Sorry
Poetic apologies for almost everything now on digital screens across Canada

Boston-based Gary Duehr's darkly humorous series of collaged poems and images are now appearing on multiple Pattison Onestop digital networks across Canada until February 28, 2014.

The artist surveyed the cultural landscape to identify current obsessions then transformed these into apologies as a way of exorcising the trend to apologize for behaviour without making meaningful changes. Filled with comic remorse, these poetic apologies reveal anti-heroes who try to come clean for almost everything including modern art, the millennium, nostalgia, Las Vegas, happiness, politics, and even sleeping.

"I'm happy, as an American, to apologize in advance for everything I possibly can. And I'm excited about reaching my broadest audience yet!" - Gary Duehr.

Pattison's Art in Transit programme is expanding its reach throughout 2014. Twenty images from of Duehr's Sorry series are being exhibited on multiple Pattison Onestop networks including the Toronto TTC subway screens, the new Edmonton Digital Transit Network in 10 key LRT stations, the Digital Office Network in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, and Halifax, as well as the Digital Mall Network in English-language shopping centres, reaching over three million daily commuters, shoppers and city-dwellers across the country.

Sorry was curated by Sharon Switzer, National Arts Programmer and Curator for Pattison Onestop.

Gary Duehr has published seven books of poetry, five chapbooks and was the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Fellowship in 2001. His work has been featured in museums and galleries including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Exit Art, Umbrella Arts, and New York Arts, New York, NY; Gallery Tsubaki, Tokyo, Japan; SKC Gallery, Belgrade, Yugoslavia; and Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba. Past awards include grants from the LEF Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Duehr's public artworks include a photo installation funded by the Visible Republic program of New England Foundation for the Arts, and a commission from the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority for a permanent photo installation at North Station. Gary Duehr lives in Boston, MA and currently manages the Bromfield Gallery in Boston's South End. www.garyduehr.com

For more information contact:
Marie Nazar, Arts Publicist, Pattison Onestop – 416 -762-7702 or mnazar@idirect.ca

Bezpala Brown Gallery
presents

Eclectic Maze of Love: Paintings by Roman Zuzuk

February 1st- March 5th

Opening on Saturday, February 8, 12 - 3 pm

Where: Bezpala Brown Gallery, 17 Church Street (@Front) Toronto, ON

Contact: (416)-907-6875

info@bezpalabrown.com

Join us at Bezpala Brown Gallery for the Exhibition Opening showcasing new works by Roman Zuzuk. – In Zuzuk's paintings, people laugh, drink, argue, play music and love. His art brings together the everyday and the extraordinary, rural and urban, past and present, reality and fantasy. Zuzuk's art is the vibrant sense of real life. With a wry, yet sympathetic humour, the artist celebrates our paradoxical life and love, and in the same time satirizes the folly inherent to human nature. Through his mirroring of human and bestial forms Zuzuk satirizes human pretensions to refinement and draws attention to the topsy-turvy nature of destiny. His paintings tell modern fables which are not didactic, but rather open to individual interpretation. This exhibition focuses on love relationships.

Trinity Square Video in partnership with The 35th Rhubarb Festival and the Pleasure Dome and in association with AGYU and Vtape proudly present internationally celebrated visual artist Heather Cassils in Cassils: Compositions. This exhibition marks the first solo exhibition in Canada of the Canadian artist who is now based out of Los Angeles. This will also be Cassils first solo exhibition since the landmark "Body of Work" presented at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in New York last fall, which was featured in the "Best of 2013" issue of Artforum. Please join us for this long overdue introduction to one of the leading voices in body art and queer identity, opening February 15th at 4-6pm at Trinity Square Video in Toronto and running until March 15th, 2014.

About the exhibition:

Cassils: Compositions is an exhibition of recent work by Heather Cassils that redefines the limits of the body. The centrepiece of Compositions will be an installation of time-based works—triggered in sequence—that choreograph the viewing experience. The installation manipulates the physical conditions of image, space, sound and spectacle to compose fluid conceptions of identity formation that revolt against stability and specificity. Drawing on conceptualism, feminism, body art, gay male aesthetics, and Hollywood cinema, Cassils creates a visual language that is at once emotionally striking and conceptually incisive. In this cohesive body of work, a fierce passion is performed through meticulous precision and principled determination.

About the Artist:

Heather Cassils is an artist who uses the physical body as sculptural mass with which to rupture societal norms. Implementing a rigorous physical training practice and queering knowledge of kinesiology and sports science, Cassils formally manipulates the body into a shape that defies gendered expectations.

Bashing through the binaries and the notion that in order to be officially transgendered you have to have surgery or take hormones, Cassils performs trans not as something about a crossing from one sex to another, but rather as a continual becoming, a process oriented way of being that works in a space of indeterminacy, spasm and slipperiness. Forging a series of powerfully trained bodies for different performative and formal purposes, it is with sweat, blood and sinew that Cassils constructs a visual critique and discourse around physical and gender ideologies and histories.

For more information, please contact:

John G. Hampton
Programming Director
Phone: 416-593-1332
Email: programming@trinitysquarevideo.com
web: trinitysquarevideo.com/exhibitions/cassils-compositions/

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Cassils: Compositions

Saturday, February 15 — Saturday, March 15
@ Trinity Square Video Gallery, 401 Richmond Street West #376
Opening Saturday, February 15, 4 - 6 PM
A co-presentation with The 35th Rhubarb Festival and Pleasure Dome in association with The Art Gallery of York University and Vtape
Curated by John G. Hampton

Promo image modified from: Heather Cassils – Homage to Benglis. Photo By Heather Cassils with Robin Black 2011.
The artist would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts for their support.

Related Programing:
The 35th Rhubarb Festival presents Becoming an Image, a Cassils' performance, Wednesday, February 12, 9:30 PM $10
+
An Artist Talk with Cassils, February 13, 6:30 PM Free
Both at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander Street.

