MAY 13 - MAY 16 CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL EVENTS

WEDNESDAY MAY 13, 7-8PM

PANEL DISCUSSION

SOPHIE HACKETT, BONNIE RUBENSTEIN AND DAVID LISS

THE DRAKE HOTEL

A lively conversation with CONTACT curators Hackett (AGO), Liss (MOCCA) and Rubenstein (CONTACT) to examine the current climate surrounding the medium of photography and the CONTACT 2009 theme Still Revolution.

1150 Queen St W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 8 - JUNE 13

HANK WILLIS THOMAS: VISIONARY DELUSIONS

GEORGIA SCHERMAN PROJECTS

OPENING THURSDAY MAY 14, 6-9PM

ARTIST TALK SATURDAY MAY 16, 1PM

Visionary Delusions excavates the “Still Revolution” that has not only distorted Black American culture but has also fuelled the powerful corporate propagation of a false utopia. Curated by Olivier Fuller, this CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival Feature Exhibition showcases, for the first time in Canada, Thomas’ most significant bodies of recent work B®ANDED and Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America.

Sourced from an evolving mass of iconic images of corporate advertising, Willis Thomas’ work explores the creation of the cultural African-American identity. By mining the marketing imagery of brands through five decades, Thomas draws out parallels between contemporary relationships and those of the past, exposing underlying cultural and racial signifiers and stereotypes.

Unbranded presents a series of images taken from magazine advertisements dating from 1968 to the present, digitally manipulated to be devoid of any original texts and logos. The removal of all aspects of advertising information exposes the reinforced delusional cultural constructs embedded in the images.

B®anded employs the ubiquitous language of advertising to poignantly comment on issues of gender, race, class and history. The idiom of the medium as the message is explicitly dissected through Willis Thomas’ re-appropriation of corporate advertising and branding.

“The reason I work in the language of advertising is that more than half the world is literate in that language. We’re all inundated. My goal is to try to imbed my own propaganda and agenda in the already existing language of advertising.” HWT

Willis Thomas received his BFA in Photography and Africana Studies at New York University’s Tisch School of Arts and his MA in Visual Criticism and MFA in Photography from the California College of Arts. He has shown extensively both nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at PS1, New York, The Studio Museum, Harlem, and the Zacheta National Museum of Art, Poland and was most recently was included in 30 Americans from the Rubell Family Collection, Miami. He is the recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship and the Aperture West Book Prize from which his first monograph, Pitch Blackness, was published and which will be available during CONTACT. He is represented in New York by Jack Shainman Gallery.

IMAGES

Are you the right kind of woman for it?, 1974/2007

Smokin Joe Ain’t Je’mama, 1978/2007

Available in a variety of sizes and colors, 1977/2008

Mandingo of Sandwiches, 1977/2007

Exhibition hours are Tuesday-Friday, 10am to 5pm, Saturday, 11am to 5 pm, or by appointment.

133 Tecumseth St

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 14 - JUNE 13

ELDON GARNET: DOMINION AND CATEGORIES OF DISAPPEARANCE

CHRISTOPHER CUTTS GALLERY

OPENING THURSDAY, MAY 14, 6-9PM

Eldon Garnet's creates photography that is predicated on constructing a series of images to frame an abstract narrative about our current social, political and economic environment. In Dominion, as with much of Garnet's work, the polarities of beauty and threat, rapture and effrontery confront each other. Pushing the boundaries of photographic depiction, Garnet presents metaphoric constructs for the individual condition – one that is, within our current cultural moment, fragile and precarious. He creates iconic images that are lyrical yet threatening: the individual in a struggle against an undefined violence, or the body under attack. In one image, two men violently fight against the background of Mies van der Rohe's iconic Toronto Dominion Centre. In another photograph a lone man immersed in a river struggles with the heavy current. We are confronted with the hope of a future in the difficulty of the moment.

Based in Toronto, Garnet has established an internationally recognized artistic practice, working as a multi-media artist and writer since the 1970's. Surveys of his sculptures and photographic work have been held at the National Gallery of Canada (CMCP) in Ottawa, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto and the Centrum voor Fotografie in Amsterdam.

21 Morrow Ave

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THURSDAY, MAY 14, 6:30PM

TERRY O'REILLY: IMAGES OF PERSUASION

$10 IN ADVANCE / $12 AT THE DOOR

The Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators in Communications (CAPIC) invites you to an evening with Terry O'Reilly, host, creator and co-writer of CBC radio series, Age of Persuasion. Known as a delightful raconteur and scholar of media literature, his day job as one of the top directors of radio and TV commercials affords him a unique perspective on marketing and how it has changed the way we react to media.

918 Bathurst St

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THURSDAY, MAY 14, 7PM

QUICK FIX: VANESSA GRONOWSKI AND ZACH SLOOTSKY

THE DRAKE HOTEL

Come to the Drake every Thursday for Quick Fix; spontaneous performance art and other cultural happenings. This week, Vanessa Gronoswki explores photo blogging and how the presence of a photographer can transform the nature of an event.

1150 Queen St W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THURSDAY, MAY 14, 8PM

MIKE ROBINSON: DAGUERREOTYPES, PAST AND PRESENT

THE CAMPBELL HOUSE MUSEUM

Using nineteenth-century examples and images from his own work, Mike Robinson will discuss the evolution of the daguerreotype process and illustrate what makes this form of photography so fascinating and collectible. Robinson, a Professor in Ryerson's School of Image Arts, is Canada's only practising daguerreotypist. His striking daguerreotype portraits of Toronto photographers are a highlight in the CONTACT Feature exhibition First Revolution, 1839: Daguerreotypes and the Intimate Gaze at Campbell House Museum.

