Remote Gallery Art Market + Exhibition - Sat. June 7, 1-6pm
Remote Gallery Art Market + Exhibition - Sat. June 7, 1-6pm
Read More
Image Description: TheAkin logo and OCADU logo live on a purple background along with the words “Career Launcher Winner, Sara Abulkarim, Where Have You Been? Solo Art Show, August 5 & 6, 2023 at Remote Gallery”
Sara Abulkarim, Where Have You Been? August 5 & 6, 2023
August 5, 12pm-10pm
August 6, 12pm-6pm
Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W
Opening Reception: August 5, 6pm-10pm
“Where have you been?” is a solo art exhibition that takes viewers on a journey to the places I have been since having moved to Toronto in 2017.
Through a series of paintings made of acrylic and mixed media, I explore the places and spaces that have been meaningful to me in my journey of self-discovery, growth, and challenge. These places have become my home, my family, and my friends, and I invite you to explore them with me.
Come join me on August 5th and 6th at Remote Gallery in Toronto to learn about this journey of exploration and discovery as I share with you the places that have helped me find myself.
Sara Abulkarim is the 2022 recipient of the Akin x OCADU Career Launcher Award. Born in Iraq, she immigrated to Montreal in 2002, where she studied Interior Design. Following her passion, in 2017 she decided to study Fine Arts at OCAD University. Sara’s art often stems from memory and feelings. She paints moments and fragments of her life, meaningful spaces and moments that sculpted her into the person she is today. Intrigued by abstract, she loves to try new techniques and mediums to mimic her emotions through colours and gestures. Her work is characterized by vibrant colours and animated movement. Website: www.saraabulkarim.com
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts
#BringingTheArtsToLife @Canada.Council
Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W, Toronto
Image Description: A purple event poster advertising an art show. The left hand side reads “Space Award Winner Elsa Hashemi '' below the logos for Akin, Toronto Arts Foundation, and the Neighbourhood Arts Network. On the left is a greyscale photo from the video-installation, The White Cave.”
The White Cave, a Video-Installation Exhibition by Elsa Hashemi
July 21 - 27, 2023
Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W
Hours: 4 - 8pm
Opening Reception: July 21, 6 - 9pm
“Having a long day filled with a variety of feelings and emotions, we all go back to our ‘White Cave‘ which is the last and the most intimate place to finish the day... No matter how joyful, sad, confused, overwhelmed or excited we have been during the day, we share them all with our safest place...”
Elsa Hashemi is a recipient of the 2022 Space Award and a visual artist whose main focus is Photography and Calligraphy-Painting. She works as an artwork/mural-documentation photographer in Toronto and a freelance Calligrapher. In addition, she teaches visual arts to kids; and ESL & Canadian culture to adults. Her artistic practice mainly involves conceptual art, portraying concepts like Migration, Being a Woman, Immigration, and Quarantine. Through her images and calligraphy-painting art, she tells stories of people, believing that stories can tell us about the realities in life that are too complicated. She is a recipient of Toronto Arts Foundation's Newcomer Arts Award and RBC Mentorship Award. As a professional photographer, she combines deep theoretical/technical knowledge with experience documenting artworks, creating portfolios and photo books for the artists, designing brochures, and promoting products and artworks via social networks and various advertising materials. Elsa stands out in photographing events, including arts and cultural ones, meetings and gatherings, and outdoor festivals and events.
View Elsa’s website here and her Instagram here.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts
#BringingTheArtsToLife @Canada.Council
Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W, Toronto
Image description: A colourful patterned background sits behind a large blue circle, inside of which text reads “In the Middle, July 15-16, @remotegallery, 568 Richmond St W, Toronto.” The bottom corners of the poster has the Akin logo, and the OCAD U logo, respectively.