JOE MCKAY
Light Wave

February 6 – March 29, 2014
Opening reception: Thursday, February 6, 6-9 PM
Artist present

Light Wave, installation view at MoMA Studio, The Museum of Modern Art (New York), 2013, Lamps, Pedestals, Foam Hammers, Arduino, Dimension: variable

Pari Nadimi Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of Light Wave, a large installation work, by New York-based Canadian interdisciplinary artist Joe McKay. This installation was exhibited in Sound in Space at MoMA Studio, MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA) from October 3 to November 24, 2013. During this time, Two Mice was exhibited in Signals Now at Rochester Contemporary Art Center (Rochester, New York, USA). McKay's collaborative work Tablet Tumbler, a project with Kristin Lucas, will be exhibited at EYEBEAM Art Center (New York, USA) from January 16 to February 1, 2014.

Light Wave is a two player video game, played on 24 old floor lamps instead of a screen. At either end of the long serpentine row of lamps sits a pedestal with a force sensor embedded in the top. Hitting the pedestal sends a signal through the lamps, turning them on and off in sequence. The harder the hit the faster the signal. If the second player times their hit precisely they can return the signal back through the lamps. The rally continues until someone miss-times the hit and the game resets. Light Wave works on many levels. It is a game - easy to play yet fun and addictive. It is also an aesthetically pleasing installation. It asks us to think about old and new technologies. The installation presents us with a collection of random lamps, each one unique, yet the game asks us to think of each lamp as a pixel, and see the blinking lights as an animation. The title itself invokes the dualistic nature of light, which is famously both a particle and a wave.

Presenting games in a gallery is a challenge to some art viewers, and a relief to others. Games tease our preconceptions of the way we are supposed to behave while viewing art, and asks us to have an experience that is not purely passive. Light Wave is a two person game, yet the participants are 40 feet apart - encouraging viewers to play with people they have never met, having conversations through the language of blinking lights and foam hammers.

Also Included in the exhibition is Two Mice, a video game that requires custom hardware... a second mouse. This abstract game requires the player to use both hands to navigate their avatar around the screen. We are so accustomed to the feel of the mouse, yet holding a second mouse seems somehow wrong. By interrupting our expectations, the game challenges the viewer to contemplate the ways in which we take computer interaction for granted.

Joe McKay received his MFA from UC Berkeley (2007), participated in Whitney Independent Study (2000-2001) and received his BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (1993). His Light Wave installation was exhibited at MoMA Studio, MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA) from October 3 to November 24, 2013, at Long Island University, Humanities Gallery (New York, USA) from January 27 to February 28, 2013 and Bennington College, Usdan Gallery (USA) from April 9 to May 8, 2013. During this time, Two Mice was exhibited in Signals Now at Rochester Contemporary Art Center (Rochester, New York, USA). McKay's work was featured in solo exhibitions BigTime, Berkeley Art Museum (2010), Loss of Signal, VertexList (Brooklyn, New York) (2007 & 2004), The Electric Donut (with Kristin Lucas), New Museum of Contemporary Art, Media Z Lounge, New York (2001). His work also featured in a number of group exhibitions including the future is not what it used to be, Postmasters Gallery, New York, (2009), Aesthetics of Gaming, PACE University, New York (2009), Schematic: New Media Art from Canada, Space, London, England (2008), RESET/PLAY, Arthouse, Austin Texas (2008), TRY AGAIN, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain (2008), Off the Grid, Neuberger Museum of Art Deadpan III, The Lab, performance, San Francisco, USA (2008). McKay's exhibitions have been reviewed by Chris Ashley ("introducing...", NYFA Interactive (nyfa.org) 2006) and Holland Cotter ("Sampling Brooklyn, Keeper of Eclectic Flames", New York Times, Jan 23, 2004, "Goings on About Town", New Yorker, July 7th 2003).

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To receive a free video game download by Joe McKay, email us at info@parinadimigallery.com with subject: "free video game". Or come to the opening to play the game and get one for free.

PROJECT SPACE

Rachel de Joode, The Imaginary Order, unique print, 2012

Pics or it didn't happen

Rachel de Joode, Felix Kalmenson, Adriana Ramic, David Hanes, Elliot Vredenburg, and Elle Kurancid

Curated by Sarah Friend

In the Project Space, Pari Nadimi Gallery is pleased to present Pics or it didn't happen, a group exhibition including works by Rachel de Joode (Berlin), Felix Kalmenson (Toronto), Adriana Ramic (Los Angeles), David Hanes (Baltimore), Elliot Vredenburg (Los Angeles), and Elle Kurancid (Toronto). This show is curated by Toronto-based writer, maker, and activist Sarah Friend

The phrase Pics or it didn't happen began in web forums as a response to an outlandish or dubious claim like, "Duuuude. Last night I met Miley Cyrus and she twerked on me." Response: "Pics or it didn't happen." Such an exchange is a reminder that our culture equates photos with proof (a flawed proposition).

This is an exhibition of art documentation photos—the digital traces that remain after an exhibition, the self-made archive—presented in place of art itself. But in Pics or it didn't happen, the art "documented" does not exist. Various artists explore this conundrum and its ramifications, both in and outside of this exhibition, and the art world.

Rachel de Joode has a solo exhibition opening at Neumeister Bar-Am (Berlin) in February, and another at SWG3 (Glasgow) in June. She is the founder and art-director of Meta Magazine. Felix Kalmenson completed the residency at ZK/U Center for Art and Urbanistics (Berlin) in fall 2013. His solo exhibition HLS-F71, opened in January at The New Gallery (Calgary). Adriana Ramicreceived her BFA from the University of California (San Diego) in 2011. Her recent projects include Craigslist-Assisted Readymade at Stadium (New York) and Architects of Gamma Bad at Sunhoo Industrial Design Park (Fuyang, China). David Hanes received his BFA from the Ontario College of Art and Design University (Toronto) in 2013. His solo exhibition David Hanes: Aware, opens in April at Birch Contemporary (Toronto). Elliot Vredenburg is currently an MA candidate at the California Institute of the Arts (Los Angeles). He is a member of the Toronto collective Workparty, whose project The Little People was installed at Toronto City Hall for Nuit Blanche in fall 2013. Elle Kurancid exhibited in Reputations, a two-person show at Pari Nadimi Gallery in fall 2013. She will start an MA at Goldsmiths (London) in September. Sarah Friend organizes an interdisciplinary lecture series called Small Talk (Toronto, 2012-3). Her research interests include modernism, utopian politics/aesthetics, and human-computer interaction.