160 Queen Street W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THURSDAY, MAY 14, 10PM

LOUIE PALU: VIDEO SCREENING

THE BOVINE

Louie Palu's video footage documents the war in Afghanistan's Southern Provinces of Kandahar and Helmand while he was embedded with Canadian, British and American troops in 2008. The video contextualizes Palu's public installation, War Zone Graffiti, located throughout the Queen West neighbourhood and Ace Lane - the alleyway behind the Shanghai Cowgirl.

542 Queen St W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SATURDAY MAY 16, 23 AND 30, 12-4PM

SCREENING - CONTACT 918 PROJECTIONS

Projections will be presented every Saturday in May showcasing images that have been submitted by a global network of photographers. Daily feeds of images accompanied by interactive installations encourage audience participation. CONTACT 918 strives to connect photographers and communities, both local and international.

918 Bathurst St

ARTCORE/FABRICE MARCOLINI - MAY 2 -31 - NICHOLAS AND SHEILA PYE

MAY 2 - MAY 31

VANITAS: NICHOLAS AND SHEILA PYE

ARTCORE/FABRICE MARCOLINI

Fabrice Marcolini is pleased to announce Nicholas and Sheila Pye’s first solo exhibition at Artcore. Vanitas presents photographic and cinematic work by celebrated Toronto based husband-wife artists Nicholas and Sheila Pye. The exhibition includes several multi-channel video installations and 9 photographic works.

In Vanitas, the Pyes play with themes present in the art historical genre of still life painting to examine their own relationship. Carefully staged and precisely crafted, one photographic features the symbolic fodder found in the vanitas painting genre, such as skulls, ivy, rotting fruit, and books. Four portraits delve into issues of mortality, narcissism, and the complex issues of youthful existence, death and the nature of being. The artists take their married relationship and allude to the impermanence and illusion of togetherness. It is as though they are faking their deaths to consider their mortality and to repent to one another.

The Pyes relentlessly blur the borders between their lives and their art as they tackle the highly charged yet poetic issues that arise from their own relationship. But theirs is not a self-absorbed biographical fascination. Rather, the relationship depicted in their bodies of work, becomes emblematic of all things that can go wrong in a mutually dependant and suffocating relationship. The Pyes’ artistic output spans photography, film, performance, video, and installation while acknowledging the profound influences of surrealism in film, narrative conventions in painting, 19th and early 20th century portraiture, and conceptual approaches to subject matter. Given this well-versed theoretical blend, they avoid prosaic performance art documentation preferring to transform their photographs and films into works that cleverly reconfigure art historic antecedents. Additionally the finished works acknowledge their intrinsic aesthetic status as art objects.

The Pyes have exhibited their work at museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto; The Power Plant, Toronto; The Glenbow Museum, Calgary; the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria The Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris.Their work has been screened in numerous international film festivals such as the Toronto International Film Festival, Canada; the Locarno International Film Festival, Switzerland; and Les Rencontres Internationales in Paris, Berlin, and Madrid. Their work has also been exhibited internationally throughout Toronto, Washington, London, Berlin and Madrid among others.

55 Mill Street - Pure Spirits Building - 62

MY PICKS: EXHIBITIONS - GALLERIES J THROUGH Z - CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

MAY 2 - 30

ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY: THOMAS A. EVERS, VIOLET FODER, CHRIS HARRISON, M GLORIA NIETO MONTERO, ELENA WILLIS

JUNCTION - ACADEMY OF REALIST ART

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 2 - 31

BRIAN BARRER: PERCEPTION IS REALITY, REALITY IS PERCEPTION

JUNCTION - CORNERSTONE FINE FURNITURE

Barrer presents us with a visual feast of contradictions and photographic epigrams through the surreal juxtaposition of modernized nature and nature untouched. He invites you to explore his images where he presents reality as perception and perception as reality. Curated by Sue McClelland. Curated by Sue McClelland.

2886 Dundas Street W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 2 - 31

SANDI WHEATON: TOWN FOR SALE

JUNCTION - DEBORAH FRIESEN ARCHITECT INC.

Town for Sale compares the relationship between digital and film photography to the Interstate 40 and Route 66. Wheaton laments the digital transformation of photography that has made black-and-white infrared film obsolete. This is a nostalgic look at an era when memories were captured on grainy film negatives. From gas-guzzling convertibles to exploring the open road, time stands quietly still along the dusty California stretch of Route 66. Curated by Deborah Friesen.

386 Pacific Ave

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 2 - 31

IDEAL LANDSCAPES: MARK KASUMOVIC, VANESSA PHILLIPS

JUNCTION - FOREVER INTERIORS

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 by Mark Kasumovic, Ideal Landscape #1, 2008

2903 Dundas Street W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 2 - 31

MARY FARMILANT

JUNCTION - POST & BEAM RECLAMATION

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APR 29 - JUN 30

ANDREW MOORE: RUSSIA, BEYOND UTOPIA

KOFFLER CENTRE OF THE ARTS, LOGGIA GALLERY

The Canadian debut of vibrant images of post- Communist Russia by acclaimed New York-based photographer, Andrew Moore. Modern Russia is a land of myriad selves. The vestiges of decadent Imperial Russia contrast with the remnants of the Socialist dream to form a complex backdrop for an emerging Capitalist Democracy. Moore captures the convergence of these past, present, and wished-for utopias in his portrait of this elusive country. The exhibition is part of kofflerkultura, a new series highlighting Russian culture & the Russian- Jewish experience in the Former Soviet Union, Israel and North America. Curated by Evelyn Tauben.

