HALIFAX
SAINT MARY'S UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY
Sara Angelucci: Somewhere In Between
OCTOBER 17 - NOVEMBER 22
A photo-based artist now working out of Toronto, Angelucci studied at NSCAD. In this solo exhibition from Cambridge Galleries, she reflects on the Italian-Canadian immigrant experience. This exhibition will kick off the 2009 version of the wildly successful Nocturne, a gala evening in which galleries across Halifax remain open until late on Saturday evening on October 17.
http://www.smu.ca/administration/externalaffairs/artgallery/
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MONTREAL
LEONARD AND BINA ELLEN ART GALLERY
Hadjithomas + Joreige: I’m here even if you don’t see me
SEPTEMBER 1 - OCTOBER 10
The first important Canadian exhibition of Lebanese artists and filmmakers Joana HADJITHOMAS + Khalil JOREIGE. The body of work presented explores the notion of the latent image and includes the installation Le cercle de confusion, co-produced by the Gallery and Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal. Curated by Michèle Thériault.
Hadjithomas + Joreige, War Trophies 3, 2006-2007
http://ellengallery.concordia.ca/index.php
THE MUSEE D'ART CONTEMPORAIN DE MONTREAL
Robert Polidori
MAY 22 TO SEPTEMBER 7, 2009
Why wouldn’t the walls have recorded and layered, one on top of the other, all the emotional vibes of the rooms’ successive occupants and visitors? That is the question that has obsessed photographer Robert Polidori for over twenty years, and that makes his photographs of interiors and exteriors so moving and haunting, long after we have seen them.
Considered one of the leading photographers of our time, Polidori transcends the limits of photography and captures traces of the human condition—paradoxically, in places that have usually been abandoned and are devoid of human presence. Each photograph amounts to a social portrait, revealing the soul of its various subjects, and layering both past and present in poignant works steeped in sorrow and beauty.
The exhibition offers a survey of Polidori’s practice through fifty-nine large colour photographs, including works from the main series he has produced in the last twenty-odd years, from 1985 up to 2007. First, the Versailles series, in progress since 1985, brings to light the successive restorations undergone by this highly symbolic site that is part of our collective memory, awakening in viewers a pervasive sense of history. In the photograph Velours Frappé and Ladder, for example, the passage of time is made visible through a series of enfilading openings. The near-painterly Beirut (1994-1996), with its subtle colours and rendering of line and material, offers glimpses of the city’s ruin that foreshadow the apocalyptic visions of the series that would follow. Havana (1997-2000) attests to a dual-faceted urban reality: the splendid past of these sumptuous colonial homes and the dilapidated present state of the same houses. Pripyat and Chernobyl (2001) makes us all witnesses to the worst nuclear catastrophe in history, which occurred in 1986. It reverberates with exile, devastation and abandonment. The destruction is complete in the series New Orleans (2005-2006), produced in the months that followed the dreadful Hurricane Katrina.
Complementing these works is a 1985 series focusing on New York and a critical exploration of the urban landscape through the buildings of Amman, Jordan (1996) and the streets of Varanasi, India (2007).
“Where you point the camera is the question,” writes the artist, “ and the picture you get is the answer to decipher.” Answers that will go straight to the core of your being.
© Robert Polidori, Classroom in City of Pripyat, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine, 2001
© Robert Polidori, Velours Frappé and Ladder, salles du XVIIe, r.-d-c, aile du Nord, Château de Versailles, France, 1985
Tacita Dean
OCTOBER 10, 2009 TO JANUARY 3, 2010
Tacita Dean has produced many drawings, photographs and sound works, but is known worldwide above all for her films documenting the passage of time.
The exhibition that will be presented at the Musée consists of a single, monumental work: Merce Cunningham performs STILLNESS (in three movements) to John Cage’s composition 4’33” with Trevor Carlson, New York City, 28 April 2007. In this work, as its title indicates, Merce Cunningham performs a choreography for the piece 4’33” by composer John Cage— which had a huge influence on twentieth-century music— a 4‑minute, 33‑second silence performed in three movements.
Merce Cunningham performs STILLNESS…, being shown here in its Canadian premiere, stands at the crossroads between film, performance and installation: six films projected on screens arranged around the exhibition space, each capturing a different performance of the same choreography—a choreography as silent as the music that inspired it. The dancer sits perfectly still in a chair for the duration of each movement.