PARI NADIMI GALLERY
254 Niagara St. Toronto,
ON, Canada, M6J 2L8
+1(416)591-6464
info@parinadimigallery.com
www.parinadimigallery.com
Hours:
Wednesday-Saturday 12 noon-5pm­­­­­­­
or by appointment­­­­­­­

Image credit: Sylvia Safdie, Lehav, 1993. Courtesy the artist.

SYLVIA SAFDIE PREMIERES NEW VIDEO INSTALLATIONS AT PREFIX

(Toronto) – Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to present The Absent Present, a solo exhibition by esteemed artist Sylvia Safdie, curated by Scott McLeod. Well known for her paintings, drawings and, particularly, sculptural installation, she has devoted the past decade to video installation. Presenting the world premiere of three recent video works as well as an earlier light sculpture, this exhibition meditates on the convergence of place, time and memory.

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, February 6 from 7 to 10 PM at Prefix, located at 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 124, Toronto. The artist and curator will be present. During the reception, an artist/curator walk-through will be held at 7:30 PM. The gallery is open from Wednesday to Saturday, 12 to 5 PM, and admission is free. The exhibition continues until March 29, 2014.

The themes of temporality and transformation run deeply throughout the artist's oeuvre, though perhaps never so deeply as in her recent video installations. Similar to her previous artworks, the videos are a canvas in motion on which ideas around space and time, stasis and movement, and embodiment and nature are explored.

The Absent Present features three related video works: Pond/Auschwitz (2011), Reflection/Auschwitz (2011) and Web/Auschwitz (2011-13). Shot during the artist's first visit to the site of the eponymous concentration camp, the works focus on natural phenomena found in the camp's surroundings. As a result of uncharacteristically heavy rainfalls at that time, much of the site was flooded. This seeming liability ultimately inspired the artist to work with the water, utilizing its surface, raindrops and reflections to speak of the "absent present."

Pond captures the effect of rain on the ashen surface of a small body of water. Reflection depicts what appears to be a window of light on the surface of a murky puddle, the dark liquid in continuous motion, stirring with the hint of a breeze. Web focuses on the subtle rise and fall of a complex network of fine threads that remains ostensibly undisturbed, unknown particles knitted into its tangled fibres.

In order to situate these video installations within the artist's lifelong artistic practice, the exhibition also features Lehav (1993), an earlier sculptural installation that employs the reflection and refraction of light.

About the Artist
Sylvia Safdie is a visual artist who works in the media of painting, drawing, sculpture, installation and video. Born in Aley, Lebanon, in 1942, she lived in Israel before moving to Canada in 1953. In 1975, she obtained a BFA from Concordia University (Montréal). Her work has been exhibited internationally, with recent solo exhibitions at the Canadian Cultural Centre (Paris), Galerie de la Porte d'Italie (Toulon, France), Lentos Kunstmuseum (Linz, Austria), Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery (Montréal), MacKenzie Art Gallery (Regina), Tom Thomson Art Gallery (Owen Sound, ON) and Wan Fung Art Gallery (Beijing), among others. Her work is included in numerous public and private collections, including the Art Gallery of Hamilton (Hamilton, ON), Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, (Halifax), Canada Council Art Bank (Ottawa), Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, and Musée des beaux-arts (Montréal), among others. Her work has been the subject of the film Earth Marks by Doina Harap and of several publications, most recently The Video Art of Sylvia Safdie by Eric Lewis. Safdie lives and works in Montréal, where she is represented by Galerie Joyce Yahouda.

About the Curator
Scott McLeod is a writer, curator and arts administrator. His work focuses on contemporary practices, with a specialization in photographic, media and digital art. Since 2000, he has been the director and curator of Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, where he also serves as the editor and publisher of Prefix Photo magazine.

About Prefix
Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art is a public art gallery and arts publishing house based in Toronto. A registered charitable organization, Prefix fosters the appreciation and understanding of contemporary photographic, media and digital arts through exhibitions, publications, public programmes and related activities.

Acknowledgements
For their support of The Absent Present, Prefix gratefully acknowledges its Official Catering Sponsor à la Carte Kitchen and its Official Hotel Sponsor the Hotel Le Germain. Prefix also acknowledges the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Toronto Arts Council.

For more information, print-ready images or to schedule an interview with the artist or curator, please contact:

Alysha Rajkumar
Operations Manager
T 416-591-0357
F 416-591-0358
E info@prefix.ca
www.prefix.ca

Join Prefix ICA on Facebook.

Top 5 Things to See at The Artist Project!

From seasoned collectors and first-time art buyers, to gallery dealers and interior designers, visitors can explore and discover works of art from over 250 top contemporary artists from Canada and abroad. This is a unique opportunity to meet and buy art directly from artists at Toronto's most celebrated contemporary art fair.

The Artist Project celebrates its 7th year with another exciting show from February 20 to 23, 2014 at the Better Living Centre, Exhibition Place, Toronto.

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW →




1. SET SAIL Artist Competition Presented By Celebrity Cruises
Think nautical: wind, water, cruising! This year, artists are challenged to create a work of art based on their interpretation of the theme SET SAIL! Vote for your favourite entry for a chance to win a cruise for two!