4588 Bathurst Street

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 11 - 31

JESSE JACKSON: USONIA ROAD: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT IN THE POST-FORDIST CITY

LARRY WAYNE RICHARDS GALLERY

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian projects were designed in response to the needs of a burgeoning middle class that emerged during the Fordist economy of the mid-20th century. Both Ford and Wright had totalizing visions for society that persist today in fragmented forms. By presenting a selection of Wright’s work within its contemporary context, no matter if it is decayed or renewed, Jackson reveals the tension between visionary architecture and the evolving urban landscape.

230 College Street

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 6 - 24

YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION

LAUNCH PROJECTS

You Say You Want a Revolution (a phrase first expressed by John Lennon in reaction to the Vietnam war), explores the nature of revolutions. Spinning the 2009 CONTACT theme at a pivotal time technologically, politically and environmentally, this group exhibition examines responses to change that occur within times of revolution. Juried by Lise Beaudry.

404 Adelaide St W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

SCOTT CLARKE: PRIDE!

LENS FACTORY

Pride contains 25 intimate street portraits photographed between June 2006 and June 2007. All images were photographed using available light and a 4x5 view camera. All subjects appear before you in their PRIDE!

1040 Queen St W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

GRAHAM DALIK, JENNIFER MORDEN

MARBEN RESTAURANT

Dalik and Morden explore aspects of everyday life around the globe and also concern themselves with the changing role and position of the photographic medium. While conscious of the opportunities and potential offered by digital technology, both photographers are aware of the danger that wholesale revolution and replacement presents to previous photographic supplies. Their work explores connections and dialogue between the old and the new, and seeks to reflect emerging possibilities within the rapidly changing medium.

Image by Graham Dalik & Jen Morden, 2008

488 Wellington St W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 13 - JUN 7

JJ LEVINE: QUEER PORTRAITS

O'CONNOR GALLERY

Queer Portraits is a series of vibrant colour photographs by Montreal artist Levine. This ongoing project addresses issues surrounding gender, sexuality and queer space. Each studio-lit intimate portrait is taken in a different queer domestic environment. Queer Portraits explores the relationship between artist and subject. As Levine photographs people with whom she has a close relationship, each image reveals the strong element of trust that exists within this queer community.

145 Berkeley St., Ste 100

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APR 30 - MAY 23

MARK BOVEY: RESTORING THE LEDGER

OPEN STUDIO

Bovey’s large-scale, archival inkjet prints examine history from the industrial age to the present while questioning the state of Western capitalism. A production-age ledger/scrapbook acts as a metaphor for society in decay. Using digital and analog images, Bovey combines photography with drawing to suggest personal, universal and elemental worlds overlaying the debits and credits on the page. The history of printed technologies of the past 125 years—the ledger’s new digital versions compared to the analogue— emphasizes the speed of progress. Curated by Astrid Ho.

401 Richmond St. W, Ste 104

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 15

ADAM KRAWESKY: INSTILLS

PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY AT CAFE BERNATE

Patrick Mikhail Gallery presents a series of public interventions by Krawesky, who creates images of anonymous figures engaging with the city. Viewers are inspired to reflect upon the ways that people interact with their urban environment. Maps of the intervention sites can be obtained at Café Bernate—which also serves as a starting point for a tour of the sites—or online.

1024 Queen Street W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 19 - JUN 13

STORIES: TYLER GREY, MATTEW STYLIANOU, NATASHA V

PIXEL GALLERY

For Stories, a group of photographers were invited to create a series of immersive photo-based narratives using the experimental application Photosynth as a creative tool. In Photosynth, every click of the mouse changes the image, uncovering new emotions and perspectives, creating new ways to view and interact with photography. These images transcend still photography; discover their stories. Curated by Steve Di Lorenzo.

Image by Tyler Grey, Sociopath, 2008

156 Augusta St

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

L. E. GLAZER : THE FRINGE PROJECT

THE STOREFRONT STUDIO

The Fringe Project explores the physical manifestation of the human spirit through suspended moments of dancing and singing. Theatrical interpretations of everyday life and emotion are translated into compositions of light, form and colour. Enjoy a glimpse into the creative complexities of the human soul. All Images were photographed during the 2008 Toronto Fringe Festival production of Wild About Harry.

3293 Dundas Street W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

LAURIE KANG: THREE BROTHERS

TINKU GALLERY

A trio of real-life brothers performs for the camera, creating a surrealism that merges fact and fiction. Kang explores the psychology and dynamics of blood relations with Three Brothers, curiously photographing her father and his brothers. Curated by Amrita Chandra.

437 Roncesvalles Ave, Ste 107

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - SEP 8

PORTRAITS

TORONTO PEARSON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Fitzgerald and MacInnis imbue their photographic subjects with a sense of beauty and gravitas. Fitzgerald’s photographs provide an intimate view of beekeeping while MacInnis’ farm animal portraits capture the sometimes disconcertingly human individuality of each creature. Their portraits inspire meditation on our increasingly disconnected and ambivalent relationship with animals and the natural world. Curated by Lee Petrie.