In the Middle, a celebration of Canadian-Middle Eastern and North African Artists
July 15, 12pm-10pm
July 16, 9am-6pm
Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W
Opening Reception: July 15, 6pm-10pm
In the Middle is a celebration of the unique perspectives of Canadian-Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) artists as well as those geographically adjacent. It is an opportunity to recognize the importance of MENA and MENA-adjacent artists in the Toronto art scene and to highlight an underrepresented vision as well as recognize the diversity of MENA culture and celebrate the beauty of its art.
Eleven artists will be sharing their stories and unique experiences with the world. It’s a chance to create a dialogue about the importance of representation and inclusion in the art world and to create a space where MENA and MENA-adjacent artists can be seen, heard, and respected.
Artist Participating:
Amina Boufennara
Amnna Attia
Ayan Melikli
Christina Hajjar
Edriss Sydeqi
Özge Dilan Arslan
Pamela Andonian (Ch!K P)
Qudsia Hussain
Rabiyah Sagheer
Sara Abulkarim
Sara Ghaben
The Exhibition Is Curated By:
Amina Boufennara
Habiba Raouf
Sara Abulkarim
Sara Abulkarim is the 2022 recipient of the Akin x OCADU Career Launcher Award. Born in Iraq, she immigrated to Montreal in 2002, where she studied Interior Design. Following her passion, in 2017 she decided to study Fine Arts at OCAD University. Sara’s art often stems from memory and feelings. She paints moments and fragments of her life, meaningful spaces and moments that sculpted her into the person she is today. Intrigued by abstract, she loves to try new techniques and mediums to mimic her emotions through colours and gestures. Her work is characterized by vibrant colours and animated movement. Website: www.saraabulkarim.com
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts
#BringingTheArtsToLife @Canada.Council
Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W, Toronto
Image Description: A purple poster advertising the art exhibition. On the right hand side is text which reads “Space Award Winner Yannis Lobaina '' with the logos for Akin, Toronto Arts Foundation and Neighbourhood Arts Network. On the right hand side is Yannis Lobania’s photograph, Fibonacci Spiral, a macro, black and white shot of a sunflower against a black background. Surrounding the image is text which reads “Catch and Release, Solo photography by Yannis Lobaina. Save the date: July 6th-13th at Remote Gallery, address 568 Richmond Street West, Toronto, ON.”
“Catch and Release” by Yannis Lobaina at Remote Gallery
July 6-13
Akin’s Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W
Gallery Hours: 1-7pm
Free Interactive Workshops: July 8 & 9 at 2pm
Akin’s Remote Gallery is thrilled to welcome space award winner Yannis Lobaina to the Remote Gallery for a new photo exhibition, Catch and Release.
Yannis’ work captures the fleeting moments and sacred geometry of Mother Nature. In Catch and Release, a series of twelve minimalist photographic narratives, Yannis explores patterns, pareidolias (faces), spirals, clouds, textures and their spiritual significance.
Throughout the exhibition, Yannis Lobaina will be hosting a series of 2 free art-making photography workshops on Saturday, July 8 and Sunday July 9 at 2:00pm. The workshops will be a family friendly experience to explore Yannis’ artworks, and to get inspired to create their own piece of art. All the artwork produced during the workshop will become part of the online exhibit on Yannis’ website.
Yannis Lobaina is a Cuban artist, author, filmmaker, photographer and community arts facilitator. Currently, she lives in Toronto. In her work, Yannis explores themes of immigration, diaspora, language, and motherhood. As a photographer, she focuses on minimalist storytelling photography, landscapes, patterns, sacred geometry, and pareidolias in Mother Nature. She has been recognized with several awards and grants by the TAC and OAC, which has funded her ongoing series Alive, Upside Down. Yannis has twice received the Newcomer Space Award (2020, 2022) and has been showcased at Remote Gallery (2021) and at public Library Oakwood Village Library and Arts Centre(February 2023).
Thank you to the Toronto Arts Foundation, and the Neighbourhood Arts Foundation for their support.
Find more information about Yannis’ work here.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts
#BringingTheArtsToLife @Canada.Council
Image Description: Yannis Lobania’s photograph, Fibonacci Spiral, a macro, black and white shot of a sunflower against a black background. Surrounding the image is text which reads “Fibonacci Spiral, Yannis Lobaina, digital photographs, metal wall art, landscape, 11 x 14”, 2023.”
Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W, Toronto
Image Description: A purple event poster advertising an art show. The left hand side reads “Space Award Winner Gizem Candan '' below the logos for Akin, Toronto Arts Foundation, and the Neighbourhood Arts Network. On the left is a painting by Candan, an abstract oil painting of earthworms, filled with light and dark browns and rust reds. Underneath it, over a white panel, black text reads “Resonance of a Deep Ground, Gizem Candan, June 29-July 2, 2023, Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON.”
Resonance of a Deep Ground, Gizem Candan
June 29 - July 2
Akin’s Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W
Opening Reception:
Thursday June 29, 6-10pm
Gallery Hours:
Friday - Sunday: 12-6pm
Akin’s Remote Gallery is proud to introduce a showcase of brand new work from Newcomer Space Award Winner Gizem Candan. Resonance of a Deep Ground features Candan’s most recent paintings of earthworms and their enigmatic habitat.
Fresh from a painting residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point earlier in June, Candan hosted earth worm composting workshops as part of her residency. Her contemplation of earthworm ecology has resulted in a beautiful display of abstract oil paintings which draws their inspiration from our crawling friends underground and their miraculous regenerative abilities.
Gizem Candan is a visual artist and researcher based in Toronto. She graduated with two BFAs, one in Plastic Arts and Painting and one in Graphic Design from Yeditepe University in Istanbul. She is in the process of completing her master’s in Criticism and Curatorial Practice at OCAD University. She is represented by Sivarulrasa Gallery in Almonte, ON. Her works have been exhibited in Canada and Turkey, and are held in many private collections and the Special Collections of the Toronto Reference Library. She also works at Cooper Cole Gallery as a research assistant. Her artistic practice explores the tensions and depressions between humans and their surroundings in the Anthropocene. She employs a variety of approaches in her work to emphasize "figure" as both human and more-than-human, as well as the landscape-centered scenes around it. Her main area of focus is on narrating that examines the modern human and its enigmatic potential relationship through the lens of nature. "Structure" in her paintings is visible in two distinct ways: composition and colour palette.
Candan is a 2022 recipient of the 2022 Newcomer Space Award. Created by Akin, the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Neighbourhood Arts Network, the Newcomer Space Award provides newcomers credit for an Akin studio membership and to Akin’s Remote Gallery. This award not only provides funding and space essential for professional artists to grow their practice, but also supports artists in growing their network through the shared studio space model.
Learn more about Gizem Candan’s work at her website and on instagram.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts
#BringingTheArtsToLife @Canada.Council
Image Description: Above is a painting by Candan, an abstract oil painting of earthworms, filled with light and dark browns and rust reds. Underneath it, over a white panel, black text reads “Resonance of a Deep Ground, Gizem Candan, June 29-July 2, 2023, Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON.”
Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W, Toronto
Art Exhibition by Artist Naghmeh Ghasemzadeh
June 17 - 25
Akin’s Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W
Opening Reception:
Saturday June 17: 5-7pm
Remote Gallery Hours:
Monday to Friday: 2-8pm
Saturday and Sunday: 11am-6pm
Remote Gallery is thrilled to show a new and exciting exhibition by Naghmeh Ghasemzadeh, a multi-disciplinary artist and the winner of the 2022 Space Award, presented by Akin in partnership with the Neighbourhood Arts Network. Naghmeh Ghasemzadeh, a.k.a NAG, is an Iranian born, French-Canadian artist.
Naghmeh’s work examines her own stories of immigration, cultural assimilation and uprootedness. These ideas intersect with women’s rights, gender equality and resilience. She expresses such subjects through fragmented materials and narratives that depict her endeavor to find an imaginary link between events, beings, belongings and destinies, by assembling materials that don’t usually fit together. She questions frantic consumption, accumulation and purpose by giving new life to outdated and broken things. Organic drawings and materials, medical or industrial waste are assembled in mixed media and installations, creating strange living organisms that reflect her quest to find a place and community to which she’ll finally belong.