2. SONY 7 Studio Presented By SONY
To celebrate the 7th year of the fair, SONY invited 7 photographers to create dynamic works of art using the latest full-frame compact system camera, the SONY A7. These photographs will be displayed in an exhibition of 7 LCD panels.

3. Installation Zone
Art in public spaces has a way of altering its surrounding environment. Explore installations, large-scale sculpture, and conceptual art and discover how art expands and transforms liminal spaces throughout the show.

4. UNTAPPED Emerging Artists Competition
Discover a Rising Star! The Artist Project supports the development of young, emerging artists in a dedicated feature space. Selected from hundreds of applications, 20 of the country's best up-and-coming artists are invited to showcase their work for free.

5. Why We Ink Exhibit
Why We Ink is dedicated to celebrate those with memorial and survival tattoos for cancer. A special exhibition of photographs reveals the stories and lives of those affected.

For more show information and to buy tickets, visitTheArtistProject.com

Show Dates:
Thursday February 20, 2014 from 7-11pm Opening Night Party
Friday February 21, 2014 from 12-8pm
Saturday February 22, 2014 from 11am-8pm
Sunday February 23, 2014 from 11am-6pm

Admission:
Opening Night Party (19+ event) $25
Adult $15
Seniors / Youth $10
Free re-admission
Children under 12 free

Location:
Better Living Centre, Exhibition Place
Toronto, ON

Join us on: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | #theartistproject | TheArtistProject.com

Image credits: Top Header: Michelle Tourikian, Freestyle, 2013, Oil on wood panel, 14" x 18" Middle Images: 1. Peter Goral, Elegant Enthusiasm, 2014, Acrylic on canvas, 36" x 48"; 2. Laird Kay, Purple Orange Tower Perspective, Photograph; 3. Samar Hejazi, Autoinference, Installation; 4. David Woodward, Field Identification 4, 2013, Collage – Golden Nature Guides and Playboy magazines on paper, 7.5" x 11.5"; 5. Jesse Blacker, photo courtesy of Katherine Holland, 2013.

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Windmill, 1641
Etching on cream laid paper, 14.7 x 20.7 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Gift in memory of Margaret Wade Labarge from her collection, 2010 Photo © NGC

Storms and Bright Skies: Three Centuries of Dutch Landscapes
Organized by the National Gallery of Canada
February 13 to April 5, 2014
Opening reception | Thursday, February 13 at 7:30 P.M.

Harbinger of danger and symbol of pride, the Dutch landscape with its typical motifs, such as canals and windmills, has been a source of infinite inspiration for Dutch artists. Storms and Bright Skies: Three Centuries of Dutch Landscapes explores the emergence of this landscape tradition in the early 17th century, its blossoming during the Golden Age, and its continuation during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Some of the greatest Dutch artists, such as Jacob van Ruisdael and Rembrandt, both represented in the exhibition, brilliantly contributed to the rise of landscape as a major pictorial genre. The exhibition includes prints and drawings from the National Gallery of Canada that capture the beauty and character of the Dutch landscape over three centuries, while demonstrating its significance to the region's economic, military and scientific development.

Join Mr. Richard Dirk ter Vrugt, Netherlands Council and Her Worship Joanne Vanderheyden, Mayor of the Municipality of Strathroy-Caradoc, and Member, Western University Board of Governors, for the opening reception Thursday, February 13 at 7:30 P.M.

Complementary Programs

McIntosh Gallery Distinguished Lecture 2014
In recognition of the Ontario Arts Council's 50th anniversary, join Western Visual Arts alumna Carolyn Vesely, Director of Granting at the Ontario Arts Council, for:

Storms and Bright Skies: The Dutch Landscape Tradition
Sonia Del Re, Assistant Curator
European, American and Asian Prints and Drawings
National Gallery of Canada

Sunday, March 2, 2014 at 2 P.M.
Conron Hall, University College, Western University
Free admission

Artist-Led Exhibition Tours
Three London artists offer their personal responses to Storms and Bright Skies: Three Centuries of Dutch Landscapes.

Wyn Geleynse | Tuesday, March 11 at 12:30 P.M.
Born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Wyn Geleynse and his family emigrated to Canada in 1953, before relocating to London in 1956. With a career in film and video spanning nearly three decades, he is considered a pioneer in multimedia artistic practices in Canada.

Gerard Pas | Tuesday, March 18 at 12:30 P.M.
Born in the Netherlands, Gerard Pas has lived in Amsterdam and New York City. He is an internationally acclaimed visual artist in a variety of media including painting, sculpture, performance and video.

Rosemary Sloot | Tuesday, March 25 at 12:30 P.M.
Born to Dutch parents after their post-war emigration to southwestern Ontario, Rosemary Sloot has received degrees from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Western University, and the University of Alberta. Her third touring exhibition, IMMIGRANT, recently opened at Strand Fine Art.

For more information, contact Kay Nadalin, Communications and Outreach Coordinator, at 519-661-3181 or knadali@uwo.ca.

McIntosh Gallery
1151 Richmond Street
London, ON
N6A 3K7
mcintoshgallery.ca
@McIntoshGallery
facebook.com/McIntoshGallery

Monday to Friday 10 A.M. to 5 P.M.
Saturday 12 P.M. to 4 P.M.

Free admission

Curiouser & Curiouser

Norman Barney, Squirrel Heaven, 2013.
Mummified squirrels, gold leaf, twigs, velvet. 66cm x 77.4 cm


February 7 - May 11
Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery
Sarnia, ON

"The function of the imagination is not to make strange things settled, so much as to make settled things strange." - G.K. Chesterton

Based on the delightful and somewhat whimsical artwork of Petrolia based artist Norman Barney, Curiouser & Curiouser offers visitors a journey into the wonderfully bizarre world of the imagination.

Barney, along with other likeminded artists including Jorden and David Doody, Dagmara Genda, Karine Giboulo, Catherine Heard, James Kirkpatrick, Ron Noganosh and Chris Stones, take delight in transforming found and recycled objects, creating works that are visually engaging and entertaining while at the same time examine some of society's most complex and urgent social issues.