Image by Rob MacInnis, Opening Night, 2008

Hwys 427 and 401

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 7 - 30

BREAKDOWN: GRAYDON SHEPPARD, ROBYN CUMMING, KATYA DOLEATTO, LINDSAY PAGE

XEXE GALLERY

Breakdown features a group of photo-based artists responding to the constantly evolving yet historically reminiscent nature of the still image. Cumming constructs the climax of moments of chaos and trauma depicting both the event and its aftermath. Doleatto constructs decadent stilllife scenarios and photographs their decomposition. Page creates a building/ un-building machine that exemplifies tedium and redundancy. Sheppard utilizes stereoscopy to create animated GIFs that exhibit a simultaneous spatial construction and deconstruction. Curated by Robyn Cumming.

Image by Graydon Sheppard, Untitled

624 Richmond Street W

MY PICKS: EXHIBITIONS - GALLERIES A THROUGH I - CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

There are 220 open exhibitions during CONTACT. With so many shows I have picked only the exhibitions that I am interested in. Please check CONTACTs website to view hours open to the public.

I look forward to seeing Michael Willems exhibition. His work, although different in style and approach, reminds me of Nan Goldin's work. Both Willems' and Goldin's work explores the world of drugs and the people that inhabit them. These works are not meant to be pretty pictures.

APR 29 - MAY 10

MICHAEL WILLEMS: IV - INTRAVENOUS

*NEW*GALLERY

In this shocking photographic documentary that is ultimately a story of hope and a tribute to strength and love, Canadian photographer Michael Willems shows a world most of us will never see: the tough world of a Toronto drug den: a world of addiction, where free will has ceased to exist. Michael and the victims of addiction, who became his friends, share that dark world here - but this is a positive story: one of hope, strength, art; and one of eventual redemption and recovery.

906 Queen St West

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although I am gay myself, I have found in the past that gay male artists frequently focus on the nude, well-muscled male body. To be fair, I have often also found lesbian art focused on the spiritual (wiccan, pagan, goddess) or reference a lot of genitalia. Perhaps it is due to many artists being self-taught. Admittedly I am very critical of amateurish art. I am wondering if this is the case with this project. However this one image has me intrigued enough to go.

MAY 1 - 31

ZACHARY AYOTTE AND TED KERR: THIS IS HOW WE MADE LOVE

ACT (AIDS COMMITTEE OF TORONTO)

This is How we Made Love is an exhibition about two men growing apart before they grow together. This collection of Polaroids, camera-phone images, digital and film photographs reflect a summer of shared yet separate explorations into personal progress and social change. The photographs reveal two people maintaining intimacy without discarding their individuality. This exhibit was made possible in part by HIV Edmonton and the AIDS Committee of Toronto.

399 Church Street, 4th floor

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am weary of group exhibitions that are not curated. I am also suspect when words like diverse mediums and subject matter are used to describe the exhibition. Fortunately they chose an excellent image by Susanna Reisman to encourage people to visit the show.

APR 30 - MAY 22

HERE AND NOW

AGO ART RENTAL AND SALES GALLERY

Here and Now brings together several of Canada’s established and emerging photographic artists. Exploring their diverse uses of the medium and subject matter, the exhibition examines the current state of contemporary photography and reveals the wide scope of this art form.

Image by Susanna Reisman, Measuring Tapes #1, 2005 / 2008

481 University Ave

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I definitely want to see this show. Not because it's a loosely tied exhibition on the theme of the festival, Still Revolution, but because the work is completed by some of the youth in Toronto. I believe in supporting programs and encouraging youth in creative endeavours.

APR 30 - MAY 21

REVOLUTION: OUR TIME

FATHER JOHN REDMOND SS, LAKESHORE CI, LAMP - ASSEMBLY HALL

Young eyes showcase passion, chaos and tranquility in the images by youth from LAMP Community Health Centre and students from Lakeshore Collegiate Institute and Father John Redmond Secondary School. The revolution continues— evolution, revolution, it’s our time! Curated by Christian Bortey.

Image by Gavin Smith, Passenger, 2008

1 Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 30

JEROME BOURQUE: STAND STILL

BASIA HOME

Basia Home is pleased to present Stand Still. This exhibition of ten large-scale images by Quebec artist Bourque represents the photographer’s desire to produce dramatized imagery from everyday scenarios. He uses mise-enscène to create images that exploit the possibilities of the photographic image. This process permits him to reference his own memories and amplify them in order to increase their imaginary potential. Curated by Basia Polowska.

163 Dupont St

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 13 - 24

MELISSA GENERAL: LONGING AND BELONGING

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Longing and Belonging examines the challenges facing a First Nations person who lives “off-reserve” while maintaining a strong attachment to their heritage and “home.” Raised on Six Nations Reserve, General focuses on identity in relation to understanding her place as a First Nations woman in an urban contemporary culture. The dresses sewn for her as a child by her mother are the starting point for a dialogue about her relationship to belonging.

