MAY 1 - 31
MATEO GUEZ: OFF WORLD
STEPHEN BULGER GALLERY & CAMERA
OPENING MAY 2, 2 - 5PM
Guez eloquently captures the lives of children who live, work and play in Smoky Mountain, one of the world’s worst slums, where entire families scavenge to survive. Smoky Mountain is a mound of refuse outside of Manila, in the central Philippines, named after the methane-heavy mist hovering over it. Guez challenges our preconceptions of the camera by using a mobile phone as an extension of his body to frame his direct experience. In a streetlevel installation, designed by Andrew Mallis, viewers can engage in a unique forum with Guez’s video wall while stills are delivered to their mobile phones. The gallery is immaterial and the image, though multiple, is personal; both exist in the intimate, yet social, spaces now extended by mobile media. Curated by Sanaz Mazinani.
1026 Queen St W
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MAY 2 - 24
YAEL BROTMAN: THE MOUNTAIN IN OUR LIVING ROOM
ADRIAN FISH: THE NORTH YORK PROJECT (CHILD IS FATHER OF THE MAN)
LOOP GALLERY
OPENING MAY 2, 1 - 5PM
Brotman’s paintings are based on photographs of her upbringing in Winnipeg. Featuring a mountain in the family living room, the works reference Guy Maddin’s film My Winnipeg and connect portraiture, memory and constructed narrative. Fish documents places that possess psychic weight associated with his childhood experiences in North York. His images also reference the 1802 Wordsworth poem My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold. Curated by Adrian Fish.
1174 Queen St W
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MAY 2 - JUNE 6
TERESA ASCENCAO: CONSUMING HER
WARC GALLERY
OPENING MAY 2, 2 - 5PM
Consuming Her is a touch-screen video installation revisiting the first female nude images to appear in mainstream cinema. Audrey Munson’s body shimmers as she is composed of images of other female nudes. As you touch her body, audio clips resonate in the darkened exhibition space. Special thanks to technical collaborators Jim Ruxton (Subtle Technologies), Marius Schebella and Ben Unsworth (Globacore) and to the Ontario Arts Council.
401 Richmond St W Ste 122
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APR 29 - MAY 23
JOAN KAUFMAN: SUSPENDED
RED HEAD GALLERY
OPENING MAY 2, 2 - 5PM
"Suspended" is a photo/video installation of constructed fiction. Using would-be circus performers as subjects, "Suspended" explores the boundaries between illusion and reality capturing private scenes of performance in which desire for the impossible prevails. Caught in desperate and absurd situations, solitary acts of magic and illusion do not entertain, but instead isolate the characters in a private and unending cycle of performing. Images of suspension conflate opposites: freedom and confinement, determination and futility, bravery and crippling inaction. With references to metaphorical and allegorical principles, "Suspended" recalls the myth of Icarus who flew too close to the sun and Sisyphus who unwittingly is condemned to an endless purgatory. Like Lucky and Vladamir these individuals are confined to an absurd reality with no beginning and no end, just endless and determined repetition with darkly amusing results.
401 Richmond St W, Ste 115
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MAY 2 - 30
GEOFFREY PUGEN: ANOTHER SIDE OF YOU
ANGELL GALLERY
OPENING MAY 2, 12 - 5PM
Continuing his investigations of the boundaries between fact and fiction, Toronto-based artist Geoffrey Pugen’s newest body of work Another Side of You presents a series of masterfully manipulated photographs and videos. In an age of technological transformation, Pugen’s modified prints blend reality with mythology as a strategy for social critique. Using digital montage, Pugen plays with the ambiguity of the photographic medium. Staging scenes in his studio or photographing them elsewhere, Pugen then digitally combines and reconstructs the imagery. What appears to the observer at first glance to be an illusion reveals as a convincing construct, betrayed by the absurdity of the narrative content. From a swan caught in a meteor shower to a fallen skateboarder’s poignant recovery, Pugen imbues each image with a sense of the surreal. Deftly blending a futuristic aesthetic with a cautionary perspective on what we perceive to be true, his images offer thoughtful insights into an increasingly mediated world that is in constant flux. A recipient of the K.M. Hunter Award for Interdisciplinary Art, Pugen has exhibited his videos, music and artworks nationally and internationally in Toronto, Berlin, New York, Chicago, Miami, Australia, Poland and the UK. Curated by Angell Gallery.
890 Queen Street W
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MAY 2 - 30
YAM LAU: HUTONG HOUSE
ROBERTO PELLEGRINUZZI: NATURE MORTE
LEO KAMEN GALLERY
OPENING MAY 2, 2 - 5PM
In 2008, Hong Kong-born Canadian artist Yam Lau visited Beijing to develop a project about traditional Chinese courtyard houses. China’s vernacular architecture has sustained customary ways of life and values for centuries, but is quickly being replaced by new urban development. Hutong House uses digital video and 3-D imaging software to reconstitute the architectural layout, form and ambience of these spaces. The work hypothesizes a unique combination of space, time and imagery, past and present. Opening up the historical house in virtual space, Lau reconstructs a pure and imaginary vision of China. The artist wishes to thank the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council and TFVA for their support.
Nature Morte directly refers to the first photographs that inherited the iconographic tradition of late 18th-century still life painting. Taking up the idea of these composed shots, combined with a desire to heighten the reality of the photographic subject, Roberto Pellegrinuzzi processes his images with photo-editing software so as to break their structure down into their constituent layers. The resulting images acquire a three-dimensionality that is de-composed and re-composed before spectators’ eyes. They paradoxically take on new life through our gaze. Taking his cue from the past, Pellegrinuzzi finds the revolutionary dimension in digital technology.