Curiouser & Curiouser offers an opportunity to experience art work by eight emerging artists from across Canada, all working in their own unique way with assemblage and collage. The exhibition will challenge your perceptions about what art can be and how it can function in the world.



Jorden & David Doody, The Pageantry of Power, 2010
Found objects. 96.5cm x 40.60cm x 71.1 cm

The term curiouser and curiouser was first coined by Lewis Carol in his 1865 novel, Alice In Wonderland. Today, it is commonly used to express a feeling that you are seeing or experiencing something that doesn't quite make sense, or that imparts a sense of wonder. The phrase implies being drawn further and further into some bizarre world where one is merely an observer into the odd imaginings of others.

Curiouser & Curiouser opens First Friday, February 7 at 6:00 pm.


About the artists:

Norman Barneywas born in Saginaw, Michigan to parents who were political activists. Immersed in the intellectual fervour of the civil rights movement and anti-war demonstrations, Barney absorbed distaste for the brutality of war and tyrannical government. In 1969, shortly after the election of Richard Nixon and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, he moved to Canada with his parents.

Barney's art is characterized by a delight in juxtaposing found objects, antique tourist kitsch and other found materials into unique relationships, creating art objects that instill a sense of wonder and delight in the viewer. While his assemblages are compelling, humorous and innovative, there is a serious political conviction and social conscience that underpins his work. He currently lives and works in Petrolia, Ontario.


Jorden & David Doody are a collaborative team whose artistic practice is heavily influenced by world travel and the cross pollination of mass media, ritual and fetishistic cultures. Their practice moves freely between new media, sculpture, and painting. A common thread that can be traced throughout their work is that of assemblage. By sampling freely from a multitude of different sources, they are able to access unlimited individual histories, societal contexts and cultural symbols. The Doody's live and work in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Dagmara Genda's work is informed by her self-proclaimed nomadic restlessness. Working with cliché Canadiana imagery of a tamed wilderness often represented in coffee table books, her 'drawing collages' investigate the chaos of life and how we negotiate an understanding of society, an activity that is always in flux and completely contingent on context. Genda currently lives and works in Guelph, Ontario.


Karine Giboulo is a Montreal-based multi-disciplinary artist who creates work in two- and three-dimensional form. Made up of dioramas populated by doll-like figures, many of these microcosms represent distinct nations and parts of the world including Canada, Africa, India, China and the Caribbean. Giboulo explores complex social issues such as environmentalism, urbanization, globalization in the information age, and the pursuit of consumer goods and material wealth. Giboulo currently lives and works in Montreal, Quebec.


Catherine Heard creates artworks that interrogate the histories of science, medicine and the museum. Simultaneously attractive and repulsive, her works delve into primal anxieties about the body, manifested in images of the monstrous body, the doppelganger, the abject body and the inform body.


James Kirkpatrick currently resides in London, Ontario where he is producing work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, avant-garde hip-hop and electronic music, sound sculpture, zines, comics, and mask-making. His work is often constructed from used electronics, wood, fabrics, and found materials. His paintings incorporate sculptural, kinetic, and auditory elements, as he combines his 2D aesthetic with circuit-bent electronic toys creating hand-held sculptures that function as both musical instruments and experimental sound machines.


Ron Noganosh's sculptural assemblages integrate aspects of his Ojibway heritage with contemporary civilization's garbage to create ironic comments on ecology, racism, identity and socio-economic hierarchies. His work is filled with humour and irony as he brings new meaning to discarded objects while exploring questions of culture and identity. In addition to his imaginative use of recycled garbage, Noganosh also makes sensitive use of the more natural materials he finds —feathers, wood, stone, bone, and fur. Born on the Magnetawan Reserve on Georgian Bay, Noganosh is currently living and working in Ottawa.

Chris Stones lives and works in Thunder Bay, Ontario. As a sculptor and mixed media artist with a keen interest in his natural surroundings, the lake and the region figure prominently in his work. His ability to select and see the potential of found objects to create sculptural assemblages is a defining strength of his practice. At the heart of his reclamation and employment of found materials is an examination of the tensions and issues most pressing in the contemporary lives in the Thunder Bay region.

For more information about upcoming programs and events at the gallery, visit our website www.JNAAG.ca or find us on Facebook and Twitter.





Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery
147 Lochiel Street, Sarnia ON
N7T 0B4
(519) 336-8127

For more information contact:
Lisa Daniels, Curator & Director
Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery
lisa.daniels@county-lambton.on.ca

Follow the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery on Facebook and Twitter
Follow our project blog: http://gallerylambton-onsite.blogspot.ca/

York University's Department of Dance and the MFA in Contemporary Choreography and Dance Dramaturgy present

MFA Thesis Performance
BODY OF MINDS

Feb 13-14, 2014

Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre
Accolade East Building, York University

New work by second year MFA choreographers, Valerie Calam, Patrizia Ferlisi, Marie France Forcier, Sharon Harvey, Ruth Levin, Maria Victoria Mata, and Michelle McClelland, with artistic direction by Prof. Darcey Callison, and production design and direction by Prof. William Mackwood. These seven MFA dance candidates are a diverse group of choreographic researchers interested in the complexities of embodying an idea; here exploring concepts like the immigrant experience, identity, the alienating effects of technology, female entertainers, and the creative challenges of dancing choreographic expressions of post-traumatic stress.

Memory Lane
Choreographer: Maria Victoria Mata

A series of nostalgic vignettes exploring the construction and reconstruction of memory through the migrant body. In Mata's piece, five Toronto-based, Latin American performers undertake an intimate and collective voyage of cultural memories that are archived, negotiated, and occasionally re-created in the attempt to preserve and cultivate experiences of 'home.'

Dull Roar
Choreographer: Valerie Calam

In her research, Calam has been developing a method called 'states of the body', an image-based physical exploration to generate movement vocabulary. The aim is to create a path that leads towards being present onstage where the performers are free to make decisions in the moment.