Tacita Dean has exhibited around the world in solo and group shows since 1992: Dia Beacon (2008); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (Hugo Boss Prize Exhibition, 2007); and Schaulager, Munchenstein/Basel, Switzerland (2006). She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1998 and was just awarded the 2009 Kurt Schwitters Prize. Born in 1965 in the United Kingdom, she lives and works in Berlin.
Merce Cunningham (1919–2009), a pioneer of contemporary dance, died on July 27, 2009.
Curator: Mark Lanctôt, curator, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
Installation view at Dia:Beacon, Beacon, NY. Courtesy the artist, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris, and Frith Street Gallery, London.
Photo: Michael Vahrenwald, courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
http://www.macm.org/en/index.html
SBC GALLERY OF CONTEMPORARY ART
Pavel Pavlov and Jim Campbell
SEPTEMBER 10 - OCTOBER 24
From September 10 to October 24, 2009 , Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal and the SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art will present works by Pavel Pavlov and Jim Campbell in the gallery.
Pavel Pavlov (Montreal) will exhibit his new video installation, Every Bit of Landscape Beyond the Cloverleaf Interchange (Frankfurter Kreuz, Frankfurt, Germany) (2009). An extension of his landscape work begun in 2004, in this installation Pavlov reinforces his connection to the conceptual art of the 1960s and ‘70s by offering a multimedia series comprised of four videos filmed in a single take from a car driving along a highway. Gaëlle Morel, curator of the 11th annual Mois de la Photo à Montréal, describes this work by Pavlov as « an optical device that reconstructs space using the simultaneous perception of several viewpoints to upset the rules of perception ».
Jim Campbell (San Francisco) will present four multimedia installations comprised of Bus Stop (2003) and the series Street Scenes (2006-2008). Drawing on urban visuals and innovative technology, Campbell juxtaposes moving and fixed images (Bus Stop) and creates luminous animation (Street Scene). Commenting on the range of reactions that Campbell’s works tend to trigger among spectators, Ms. Morel explains that by electronically controlling the resolution and speed of the videos, the artist prohibits an immediate understanding of the projected elements, reducing the intelligibility of the scenes to signals that are barley legible.
On Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 12:30 p.m., Jim Campbell will speak at the ICI conference program (Intervenants culturels internationaux) at UQAM’s École des arts visuels et médiatiques, local R-M130, www.ici.uqam.ca. Admission is free.
On Saturday, September 26, 2009, at 3:00 pm, SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art will hold a seminar-meeting featuring Pavel Pavlov. Admission is free.
Jim Campbell, Street Scene 1, 2006. Courtesy of the Hosfelt Gallery and the artist
http://www.sbcgallery.ca/
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OTTAWA
CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY
Scott McFarland: A Cultivated View
UNTIL SEPTEMBER 13
Over the last decade, Scott McFarland has produced bodies of work that engage with different aspects of photography. The Laboratory (2002 continuing) series depicts photographic processes, while Cabin (2001-2004), Boathouse (2002-2006), and Berlin (2004 continuing), are studies on place and explore the interrelation of art and document.
This exhibition examines these concerns within another dominant theme in McFarland’s work; human relations with the natural world, as seen in his Gardens (2001-2006), Hampstead (2005 continuing) and Empire (2003 continuing) series. Subject matter includes gardens, landscape views, and animals found in particular sites such as zoos, farms and stables. McFarland’s approach is both descriptive and metaphoric. In addition to carefully crafting his scene, his choice and handling of subject matter incorporates elements of photographic processes and the history of art and photography.
The exhibition is organized by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography in conjunction with the BC Scene programming presented by the National Arts Centre from 21 April to 3 May 2009.
Orchard View, Late Spring: Vitis vinifera wisteria 2004
Echinocactus grusonii [detail] 2005
Both images courtesy of the artist, Regen Projects, and Monte Clark Gallery
Gabor Szilasi
OCTOBER 9, 2009 – JANUARY 17, 2010
Over the course of the last 50 years, Gabor Szilasi (b. Budapest, 1928) has created one of Canada’s significant and influential bodies of photographic work, comprising environmental portraits, domestic, commercial, and urban views of Montreal and Budapest, and images of rural Quebec. His photographs have been sustained by an unwavering belief in the humanistic and documentary value of the medium. This exhibition uncovers the essence of Szilasi’s artistic vision through his observations of urban and rural life and his recordings of the connections between culture and community. How people present themselves to the photographer and furnish their homes, as well as the character of their surroundings, all contribute to the creation of an intricate social and historical record. Organized by the Musée d’art de Joliette in collaboration with the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography.
