Author: artoronto

 Ah Xian, China, China-Bust 18, 1999. NGC Collection. Photo © NGC. © Ah Xian. 

November 18 – December 31, 2011
Opening: Friday, November 18, 8-11pm
 MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN ART
Project Space
925 Queen Street West,
Toronto,ON M6J 1G8
T: 416-395-0067
www.mocca.ca
Hours: Tues – Sun 11-6

Arnaqurk Ashevak, Ed Pien, Marion Tuu’luq, Ah Xian

Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art and the National Gallery of Canada

Chinese artist Ah Xian’s evocative China,China-Busts are part of this selection of sculptures, drawings and textiles from the National Gallery of Canada’s permanent collection that explores the symbiosis between humanity and nature through realms of mythology, cultural history and oral traditions.

November 10 – December 18, 2011
Opening : Thursday, November 10, 6 – 8 pm
Artist talk: Sunday, December 4, 2pm
JULIE M. GALLERY
15 Mill Street
Building 37, Suite 103
Toronto ON M5A 3R6
T: 416 603 2626
F: 416 603 2620
E: info@juliemgallery.com
www.juliemgallery.com

Ilya Gefter is a skilled representational artist whose oil paintings convey poignant and deeply personal experiences of place.  In each image, Gefter negotiates a delicate balance between intuition and calculating observation.  He decribes his paintings as, “born somewhere between the Experience and the Ideal.”

Spaces & Figures is a collection of exceptional paintings that transcribe the present through the lens of the past.  Contemporary landscapes complement a suite of interior scenes, nudes and self portraits, evoking the emotion and technical acuity of the European Masters.  Gefter’s virtuosity recently earned a glowing review from Globe & Mail art critic R M Vaughan: 
http://juliemgallery.wordpress.com/2011/07/31/748/

Additional insight into the works of this rising artist can be found in the catalogue accompanying this solo show.  Read about Ilya Gefter’s paintings in his own words: the catalogue features a Q & A with Gefter in conversation with critic Leia Gore

November 12 – December 4, 2011
Opening: Saturday, November 12, 2-5 pm
Q&A: Sunday, December 4, 1 pm
Loop Gallery
1273 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON, M6J 1X8
T: 416.516.2581
E-mail:loopgallery.patricia@gmail.com
http://loopgallery.blogspot.com
www.loopgallery.ca
Hours: Wed-Sat 12-5pm, Sun 1-4pm

In Shelf Life Jane LowBeer’s creative work continues to be inspired by the household objects that surround her every day. LowBeer uses handmade boxes that are also shelves, with cranks and painted paper scrolls; a kind of medieval TV. As the viewer turns the crank (hence the name ”crankees”), hand-printed images of jars, tubes and tape, string and thing a-ma-jigs roll.
Jane LowBeer started her artistic career as a printmaker studying at Atelier 17 in Paris. As artistic director of the multi-media theatre company, The Crankee Consort, she designed and constructed puppets and sets for almost twenty years. During her career she has exhibited in New York, Montreal and in Europe. Her works have granted her prizes, are included in private and public collections, and can be viewed at Loop Gallery, Open Studio and the Nikola Rukai Gallery.

November 12 – December 4, 2011
Opening: Saturday, November 12, 2-5 pm
Q&A: Sunday, December 4, 1 pm
Loop Gallery
1273 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON, M6J 1X8
T: 416.516.2581
E-mail:loopgallery.patricia@gmail.com
http://loopgallery.blogspot.com
www.loopgallery.ca
Hours: Wed-Sat 12-5pm, Sun 1-4pm

The Honourable Blood of Mr. E. Pussy is the latest installment in Mark Adair’s ongoing series of over seventy tiny charcoal drawings entitled Death Drinks. In these new drawings we see a marriage fall apart and our hero Death fails as a family man. Nonetheless, there is a happy ending of sorts in this near-to-last chapter of the saga about which Peter Goddard of The Star writes ‘Adair’s genius is to frame Death’s progress as if it were a TV sitcom…”.

Mark Adair is a Toronto artist who does both charcoal works on paper and makes sculpture. His work was recently featured in the Spring 2010 Vie des Arts (English) and was the subject of Patrick Jenkins’ 2007 documentary Death is in Trouble Now. Adair is a graduate of York University, Toronto (BFA 1979) and the University of Victoria (MFA 1982). He is a founding member of The Torontoniensis Collective with whom he exhibited for over a decade.