The Cyborgs' "Plight"
Choreographer: Michelle McClelland

Using movement derived from technological influences, McClelland's piece reflects upon how our fascination with technology has altered the ways in which we, as humans, interact. This piece asks us to question whether our world of constant communication is deepening our connections or if we are, in fact, lonelier than ever before.

eField
Choreography: Ruth Naomi Levin

Levin gives credence to the space around us as a catalyst for movement. A dance of polarity, reverberating impact and interpenetration, infinite directionality and singular vectors, eField invites wild, reckless negotiation of two simultaneous, autonomous charges.

GRAND ACT(s)
Choreographer: Patrizia Ferlisi

Paying homage to eccentric female performers of the vaudeville era, who challenged the norms involving gender inequality during the early 1900s, Ferlisi has created this theatrical piece, in the idiom of contemporary jazz dance, to engage audiences in more ways than one.

The Snow Globe
Choreographer: Marie France Forcier

In line with her research on the expression of post-traumatic stress in contemporary choreography, Marie France Forcier presents a study of ways in which traumatic framing can tarnish even the most exquisite of tableaux.

Solo/ Souls Deep
Choreographer: Sharon Harvey

A choreographic transformation of the Black Romantic painting Sugar Shack (1970) by artist Ernie Barnes embodies the creative movement and character development suggested by the curves, twists and turns of the bodies in the painting. The texture of the fabric and the dancers' skin is illuminated in a single light source that testifies to a deep embodiment of souls.

Admission

Regular $20 | YU Alumni $15 | Student / Senior / Arts worker $12

Box Office

Purchase tickets:

• Online: finearts.yorku.ca/perform 
• By phone: 416-736-5888
• In person at the Box Office, 103 Accolade East Building, York University

For More Information

Department of Dance dance.finearts.yorku.ca | 416-736-5137

Event contact:
Jennifer Snider
Events and Student Services Assistant
Department of Dance, Faculty of Fine Arts
York University
301A Accolade East Building - 4700 Keele Street
Toronto ON Canada M3J 1P3
Email: jsnider1@yorku.ca
Phone: 416 736 2100 ext. 22122

Media contact:
Brigitte Kleer, Public Relations
Office of the Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts
Joan & Martin Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts
York University
Email: bkleer@yorku.ca
Phone: 416-736-2100 ext. 77143

Push and Pull
Bridget Moser, Michael Vickers, Nikki Woolsey

OPENING TONIGHT at 7PM

7 February – 22 March 2014

Bridget Moser, I Want to Believe (2014), production still

Mercer Union is delighted to invite you to join us for the opening of Push and Pull with exhibiting artists Bridget Moser, Michael Vickers and Nikki Woolsey this evening from 7PM onward.

Push and Pull presents a series of new works by artists Bridget Moser, Michael Vickers and Nikki Woolsey. The exhibition title refers to a constant tension, a position between moving in one direction, and intoanother; a perpetual state of struggle.

Bridget Moser's performance and video work is suspended between internally voiced conundrums, stand-up comedy, experimental theatre, performance art, and prop comedy, with a continuous slippage from one state to another. In this in-betweenness a certain absurdity materializes, questioning a world of assumptions and belief systems.

Michael Vickers' works sit between painting and sculpture, in prioritizing their objecthood physical struggle becomes manifest, highly industrialised materials are folded, pushed and beaten into other forms acknowledging the precarity of their formation and labour.

Nikki Woolsey coalesces distinct everyday found materials into sometimes seamless yet habitually unfamiliar forms. Broken vases, glass panels, and other quotidian objects seep into abstraction, questioning how we perceive objects and place value, and disrupting existent systems of knowledge.

In their in-betweenness each of the artists explore, negotiate and re-imagine the status quo.

Curated by Georgina Jackson

EXHIBITION EVENTS
Bridget Moser Performance
Thursday 13 March, 7PM Free - All welcome

Artists' Talk with Bridget Moser, Michael Vickers and Nikki Woolsey in conversation with Georgina Jackson Saturday 15 March, 2:30PM Free - All welcome

UPCOMING EVENTS
IN STUDIO with Jean-Paul Kelly
Thursday 27 February, 7pm
Join Mercer Union for an intimate view of Kelly's studio and current practice. Refreshments will be served. Free for Sustaining Members and above; open to other members and select non-members for $25. Space is extremely limited. RSVP to York Lethbridge, Director of Operations & Development, at york@mercerunion.org or by calling 416.536.1519

SPIKED TEA: Surrealist Derby
Saturday 29 March 2014, 2PM
Mercer Union's raucous afternoon tea social returns for its third iteration with art direction by Jennifer Simaitis & Stefan Hancherow. Enjoy a proper cuppa with a contemporary art edge! Watch www.mercerunion.org for more details coming soon.

Mercer Union acknowledges the support of its staff, volunteers and members, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.

Mercer Union, a centre for contemporary art
1286 Bloor Street West
Toronto ON M6H 1N9 Canada
www.mercerunion.org
info@mercerunion.org
T 416.536.1519

Open Tuesday through Saturday, 11AM - 6PM
Admission is free – All welcome

Eleven Times Eleven
Peyakosâpwâw



Ron Noganosh, Time is of the Essence, 2014
Schoolhouse Clock, Adhesive Vinyl. 35cm x 35 cm x 2.5cm
Collection of the artist

February 7 - May 11, 2014
Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery
Sarnia, ON

Aboriginal Resident Curator Jason Baerg, conceptualizes Eleven Times Eleven / Peyakosâpwâw, which investigates Indigenous traditional knowledge, specifically seven generation sustainability. Known as The Great Law of the Iroquois, it is a principle that requires foresight, contemplation and consideration for seven generations into the future when governing decisions are made.