La maison mobile de Mme. Perron , Les Eboulements, Charlevoix, 1977
Cuisine chez Andre et Marie-Rose Houde , Lotbiniere, 1979
Images are examples of Gabor Szilasi's work only. They are not representative of CMCP's upcoming exhibition.
http://cmcp.gallery.ca/english/index.htm
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TORONTO
ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO
Sarah Anne Johnson: House on Fire
UNTIL AUGUST 23
A provocative exhibition by Winnipeg artist, Sarah Anne Johnson, winner of the 2008 Grange Prize.
In the 1950s, Sarah Anne Johnson’s maternal grandmother was an unsuspecting participant in a CIA research program. Seeking treatment for post-partum depression, she was subjected to a series of mind control experiments at the Allen Memorial Institute at McGill University, Montreal. In House on Fire, Johnson uses her artistic practice to explore this difficult history and begin to understand its effects on her family.
Sarah Anne Johnson is represented by Julie Saul Gallery, New York and Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
http://www.ago.net/home
STEPHEN BULGER GALLERY
Scott Conarroe: By Rail
UNTIL SEPTEMBER 12
The Stephen Bulger Gallery is pleased to present our first solo exhibition of work by Scott Conarroe. This new series, “By Rail”, is a set of large format colour photographs that document the North American railway system.
Fifty years since O. Winston Link’s “Norfolk and Western Project” and well over a century since railway companies commissioned photographers like A.J. Russell to produce expansive portrayals of their exciting new technology, Conarroe examines the North American rail system, to determine whether it really has outlived its usefulness, and its relevance in our culture. Articulating the critical role trains played in continental economic and social development, Conarroe’s understated vision uses long exposures to record a blend of natural light that occurs during dawn and dusk, providing a phenomenal platform for viewers to consider the profound impact railways have had on our lives. His pictures of this sprawling socio-geographical network are a remarkable testament to its past glory and future potential. Largely empty of trains or people, these contemplative, elegiac images evoke a range of responses to what is arguably the defining technology of the modern nation state. The tracks function as a unifying device, they animate the landscape with history and myth, and they are structures of beauty in their own right. While this series is laden with historical connotations, the images are a product of our current industrial state, an era when the ethics and logistics of land-use, travel, and the structures of community are being reconsidered.
Trailer Park, Wendover UT, 2008
Elizabeth Siegfried: Termina
AUGUST 11 - SEPTEMBER 19
Termina is a photographic installation, at once personal and universal, that tells the story of a diminishing family tree and contemplates the ending of one branch of that family's lineage.
Detail from Grandmother
Éliane Excoffier: Kiev
SEPTEMBER 19 - OCTOBER 24
Kiev #10, 2008
Bertrand Carriere: Lieux Memes
OCTOBER 31 - NOVEMBER 21
Réalisé entre 2005 et 2009, en France et en Belgique, ce projet avait pour but de comprendre ce que la Première Guerre a laissée dans la mémoire du territoire. Ce chemin m’a mené vers ce que l’on nomma
www.bulgergallery.com/
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VANCOUVER ART GALLERY
Andreas Gursky: Werke/Works 80-08
UNTIL SEPTEMBER 20
This groundbreaking exhibition presents a remarkable overview of the work of Andreas Gursky, the celebrated Düsseldorf-based photographer who is widely renowned for his ongoing project to compile an ‘encyclopedia of life.’ Now, for the first time ever, Gursky has chosen to present more than 70 works from throughout his career, reaching back in time to his student days at the Folkwang Hochschule Essen, followed by the period in which he studied in the class taught by Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Beginning with the earliest photographs, the exhibition describes an enormous trajectory that takes us to his most recent monumental works, conceived and produced especially for this exhibition.
