program seeks to emulate.

Please join us for an Artists' talk on Saturday August 11, 2:00PM – 3:00PM, in the Marilyn Brewer Community Space, Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay West, Toronto

Burning Schoolhouses

Just in time for Canada Day...fireworks!  I'm happy to announce that I'll have some work up in an exhibition that will be a part of the Planet IndigenUS Festival in August.  The festival will take part mainly at Harbourfront Centre, but also at partner institution Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ontario.  The exhibition is a showcase of the work of students of the Aboriginal Visual Culture program at OCADU.  I am not in the Aboriginal Visual Culture program myself, but I'm grateful to have been invited by department head and incredible artist Bonnie Devine to take part anyway.  My piece is called Burning Schoolhouses-- more on them below.

Burning Schoolhouses, 2012
Fireworks, Japanese Kozo paper and adhesive
Installation dimensions variable
Each unit approximately 15cm X 14cm X 6cm

Burning Schoolhouses is a series of sculptural multiples inspired by the essay Confessions of a Born Again Pagan by Fred Kelly.  The multiples employ the use of the classic firework, The Burning Schoolhouse, to explore the explosive issue of residential schools just over fifteen years after the last residential school in Canada was closed in 1996.  The objects simultaneously connote a sense of celebration, violence and catharsis while embodying the complex and painful process of reconciliation for both aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians.

Rochester Trip

Took a quick trip across the pond to Rochester, New York last week.  The weather was sort of craptastic (mostly cold and damp), but it was a really cool trip nonetheless.  Rochester is a tiny city, with lots of neat art deco/art moderne architecture.  The Kodak Building, the firehall on Chestnut Avenue and this old Chevrolet dealership (?) turned coffee shop in downtown Rochester's east end were highlights, for sure.

While I was there, I managed to take in a lot of art in both expected and unexpected places.  I went to the George Eastman House (Eastman was founder of Kodak, which is based in Rochester) which is a museum of photography and film situated in an old ivy-covered mansion.  There was an exhibition up which featured a number of photographic medallions from the early 20th Century such as the one above (scooped from the George Eastman House Flickr page).  There was another small exhibition called Ballyhoo, which focused on promotional materials and signage from the golden age of film and was particularly neat.  The one thing that irked me about Eastman House was it's lack of wayfinding information-- after leaving, we realized that we had missed two of the museum's exhibitions entirely.  Rats!

One of our other stops was the Rochester Contemporary Art Center, which had a great show up called Work It: Artists Address Labour and Unemployment.  It was nice to see pieces from Kathryn Clark's Foreclosure Quilt series up in this show, which I had only previously seen through images online.  Also got to meet the gallery's plucky Director, who introduced himself and chatted for a while.  Nice dude!  Don't think that's ever happened to me in Toronto...!

Our first night there, we ventured into the amazing abandoned Rochester Subway tunnel with the friend we were staying with armed with only a single flashlight and about $10 (goes a long way in the U.S.) worth of alcohol . Apparently people go down into the tunnel all the time to explore-- there was a ton of graffiti down there.  The above patch was particularly unusual.

This trip to Rochester made me miss Baltimore quite a bit, and reminded me how much smaller American cities have to offer.  Canadians generally want to go to places like New York City and San Francisco on vacation-- understandably so, but smaller American cities seem to really have their own unique identity and a slew of neat things to check out that can be found pretty easily.  I'm looking forward to going on more quick and dirty trips like this just south of the border in the future-- next up is Detroit, hopefully.

Parallax Scroll at Harbourfront Centre

Went to Harbourfront's York Quay Centre on Saturday to check out this season's exhibitions before they closed on Sunday night.  While I went expecting to get a bang out of the craft department's biennial, LOOK Out (and don't get me wrong, I did...), I was completely blown away by Scott Carruthers' drawing installation, Parallax Scroll.  An immersive barrage of image and text reminiscent of  R. Crumb or Lee's Palace muralist Al Runt, Carruthers' intense drawings reminded me of amazing punk album art.  It also made me think of the internet...except more honest.

Favourite exhibition visited in a very long time.  Thanks, Scott!

On Ownership

My Crossed Stitches project has officially come full circle-- someone else made a William Morris cross stitch kit, and is selling them for $82.00 at the BMA gift shop!!  "Needlepoint designed exclusively for The Baltimore Museum of Art."  Unbelievably annoying...but also totally hilarious and ironic.

Photo Credit: B. Needham