1080 Queen Street W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 12 - JUN 11

ELDON GARNET: DOMINION AND CATEGORIES OF DISAPPEARANCE

CHRISTOPHER CUTTS GALLERY

Eldon Garnet creates photography that is predicated upon constructing a series of images to frame an abstract narrative about our current social, political and economic environments. In Dominion, as in much of Garnet’s work, the polarities of beauty and threat, rapture and effrontery, confront each other. Pushing the boundaries of photographic depiction, Garnet presents metaphoric constructs for the individual condition, which is fragile and precarious in our current cultural moment. He creates iconic images that are lyrical yet threatening – the individual in a struggle against an undefined violence, or the body under attack. In one image, two men fight violently, set against the background of Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Toronto Dominion Centre; in another photograph, a lone man immersed in a river struggles with the heavy current. We are confronted with the hope of a future in the difficulty of the moment.

Based in Toronto, Garnet has established an internationally recognized artistic practice, working as a multi-media artist and writer since the 1970s. Surveys of his sculptures and photographic work have been held at the National Gallery of Canada (CMCP) in Ottawa, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto and the Centrum voor Fotografie in Amsterdam.

21 Morrow Avenue

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - JUN 15

JES SACHSE : ALLEVIATE

COME AS YOU ARE

The gaze has long defined the depiction of physical disabilities, from Vaudeville to the medical text. Stereotypes exist as flattened notions molded by the viewer. Alleviate is a series of images— some playful, some provocative—that form an unapologetic narrative told from the viewpoint of the subject. Juxtaposing recognizable archetypes with self-representations, this series provides the observer with an invitation to take a fresh look.

701 Queen St. W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APR 7 - MAY 31

SAMER MUSCATI: THE MEN WHO KILLED ME

CRAIG SCOTT GALLERY

In the 1994 genocide that ravaged Rwanda, 500,000 women were raped. Fifteen years later, The Men Who Killed Me features 17 survivors. While many still struggle to cope with enduring trauma, these survivors were empowered by communicating their experiences—a testament to the transformative potential of photography. Listed as a “must-see show", NOW magazine describes the exhibit as presenting a "sensitively modulated look at each woman’s continuing struggle to piece herself together after the atrocity.” Curated by Craig Scott.

95 Berkeley St

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

JOSHUA MELES: CHILDREN IN CONFLICT, ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

CREPES A GOGO

This exhibition documents Israeli and Palestinian children who have grown up entangled in war.

18 Yorkville Ave

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 2 - 30

ROBERT BERLIN: PEOPLE'S DESIRE

DRABINSKY GALLERY

People’s Desire is a photographic compilation of Berlin’s recent journey through Burma—an ancient land of contrast and conflict where the collective spirit of a people is evident as culture and history clash with a ruthless military regime. Dignity overcomes deprivation and spirituality and lyrical beauty persist despite a devastated political landscape. This journey evoked more questions than it answered.

5A Hazelton Avenue

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

BARBARA MANNERS: THE MAKING OF A PHOTOGRAPH[ER]

EZRA'S POUND

The Making of a Photograph[er] is a series of black-and-white images rich in metaphor and symbol that chronicles Manners’ journey to becoming a maker of photographs. From a lone bud on the verge of blossoming, to a powerful cityscape, Manners’ photojournalistic portraits beautifully express the universal desire to realize one’s potential as well as portray the honesty of real life.

238 Dupont Street

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

RETOUR DE ROME: CLARA GUTSCHE, DAVID MILLER

GALLERY 345

In 2002, Gutsche and Miller photographed Rome over a period of six months. Retour de Rome is focused on a complex history marked by pervasive change. The work, though grounded in architecture, is chiefly about human relationships to man-made spaces and buildings. The images captured by the two photographers distill the chaos, richness and surfeit that is Rome, suspending moments in time and history.

345 Sorauren Avenue

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 8 - 31

EXPOSED: INNOVATION, TRANSFORMATION, REVOLUTION

KATRINA JENNIFER BEDFORD, STEFAN BOUDREAULT, ALEX COLEY, LEILA COOLS, SALLY CUMMING, JEFFERY CUTLER, ALLAN DAVEY, DIANNE DAVIS, MATTHEW FUNG, RYAN FUNG, SARAH GILLETT, MARGARET GLEW, TAMMY HOY, GREG HUSZAR, JESSE COLIN JACKSON, SOUMEN KARMAKAR, AMEE KING, R. KOLEWE, MICHAEL KRAUSS, PHILIP LEPAGE, BRENT LEWIN, CHRISTOPHER MCLEOD, DONG-KYOON NAM, BEN NG, JENNIFER PAUL, DALE M REID, WILLIAM SELF, ADRIAN SMITH, OLENA SULLIVAN, MICHELE TARAS, ROSALIE VILLANUEVA, JUSTYNA WERBEL

GLADSTONE HOTEL

In keeping with CONTACT 2009’s thematic focus, Exposed showcases photographic works ranging from reportage to abstraction, documented fact to constructed fiction, and highlights both established and emerging contemporary photographers. The exhibition is co-produced by the Gladstone Hotel and SpeakEasy. Curated by David Brown and Chris Mitchell.

1214 Queen St W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 7 - 31

RE:PRO: MICHELE CROCKETT, WALTER SEGERS

GLADSTONE HOTEL, ART BAR

Emerging artists Crockett and Segers explore the ideas of evolution, reproduction and revolution within society. Crockett addresses transitional stages within the life of a woman. Segers investigates the transformation of the male body through evolution, technology and robotics by romanticizing the industrial revolution and the next generation of androids.