Well-known Aboriginal artist Ron Noganosh has been invited to produce work inspired by The Great Law of the Iroquois. Entitled Power People his work speaks to ancient traditions in Indigenous image making and storytelling as they reference early petro glyphs, while simultaneously acknowledging the future.

Ron Noganosh, Power People (detail) 2013.
Digital drawing. Dimensions variable


Eleven Times Eleven / Peyakosâpwâwhas been produced in conjunction with the Emerging Aboriginal Curatorial Residency Project, generously sponsored by RBC and the Ontario Arts Council's Aboriginal Curatorial Project Fund.


About the artist



Ron Noganosh

Ron Noganosh's sculptural assemblages and installations integrate aspects of his Ojibway heritage with contemporary civilization's garbage to create ironic comments on ecology, racism, identity and socio-economic hierarchies. In addition to his imaginative use of recycled garbage, Noganosh also makes sensitive use of the more natural materials he finds —feathers, wood, stone, bone, and fur.
Ron has focused his recent creative energies towards the production of drawings called the Power People, which work to transport the viewer into other realms as they summon notions of the Star People, those believed to be Relations from far off galaxies.

Born on the Magnetawan Reserve on Georgian Bay, Noganosh is currently living and working in Ottawa.

Eleven Times Eleven/ Peyakosâpwâw opens at the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery on Friday, February 7 at 6:00 pm, as part of downtown Sarnia's First Friday cultural walkabout.

For more information about upcoming programs and events at the gallery, visit our website www.JNAAG.ca or find us on Facebook and Twitter.


Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery
147 Lochiel Street, Sarnia ON
N7T 0B4
(519) 336-8127

For more information contact:
Lisa Daniels, Curator & Director
Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery
lisa.daniels@county-lambton.on.ca

Follow the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery on Facebook and Twitter
Follow our project blog: http://gallerylambton-onsite.blogspot.ca/

For immediate release

Adrian Paci, Home to go, 2001
Plaster, marble dust, tiles, rope
Courtesy Peter Blum Gallery, New York


ADRIAN PACI: LIVES IN TRANSIT
February 6 to April 27, 2014 at the MAC
http://www.macm.org/en/expositions/adrian-paci-2/

Curators
Adrian Paci, Marie Fraser, guest curator, and Marta Gili, Director of the Jeu de Paume

Montréal, Wednesday, February 5, 2014– The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) is starting the year off with a Québec and Canadian first: the exhibition Adrian Paci: Lives in Transit. To introduce the public to the work of this well-known Albanian-born artist who has lived in Milan since 1997, the MAC is presenting a selection of his most important pieces since the late 1990s. Comprising video works and installations, as well as sculptures and paintings, this solo show will run from February 6 to April 27, 2014.

ADRIAN PACI. LIVES IN TRANSIT.

This show featuring works produced since the late 1990s provides a sense of the great humanity that characterizes the art of Adrian Paci. Through the tensions he introduces in these pieces-between the real and the fictional, tangible and political, conflictual and fabulous-he applies a present-day sensibility to overarching themes that have been present throughout time, such as identity, memory, ritual and loss. In creating narratives where much remains unsaid, he invites us to become personally engaged in his work and to fill in the spaces left blank.

Speaking about his work, the artist recently told the newspaper Libération"I think every piece arises out of a desire to build a bridge between what you have already done and a territory you are discovering. An artist's body of work is a living body that needs to grow, to develop. Mounting an exhibition like this one is thus an opportunity to consider this body in its complexity and try to understand its moods, its needs, its forms and its weaknesses."

The work that brought Paci widespread public recognition, Home to Go, 2001, is a marble montage of the artist's naked body carrying a ceramic-tiled roof strapped to his back; this emblematic piece speaks of dislocation, identity and hybridity. In Vajtojca (Mourner, 2002), which depicts a funeral wake, Paci makes himself the subject of an elegy whose powerful, stirring words are sung by a professional mourner. The Encounter, 2011, takes place in Sicily, in front of the church of San Bartolomeo where hundreds of people are lined up to shake the artist's hand, in a personal encounter between the individual and the collectivity. The Column, 2013, the artist's latest video, produced specially for the exhibition, documents the fascinating sea voyage of a "factory boat" that left China loaded with a block of marble that would be carved on the voyage by five Chinese craftsmen and would reach its destination... in the form of a column. The video installation titled Last Gestures, 2009, poetically and eloquently evokes a bride-to-be's final moments with her family. This work was purchased by the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal in 2011, with support from the National Bank Private Wealth 1859 Collectors Symposium 2011. In Albanian Stories, 1997, the artist's first video, Paci captures his three-year-old daughter telling her dolls fairytales-the way all little girls do-but with the difference that hers mix up animals, fictional characters and actual soldiers, bearing poignant and unique testimony to war and exile. In these pieces and the others on view, the intersection of reality and fable creates an in-between space that opens up onto the universal.

Adrian Paci: Lives in Transit is a co-production of the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Jeu de Paume, Paris, and PAC – Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan.

Born in 1969 in Shkodër, Albania, Adrian Paci left Eastern Europe with his family after the collapse of the Communist regime. He represented Albania at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and has taken part in numerous group exhibitions and solo shows over the years.

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Source and information
Wanda Palma, MACM
Head of Public Relations
wanda.palma@macm.org
Tel.: 514-847-6232

Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
185, rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest
Montréal (Québec) H2X 3X5
www.macm.org




Adrian Paci, The Column, 2013
Still from The Column, 2013
HD video projection, colour, sound, 25 min. 40 sec.
Courtesy the artist, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich and kaufmann repetto, Milan
Produced with the contribution of Jeu de Paume, Paris, PAC Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Trondheim, Röda Sten Konsthall, Göteborg, NCTM studio legale associato, Milan, Unicredit, Milan, TICA, Tirana and Vulcano, Venice.