Adán Calderòn, Esto me pone nervioso…, 1973. Acrylic on Canvas. Detail. Courtesy the F.E.K. Archives, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

November 11 – December 10, 2011
Opening: Friday, November 11, 7 pm
Artist’s talk: Wednesday, November 16, 7 pm
Mercer Union,
A Centre for Contemporary Art
1286 Bloor Street West
Toronto ON, M6H 1N9
T: 416.536.1519
E-mail: sarah@mercerunion.org
www.mercerunion.org
Hours: Tues-Sat 11-6

Alex Wolfson: The F.E.K. Archives: This is making me nervous….

Fernanda Eva Karon (1885-1938?) was an Argentinian philosopher and writer. A friend and contemporary of Heidegger and Arendt, Karon’s work concentrated primarily on phenomenological questioning. Her doctoral thesis, awarded by the Sorbonne, was on the “terror of history”, specifically addressing Schelling’s The Ages of Man, and Hegel’s Philosophy of History. Karon’s long- term collaborator (and lover) was the celebrated Portuguese artist Felipe Calderòn (1895-1982), famed now predominantly for his abstract expressionist phase, but during his lifetime more widely known for his collaborations with other artists, writers, and intellectuals, most frequently F.E. Karon.

In 1927, Karon was appointed the chair of philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires. As the years went by and Karon’s prestige grew, she began to experience an internal crisis. She grew progressively disassociated from herself and her surroundings. By the mid 1930’s her friends and colleagues were seriously concerned for Karon’s state of mind.

In the winter of 1937, Karon decided to spend the winter alone in an isolated cabin in the mountains to complete a mysterious work that even those closest to her knew very little about. When winter was over, and the path to the cabin had thawed, Calderòn went to the cabin. Karon was gone, along with her mysterious, unknown text. All that remained was a note that read: “I am going to the trees to be like Clorinda and rest among the leaves. Look for me there, sprouted anew.” Calderòn claimed he saw in the woods surrounding the cabin a new tree, it’s leaves turned towards the heavens.

Deep in grief, Calderòn spent years deciding on an appropriate memorial to his collaborator and lover. In 1973, he opened in Buenos Aires the F.E.K. Archives, dedicated to the life and works of Fernanda Eva Karon. Not a traditional archive, Calderòn created each room as a site-specific installation, that would compliment and interact with the content that was exhibited within it.

In 2002, in response to the Argentinian financial crises and waning interest in Karon and Calderòn, the F.E.K Archives was closed down by its custodians. A room from the archive dedicated to the last years of Karon’s life will be recreated and exhibited by Alex Wolfson at Mercer Union. 

November 11 – December 10, 2011
Opening: Friday, November 11, 7 pm
Artist’s talk: Saturday,November 12, 2 pm
Mercer Union,
A Centre for Contemporary Art
1286 Bloor Street West
Toronto ON, M6H 1N9
T: 416.536.1519
E-mail: sarah@mercerunion.org
www.mercerunion.org
Hours: Tues-Sat 11-6

The Call Is Coming from Inside the House is comprised of a series of text-based sign paintings (50 in total), to be presented within a functional workspace as thinkspace or constructed installation.

This installation includes an elaborate workstation, unfinished works, the attendant runoff of this work, alongside a 70s faux baroque sofa covered in vintage bed sheets. The signs are casually mounted on the wall as though they were ideas still in the process of being organized. The signs convey various themes and ideas pertaining to philosophy or art criticism, all veering towards occasionally extreme positions in one form or another. The accumulation and juxtaposition of these ideas gradually come across as more unhinged and hopeless when taken in context with one another. When taken cumulatively and in sequence, these signs can be read as a disjointed painted archive featuring original writing, found language, quotes and misquotes. Certain references will be apparent to certain readers as direct quotes or detourned slightly towards new meanings, while much of the original text and blatant misquotes are presented through contemporary colloquial diction popularized by teenaged girls. The end result is the conflation of informal and colloquial voices mixed with material culled from monumental thinkers of highly determined thoughts including Engels, Nietzsche, Breton and Debord with highlights from Kant and Adorno. These signs project something that is highly dissimilar to the more familiar, professional and fit for the public voice that is usually presented around artwork or criticism.

Originally from Vancouver, Tricia Middleton lives and works in Montreal. Tricia Middleton is the 2010 winner of the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award in the visual arts category.