1214 Queen Street W

OTHER FEATURE EXHIBITIONS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC - CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

APR 9 - MAY 31

AWASHAWAVE: LOUIS FORTIER, ANTONIA HIRSCH, YOUNG-SUP KIM, ARNOLD KOROSHEGYI, DIANE LANDRY, MICHAEL SNOW, KELLY WOOD

BLACKWOOD GALLERY

Awashawave, with an alliterative title that slips by, examines (conceptually, phenomenologically, politically) the fruitful tensions between the still and moving image. This group exhibition presents figurative and literal interpretations of inundation and the perceptual tensions that result from being one amongst the many.

Examining facets of the concept of being flooded, awashawave presents a selection of works that embodies the shift from the single image to the series, from a discernable point to a dense mass: a washing machine turned into a praxinoscope (Landry); an audio work utilizing shortwave radio signals (Snow); ceramic objects made of white speaker wire that emit sounds of washing (Kim); images produced by a home-built scanner-camera that fuse digital technology and 19th-century photographic techniques (Koroshegyi); audio tracks converted into dense black and white “sonic” images (Wood); a video projection of someone doing the “wave” in an empty stadium (Hirsch); and a series of abject self-portraits rendered in wax (Fortier). By engaging in seemingly anachronistic investigations, these artists offer fresh contemporary perspectives on the significance of image production, perception and reception. Curated by Christof Migone.

Image by Arnold Koroshegyi, Rupture 1, 2008

3359 Mississauga Road N, (Offices CCT Building 3021), Mississauga

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APR 18 - MAY 30

RAFAEL GOLDCHAIN

O BORN CONTEMPORARY

At first glance, Rafael Goldchain’s photographs appear to be traditional family portraits from the early 20th century. However after closer inspection, we discover that our expectations have been surreptitiously subverted. The products of considerable research and conceptual rigour, Goldchain’s photographs are self-portraits: detailed reenactments of his familial and cultural history. They begin to take form as the artist poses for the camera in full costume and makeup. Using digital technology, he seamlessly manipulates DNA and history to present us with a gallery of rogues, beauties, geeks and philosophers. Looking at his avatars and digital revenants, we barely recognize the slightest trace of the self he has chosen to portray.

Connecting fragments of information gathered about the lives of his Eastern European Jewish grandparents and their families, while acknowledging the impossibility of reconciliation, I Am My Family reflects a way of both mourning and remembering. In a further act of transformation, as if to fill a great void of information, Goldchain has created additional members of a chosen family who are completely fabricated. Prompted by the artifice used in his invocation of bloodlines, we are left to ponder our collective history of fragments. Curated by P. Elaine Sharpe.

710 Yonge Street, Upstairs

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APR 29 - MAY 31

DONALD WEBER: THE DRUNKEN BRIDE, RUSSIA UNVEILED

PIKTO

The Drunken Bride, Russia Unveiled, a series of photographs captured during the last three years by Donald Weber, reveals the enduring tragedy that has resulted from Stalinist-era corrective labour camps known as Gulag. At the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917, approximately 16 thousand people lived in Czarist prisons. Two years later, an estimated 70 thousand men, women and children had been sentenced to live in the labour camps under the Bolsheviks. While estimates vary, it is said that as many as 40 million people were absorbed into the Gulag system before it was abolished in 1960. Today, many Gulag survivors and their descendants still maintain a bleak existence in remote wastelands.

Weber documents the complex aftermath of the Gulag: the beautiful forested sites where prisoners were shot and disposed of; the forgotten, aging survivors who continue a daily struggle for survival; the network of prisoners, known as Zeks, that flaunt elaborate tattoos whose symbology dates back to the early 19th century.

Originally from Toronto, Donald Weber is an award-winning photographer currently dividing his time between Moscow and Kiev. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007 and a World Press Award, he is represented by VII Network. Curated by Johan H. Campbell.

55 Mill St Building 59 -103

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APR 30 - MAY 26

ANDREW WRIGHT: STILL WATER

PEAK GALLERY

Multimedia and photographic artist Andrew Wright creates a particular kind of imagery that both identifies and challenges conventional uses and understandings of photographic practice. In Still Water, his new photo-sculptural series, he continues his interest in probing the way in which imaging technologies mediate meaning. Wright has explored antique optical devices, such as the camera obscura, as well as contemporary electronic strategies to question conventional approaches to image making and interpretation. Wright’s subjects vary, but they often take on traditional tropes (landscape, portraiture, the natural world, the cinema) to create perceptual bridges that examine the very conditions of image production. The artist sees the seemingly inevitable demise of traditional photographic techniques as problematic, and the beginning of a void. Therefore, photographic “blackness” has become increasingly important in his investigations.

Using images of an endless waterfall at night, Wright’s new work posits an experience of the photographic that sits mid-way between picture plane and object in the round. The photographs are simultaneously recognizable representations that make use of perspectival space, and two-dimensional images of pattern and hue that occupy the real space of the viewer. They become forms of the here and now while referring to an uncertain elsewhere.

23 Morrow Ave

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 20

SUSAN DOBSON: RETAIL

THE DEPARTMENT

Susan Dobson’s recent body of work, Retail (2008) continues her exploration of architecture and land use in the suburban landscape. In this work, she examines the makeshift nature of retail architecture and consumer culture’s dependence on the automobile. The series of large, colour inkjet prints depict franchise retail outlets set against optimistic blue skies and vast, deserted parking lots. The structures are digitally masked with an asphalt colour. The resulting large gray boxes highlight the unimaginative and provisional designs of big retail stores, while the empty lots, stripped of cars (and hence of purpose), are transformed into urban wastelands. Dobson’s images foreshadow the future of temporary architecture and of rampant consumerism during a time of economic uncertainty and growing environmental awareness. Seen within this context, writes Robin Metcalfe, “Dobson’s ghostly big-box stores glisten like a digital mirage, prescient images of a doomed landscape.” The photographs describe the future perfect – that which will have been – an ominous future, cast back in time.