Walking With Our Sisters - A Commemorative Art Installation for the
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

March 21 – April 12, 2014
Gallery hours are: Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am – 8 pm
All Welcomed

Over 600+ native women in Canada are reported missing or murdered in the last 20 years. Many vanished without a trace with inadequate inquiry into their disappearance or killing paid by the media, the general public, politicians and even law enforcement. This is a travesty of justice. Walking With Our Sisters is a commemorative art installation created and donated by hundreds of caring and concerned individuals to draw attention to this injustice.

Each pair of vamps represents one missing or murdered indigenous woman. The unfinished moccasins represent the unfinished lives of the women whose lives were cut short by murder. Collectively together the vamps represent all these women; paying respect to their lives and existence on this earth. They are not forgotten. They are sisters, mothers, aunties, daughters, cousins, grandmothers, wives and partners. They have been cared for, they have been loved, they are missing and they have not been forgotten.

Moccasins are symbolic of the path a person walks in life and within some traditions; moccasins are placed on the body of the person in death to help them on their journey into the next life. Moccasin vamps are the top part of the moccasin that most often carry adornment of some type, whether beads, quills, embroidery or other materials. Whether fully beaded or partially, different nations have developed their own variations on the size, style, shape and choice of imagery on the vamps.

This art exhibit will also bring attention to this issue as the numbers of Indigenous women going missing and becoming murdered continue to grow. According to the most recent research, the numbers are currently estimated as being as high as 824 women and girls missing and murdered in the last twenty years alone.

Installation location:
Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Gallery
203-290 McDermot Ave
Winnipeg MB R3B 0T2
204-942-2674
urbanshaman.org

The exhibit is currently scheduled to tour to over 31 locations across North America and will wrap up in 2020.

This project is being solely supported by donations made by thousands of Indigenous and non-Indigenous men and women across North America.

Walking With Our Sisters web site: http://walkingwithoursisters.ca

Winnipeg FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Walking-With-Our-Sisters-Winnipeg-MB/676607989040404

Media Information:
Daina Warren- Director of Urban Shaman Gallery
E: daina@urbanshaman.org
T: 204-942-2674

Marcel Balfour
E: mbalfour@manitobachiefs.com
T: 204-987-4114

Walking With Our Sisters gratefully acknowledges the support of our friends, volunteers, community and all our relations, Assiniboine Credit Union, The Fort Garry Hotel, The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Secretariat Inc., Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre Inc., Helen Betty Osborne Memorial Foundation, The Native Youth Sexual Health Network (NYSHN)
~GITCHI MIIGWETCH / HAI HAI





203-290 McDermot Ave., Winnipeg Mb, Canada. R3B 0T2
T: 204-942-2674 | E: info@urbanshaman.org | W: urbanshaman.org

Impedance - Games + Resistance
Vector Festival 2014
Exhibition dates: Feb 8–22, 2014
Opening Reception: Saturday February 8, 4–7pm
Featuring works by: Molleindustria w/ Jim Munroe, Alex Myers, Kent Sheely, Lucas Pope, Soha El-Sabaawi, Martin Le Chevallier, Gordan Savicic, RuneStorm, Andy Campbell & Mez Breeze, Oscar Raby
Free Admission

 Image: screen shot from Alex Myers, Winning, 2011. Courtesy of the artist.

Videogames are increasingly becoming tools to address contemporary politics and act as forms of resistance. As catalysts for critical conversations surrounding a broad variety of issues, game artists produce works that critique real world issues as much as they reflect on the medium of digital games. As a partner venue for Vector Game + Art Convergence Festival, a festival dedicated to showcasing contemporary game based artworks, InterAccess presents Impedance: Games + Resistance, an exhibition featuring works by artists who use the medium of games to comment, reflect, and provoke.

Addressing the politics of surveillance, warfare, race, mass media and propaganda, privacy, violence in games and media, and more, these works challenge visitors to engage with difficult issues by interacting with interactive installations, text adventure games, art games, and game modifications.

Join us for the opening reception on Feb 8th from 4pm-7pm at InterAccess.

Vector Festival Events at InterAccess
During the festival, InterAccess will host special two special events.
Tickets for each: $10 in Advance, $12 at the Door. All proceeds go to Vector.

Code & Circuits, an Algorave
Saturday, February 22, 8:30 doors, 9pm performances*
An evening of live music performed by artists Thesis Sahib, the Cybernetic Orchestra and Partytime! Hexcellent! who bring a unique perspective to electronic music and visual production through the manipulation of Code and Circuitry.
* the gallery closes at 5pm to prepare for the event.

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse: Matinee Performance
Sunday, February 23rd, 2pm
Members of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse will be dialing in via Second Life from around the world to perform inside a whimsical virtual environment.

For tickets and more details, visit www.vectorfestival.org


***


UPCOMING:

Micropixies
Sayeh Sarfaraz
March 7–29, 2014
Opening Reception: Friday, March 7, 7pm
Co-presentation with Le Labo
Free Admission

Image: Micropixies, Sayeh Sarfaraz

For Sayeh Safaraz's exhibition at InterAccess, the artist focuses on the relations between a government and its population, between power and its entities. Continuing her investigations into social movements and uprisings the artist bases her new work on specific historical events from her native country: Iran – accession to power of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, repression measures regarding students' strikes after his reflection and the election of a new moderate president Hassan Rohani.

Mixing immersive audio and video installations depicting the world of current political events with sculptural imagery from worlds of fantasy, the public is guided through a journey from unconscious innocent memories to reflection on political events and the nature of resistance.


Join us for the opening reception on Friday March 7, at 7pm. Artist will be in attendance.

***

InterAccess is located at 9 Ossington Avenue, Toronto, ON, Canada, M6J 2Y8.

Gallery Hours
Wed 12 - 20h
Thu 12 - 18h
Fri 12 - 18h
Sat 12 - 20h

For more information can be found on our Upcoming Exhibitions webpage here
or contact:
Maiko Tanaka, Curator, Public Programs
+1 (416) 532-0597 ext 21
info@interaccess.org
www.interaccess.org

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