Andreas Gursky: Werke/Works 80-08 offers a radical departure in the presentation of Gursky’s work. The majority of the photographs in the exhibition are printed in a small format that has not been used by the artist since the early 1980s and it is significant that he has chosen to do so at this time. For many years, Gursky has utilized increasingly larger formats in his work, monumental in scale and vision, but with this exhibition it is possible to revisit many familiar works at a scale and in a context that encourages a reconsideration of the individual images and his oeuvre as a whole.
The exhibition is co-organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Kunstmuseen, Krefeld, and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm and curated by Dr. Martin Hentschel, director, Kunstmuseen Krefeld.
© Andreas Gursky / SODRAC (2009), James Bond Island III, 2007
Courtesy: Sprüth Magers, Berlin/London
Anthony Hernandez
UNTIL SEPTEMBER 7
Anthony Hernandez has depicted the social landscape of Los Angeles for more than 40 years. In the tradition of Ed Ruscha’s gasoline stations and Every Building On The Sunset Strip, Hernandez and contemporaries such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz invested an apparently detached representation of the urban with an element of the social. Whether his subject is a young domestic worker waiting at a bus stop or a woman applying eye makeup in a reflective shop sign on Rodeo Drive, Hernandez subtly captures a myriad of economic and racial layers of LA’s social spaces.
The first Canadian exhibition of this Los Angeles artist’s work, Anthony Hernandez will present a remarkable collection of photographs from the 1970s and 1980s. From large-format, black and white urban landscapes to colour portraits of Beverly Hills shoppers, the images are compositionally precise, formally beautiful and reveal facets of life in Los Angeles that are surprising and largely disregarded.
Anthony Hernandez, Beverly Hills #7, 1984
Courtesy of Anthony Hernandez and Christopher Grimes Gallery
Stan Douglas: Klatsassin
UNTIL SEPTEMBER 13
Stan Douglas is a renowned Vancouver artist whose art has consistently and provocatively explored the idea of historical record and narratives of location. Much of his work is thematically linked to this region and the many different peoples who have inhabited these lands.
The focus of this exhibition is Stan Douglas’ outstanding video and photo installation entitled Klatsassin. Shot on location in the Cariboo and Chilcotin districts of British Columbia, and on a studio backlot in Vancouver, the video offers a non-linear or, what Douglas describes as a recombinant narrative of the events that initiated the so-called Chilcotin War of 1864. In addition to the video installation the exhibition includes a group of seven location photographs of sites as diverse as Barkerville, Quesnel Forks, Stanley and Vancouver. In addition, this exhibition provides a unique opportunity to see an earlier work by the artist, entitled Pursuit, Fear, Catastrophe, Ruskin, BC, 1992, which also offers a study of this region and the forces that have shaped it.
The exhibition is organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Bruce Grenville, senior curator.
Spences Bridge, 2006
Collection of the Vancover Art Gallery, Gift of the artist
O Zhang
UNTIL NOVEMBER 29
The Vancouver Art Gallery will launch its new outdoor exhibition space, Offsite, with a site-specific installation by Chinese artist O Zhang from July 20 to November 29, 2009. Offering a rotating program of innovative public art projects by local and international contemporary artists, the new exhibition space in the downtown core will allow artists to explore and respond to Vancouver’s unique urban environment. Located at the base of the Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver near the intersection of Georgia and Thurlow streets, Offsite will present new projects organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery every six months, funded by the City of Vancouver through the Public Art Program.
The first artwork to be presented at Offsite will be O Zhang’s major photographic installation Horizon (Sky). For this project, the artist returned to the rural area of her youth in central China to photograph the young village girls who live there. Posing in front of a camera for the first time, the children stare into the lens, returning the gaze of the viewer—unabashed, bold and powerful—while the vibrant colour of the blue sky behind them evokes thoughts of hope and possibility. Enlarged to monumental proportions, the images of the young girls, each photographed on a country hillside, are presented with a strength and individuality not commonly represented in popular media. Zhang’s images suggest a positive vision of the future of China and the role that women might play in its transformation, a role that is simultaneously embraced by the artist herself.
Offsite: O Zhang is organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Daina Augaitis, chief curator/associate director. Offsite is funded by the City of Vancouver through the Public Art Program. The Gallery recognizes Ian Gillespie, president, Westbank Projects Inc., Ben Yeung, president, Peterson Investment Group and the residents at Shangri-La for their support of this project.
Horizon (Sky) [detail], 2009
Courtesy of the artist
http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/