1389 Dundas St W

SARA ANGELUCCI: REGULAR 8 - FEATURE EXHIBITION OPENING - MAY 9 - CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

MAY 9 - 30

SARA ANGELUCCI: REGULAR 8

WYNICK/TUCK GALLERY - NORTH GALLERY SPACE

OPENING MAY 9, 2 - 5PM

Sara Angelucci’s Regular 8 returns film to its origin in the still image, while focusing on 1950s-era nuclear families. A period characterized by growing consumption, the 50's also witnessed the spread of eight-millimeter home movies. Playing on the idiosyncratic interference caused by Kodak’s punch-hole tagging system – a series of numbers appearing across the end frames of each film – Angelucci makes poignant reference to the last moments of such movies. Preserved, yet already in the process of dissolution, these images describe moments of in-between. Evoking film theorist Andre Bazin’s characterizations of photography and film, these photographic moments are suspended like “insects in amber” while shifting perpetually between frames as “change mummified.”

Referencing scenes from found and borrowed films, Angelucci’s staged photographs portray celebrations and outings – where family and friends are often recast in idealized, cinematic versions of themselves. Angelucci both celebrates and interrupts the formation of such identities, pointing to the tensions that may exist outside of the frame. Using the qualities of analogue photography as the basis for a hybrid digital practice, Angelucci dips into the wells of multiple processes. In their convergence, she captures the still revolutionary force of the “mirror with a memory” to fascinate, disturb and seduce. Katy McCormick

Generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council and Cabaret Vintage.

401 Richmond Street W - Ste 128

FEATURE EXHIBITION OPENINGS - MAY 8 - CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

MAY 1 - JUN 6

SANAZ MAZINANI: IRAN REVISITED

TORONTO IMAGE WORKS GALLERY

OPENING MAY 8, 6 - 8PM

Sanaz Mazinani’s colour diptychs and marquee photographs explore the physical landscape and human faces of contemporary Iran, her country of origin. Each image contains its own narrative qualities and together they create a complex portrait of the country. The recent history of Iran familiar to most outsiders begins with the Islamic Revolution, followed by the resulting social restrictions successive leaders have imposed on the country. This aspect of history is incomplete and offers only a narrow view of Iranian culture.

2009 marks the 30-year anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Today more than half of Iran’s population is under the age of 25, and many among this new generation of Iranians are pushing against boundaries. Some fight against the clergy to hold on to their more liberal family traditions, while others fight against Western popular culture as they struggle to find their own identities. The photographs in this series give us a privileged glimpse of the everyday life in modern Iran. From painted portraits of young martyrs slowly peeling from the exterior walls of mosques, to a still life of the architectural remnants of the Persian Empire, these photographs depict the different ideologies that overlap in Iran’s contemporary landscape. Curated by Bonnie Rubenstein.

80 Spadina Ave, Ste 207

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

MAGNUM PHOTOS: STATES OF CONFLICT

BRUNO BARBEY, THOMAS DWORZAK, STUART FRANKLIN, MAGNUM IN MOTION, SUSAN MEISELAS, LARRY TOWELL

CONTACT GALLERY

OPENING MAY 8, 7 - 10PM

Magnum Photos: States of Conflict examines some of the watershed moments of civic transformation over the last 40 years. Since 1948, Magnum photographers have been depicting conflict around the world, and the collective’s force reflects photography’s enduring power as a tool for change. The images in this exhibition reveal the intrepid persistence and unique personal vision of their makers.

Bruno Barbey, a Frenchman born in Morocco, captured the turbulence of the May 1968 student protests and general strikes in Paris that led to the collapse of French president Charles de Gaulle’s government. Barbey photographed the riots, occupations and street battles to communicate the urgency of this seminal point in time.

In 1979, American photographer Susan Meiselas documented the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. Twenty-five years later, she returned to the region with murals of images she made during the insurrection and installed them in the public spaces where the photographs were originally taken. Meiselas’ photographs capture the sites of collective remembrance she created in her project Reframing History.

Twenty years after Beijing's Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, Englishman Stuart Franklin’s iconic images are symbols of defiance and aggression. Franklin’s celebrated photograph of the infamous man standing before advancing tanks is among the world’s most recognizable photographs. His images encapsulate the magnitude of an insurrection that shocked the world.

Canada’s Larry Towell shows black-and-white photographs that depict anger and fear, aggression and assault. Reminiscent of his images of conflict in the West Bank, these images were captured while dodging hurtling rocks and flying tear gas canisters. Perhaps surprisingly, they portray the police and RCMP riot police confronting demonstrators opposed to the expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement in Quebec City, 2001.

Originally from Germany, Thomas Dworzak has documented the conflict in Chechnya, the crisis in Kosovo, the war in Macedonia and the revolutions in the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, among many other tragic events. Unified by Dworzak’s finely tuned sense of colour, his photographs captured around the world possess an overwhelming ability to illuminate humanity in states of conflict.