80 Spadina Ave, Ste 406
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MAY 2 - 30
LOOKING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK: SALLY AYRE, MARCO BUONOCORE, DIANNE DAVIS, CHARLENE HEATH, APRIL HICKOX, ALEX KISILEVICH, HEIDI LEVERTY, ROB NORTON, CHRIS SHEPHERD, PAUL TILL
GALLERY 44 CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY
OPENING MAY 2, 2 - 5PM
As an institution that takes pride in its photographic production facilities, education programs and exhibitions, Gallery 44’s “still revolution” looks back and forward at the same time. Photography, as a medium in technological flux, incites photographers to respond in myriad ways. The gallery’s celebratory 30th anniversary exhibition highlights many of these developments.
Works in the exhibition use contemporary techniques, such as the scanning of objects in lieu of a traditional camera, as in the work of April Hickox. Contemporary themes prevail in the dark tableaux of Dianne Davis and the constructed scenes of Alex Kisilevich. Chris Shepherd photographs vacant storefronts in the process of change; Paul Till uses a vintage Diana camera to nostalgic effect. Documentary practices are celebrated in Marco Buonocore’s gelatin silver prints and in Heidi Leverty’s magni- fied study of discarded paper. Charlene Heath questions the documentary genre in her photographs of webcam images. From ambrotypes and tintypes by Rob Norton, to cyanotypes printed on silk organza by Sally Ayre, traditional photographic methods are juxtaposed with contemporary chromogenic prints. This exhibition represents a range of Gallery 44 members’ works, and was juried by Sophie Hackett, Catherine Dean and Peter Higdon.
Image: Alex Kisilevich, Untitled from the series Talking to People is Easy - 2008
401 Richmond St W, Ste 120
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MAY 2 - 31
LANDSCAPE AS POWER: LISA BINNIE, PATRICIA BRENNAN, JOHN ELMSLIE, NEVILLE HADFIELD, BILL KIMBER, CATHY ORD, EDIE STEINER, MARY TRAILL
ARCADIA ART GALLERY
OPENING MAY 2, 2 - 5PM
This exhibition features landscape sites in a postmodern context as imagined and visible worlds: palimpsests in time and space. The images engage our understanding of our environments, both natural and constructed, daily rhythms and experiences. The artists in this exhibition work with a variety of digital and analogue processes, in the form of prints and mixed media constructions. Curated by Edie Steiner.
Image: Bill Kimber, Marseille Harbour - 2008
680 Queens Quay W
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MAY 2 - 14
SCOTT JOHNSTON: TORONTO
ARTA GALLERY
OPENING MAY 2, 2 - 4PM
Johnston probes his environment for motifs that reveal the rapid redevelopment of urban space, and documents contemporary existence in the city. In his photographic quest, Johnston reveals the complex interplay between people’s relationships to their surroundings. He photographically isolates urban space, creating an opportunity for the viewer to gain insight through a contained frame. Johnston seeks to discover contradictions and is drawn to photograph them in his search for clarity.
55 Mill St., Suite 102, Bldg 9
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MAY 2 - 31
MARK LOREN FREEDMAN: STILL WILD
DYLAN ELLIS GALLERY
OPENING MAY 2, 12 - 5PM
Freedman’s provocative images highlight the relationships between creatures and their habitats—relationships so precarious and intimate that subtle disturbances can significantly upset their equilibrium. The photographer’s goal is to promote environmental awareness by sharing scenes of what we risk losing forever. An emergency physician by day, Freedman balances his intense work with a passion for nature and wildlife photography. He was born and raised in Toronto. Curated by Bob Carnie, Les McLean, Kevin Viner.
42 Industrial St, Ste 115
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MAY 2 - 30
ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY: THOMAS A. EVERS, VIOLET FODER, CHRIS HARRISON, M GLORIA NIETO MONTERO, ELENA WILLIS
ACADEMY OF REALIST ART
OPENING MAY 2, 6 - 9PM
Foder’s project began with her fascination with the variations and interpretations of tarot cards. Using photography, she created a contemporary deck emphasizing female archetypes. For example, Foder has recreated the Hanged Man with a dominant/submissive motif and depicted the the Moon as a lunatic. Other cards reinterpreted include the Empress, the Lovers, the Star and the Sun. Curated by Colleen Johnston.
2968 Dundas Street W, Ste 200
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MAY 2 - 31
MARK KASUMOVIC AND VANESSA PHILLIPS: IDEAL LANDSCAPES
FOREVER INTERIORS
OPENING MAY 2, 6 - 9PM
Ideal Landscapes addresses the sentimental idea of the untouched landscape—a landscape more resembling a stage than the real world. In these photographs, scenes are carefully composed and lit to remove them from their natural surroundings, offering a new perspective on the natural landscape. This series questions the true meaning of the ideal landscape. Curated by Martin Scott.
Image: Mark Kasumovic, Ideal Landscape #1 - 2008
2903 Dundas Street W
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MAY 2 - 31
MARY FARMILANT
POST & BEAM RECLAMATION
OPENING MAY 2, 6 - 9PM
The examination of objects and the spaces they occupy is a predominant theme in the work of Farmilant. She studies objects and their surroundings in order to reconstruct a picture of life in the past. These images explore perception, memory and narrative, and articulate the idea that human presence is part of the history of now uninhabited or forgotten spaces. Curated by Doug Killaly.
2869 Dundas Street W