As an extension of the focus on conflict through still images, a series of short documentary films by Magnum in Motion – from photographers' behind-the- scenes, first-hand accounts to thematic essays – further convey the global experiences of the agency’s members. Reflecting complex histories, all of the images in this exhibition inform the way we see our evolving world.

Thomas Dworzak's work is presented in association with the Goethe-Institut Toronto.

Image by Stuart Franklin, China, 1989

80 Spadina Ave

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 8 - JUN 13

IN MAY (AFTER OCTOBER)

ANDREAS BUNTE (GERMANY), DUNCAN CAMPBELL (IRELAND/SCOTLAND), THEA DJORDJADZE (GEORGIA/GERMANY), MATIAS FALDBAKKEN (NORWAY), CLAIRE FONTAINE (FRANCE), LUCA FREI (SWITZERLAND/SWEDEN), CYPRIEN GAILLARD (FRANCE), LUIS JACOB (PERU/CANADA), PIA RONICKE (DENMARK), NORA SCHULTZ (GERMANY)

GALLERY TPW

OPENING MAY 8, 7 - 9PM

In May (After October) takes its title from two revolutionary moments in Western history: Russia’s October Revolution of 1917 and the French student protests of May 1968. It also makes reference to the social and political change that many people hope will be a result of the election of Barack Obama in the US. This widespread call for ongoing change provides a platform for us to consider the political efficacy of aesthetic practice. In particular, this exhibition focuses on photographic images, videos and films that share in common an interest in the articulation of a productive refusal. From virtual abstraction to appropriated archival images and experiments with narrative structure, this international group of artists moves beyond the creation of easily consumed or didactic artworks. Together their works raise questions, asking how we can find new ways to say “no” and formulate suggestions for political and aesthetic alternatives. Organized by Kathrin Meyer and Tim Saltarelli.

Image by Andreas Bunte, Still from O.T. (Wohung), 2006

56 Ossington Ave

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 9 - JUN 6

JONATHAN TAGGART: SALT AND EARTH

RYERSON GALLERY

OPENING MAY 8, 6 - 9PM

Jonathan Taggart’s Salt and Earth (2008) offers an impressionistic portrait of Whole Village, a contemporary farming cooperative whose biodynamic practices offer an alternative to dominant agribusiness models. Revolutionary in their “off the grid” objectives, communal farms such as Whole Village rely on the pooling of member resources to achieve selfsufficiency. In a late-capitalist society, the collective’s lifestyle is exceptional in its means, aims and commitment to sustainability.

Shot from the hip and presented in rich black-and-white tones, this series depicts a community’s embrace of ancient farming practices, extraordinary in today’s short-term gain/hightech culture. Slow, hand-wrought and labor intensive, here everything old is new, echoed even in use of analogue photography. Sensual, close in, bathed at times in sparkling luminosity, at times in inky shadow, these scenes move us along with the cycle of the seasons. Simple acts and subtle tensions play out through the everyday lives of the community. Family-like, yet not just one family, the collective comes together and moves apart. In Salt and Earth, the members of the collective stand before us, quiet revolutionaries in the face of environmental peril, suggesting what may be a way forward. Katy McCormick

80 Spadina Ave., Ste 305

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 8 - JUN 27

CLOSE DISTANCE: BECKY COMBER, DARREN HARVEY-REGAN, VIRGINIA MAK, ANDREA MIHAI, DARREN RIGO, CAROLINA SAQUEL

HARBOURFRONT CENTRE, MAIN GALLERY, YORK QUAY CENTRE

OPENING MAY 8, 6 - 10PM

Close Distance presents a contemporary photographic view on the human-altered landscape, bringing together a range of carefully constructed landscapes by local and international artists. While we have become familiar with images that capture our destruction of nature, the images in Close Distance foster a quiet revolution in our awareness. The artists’ camera-constructed landscapes prompt understanding of the power of the photographic still through use of such strategies as performance, compressed space, selective focus and abstraction. Curated by Lena Oehmsen.

Image by Darren Rigo, Displacement #17, 2009.

235 Queens Quay W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 8 - JUN 27

APRIL HICKOX: GATHER

HARBOURFRONT CENTRE - SERVICE CANADA WINDOW - YORK QUAY CENTRE

OPENING MAY 8, 6 - 10PM

Gather is a scanned archive of clusters of decaying balloons found on the beaches of Toronto Island. Markers of a symbolic life passage, balloons live on in April Hickox’s work as the forgotten detritus of social occasions reborn in the digital world.

235 Queens Quay W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 8 - JUN 27

JENNIFER LONG: SWALLOWING ICE

HARBOURFRONT CENTRE, PHOTO GALLERY, YORK QUAY CENTRE

OPENING MAY 8, 6 - 10PM

Swallowing Ice is a series of short videos and photographs that examines women’s anxieties surrounding the decision to have children. Reviving the form of the silhouette to depict motherhood and its contradictions, Jennifer Long makes powerful use of the format’s ability to reveal the universal in the individual.

235 Queens Quay W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 8 - JUN 27

PETER SIBBALD: ELEGY FOR A STOLEN LAND

HARBOURFRONT CENTRE, ARCHITECTURE SPACE, YORK QUAY CENTRE

OPENING MAY 8, 6 - 10PM

From his ancestral home in Southern Ontario, Peter Sibbald presents landscape as a nexus of human will and nature. Elegy for a Stolen Land depicts a place where politics, spirituality, environmental science, commerce, social justice and philosophy collide.

235 Queens Quay W