To learn more about NAG’s work, visit www.nag-artist.com, or on instagram @nag_artist
Special thanks to Toronto Arts Foundation, Neighbourhood Arts Network and Ontario Arts Council.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts
#BringingTheArtsToLife @Canada.Council
Image Description: A poster advertising Naghmeh Ghasemzadeh’s Upcoming Exhibition. A white background shows brown text reading “Art Exhibition, June 17-25 2023,” The left hand side shows the artist’s logo, which reads ‘NAG’, and brown text below which reads ‘Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W, Hours Monday-Friday 2-8 pm, Saturday and Sunday 11-6 pm, Opening Saturday June 17th, 2023 5-7pm. With the kind support of the Ontario Arts Council. Special thanks to the Toronto Arts Foundation, Neighbourhood Arts Network, Akin Projects and Ontario Arts Council.” The Ontario Arts Council Logo is at the bottom right corner on the poster. Above it is a multimedia image. In the center is a print-style black and white image of a person, covering their eyes and mouth with each hand. They are wearing a black shirt and have dark curly hair. Above them is the photograph of an eye, below them are collaged green leaves and dried flowers atop the image.
Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W, Toronto
Image Description: A colourful graphic in the centre of the image on a black background. The graphic has circular shapes in cool blue and grey tones. Over top of that is another shape in warm red and orange tones and in the very centre small yellow flames. The text on the image says "an exhibition by Wyandot Artist and utríhǫt* ~ Catherine Taǫmęˀšreˀ Tàmmaro, FIRE OVER WATER, Opening Saturday February 18, 1-4pm. Remote Gallery. 568 Richmond St. W.t, Toronto"
Fire Over Water: Catherine Tàmmaro at Remote Gallery - Opening Feb 18, 1-4pm
Catherine Tàmmaro . Fire Over Water
Feb. 18 - Mar. 17. | VIEWINGS BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
Opening Day: Sat. Feb. 18th 1-4pm
Remote Gallery: 568 Richmond St West, Toronto
Updated on March 3: Fire Over Water: viewings by appointment only. Take the opportunity to sit with the artist to view the work. Available throughout the week. Please call Catherine Tammaro at 647 222 5548 to book an appointment or email catherine.tammaro@gmail.com. Thank you!
Catherine Taǫmęˀšreˀ Tàmmaro is a multimedia artist and seated Wyandot FaithKeeper. Since 2019, Catherine has been Akin’s Elder Artist In Residence. We’re so excited Elder Catherine’s work will be coming to the Remote Gallery for her installation entitled FIRE OVER WATER. Fire Over Water involves sound, video, paintings, vitrines and more - inspired by Dr. Kathryn Magee Labelle’s book, Daughters of Aataentsic: Life Stories From Seven Generations, in conjunction with the Wendat Wyandot Women's Advisory Council.
Focused on Wendat/Wyandot women and their connection to their Ancestors, the land and waters; the Great Mystery and our Kin in the Natural World, Fire Over Water offers insight into Wendat/Wyandot placemaking, placekeeping, our Narratives, Motherwork as well as our precious relationships to each other across time, within the Wendat Confederacy.
Catherine Tàmmaro, Huronia: Sky World View, 2023, Acrylic on Canvas, 30 x 30"
Image Description: Abstract painting with undulating shapes in earthtones on canvas.
Catherine embarked on this project ten years ago with Dr. Labelle and the Council. These works are her reflections on this deeply felt spiritual connection through time and space.
Catherine is active throughout the City of Toronto and beyond, in many organisations as Elder in Residence, Mentor, Teacher and Cultural Advisor. She is an alumna of OCA and has had a diverse career, multiple exhibits and installations, published written works and more. She served on the Board of the TAC, TAC’s Income Precarity Working Group and was the Chair of the Toronto Arts Council’s Indigenous Advisory Committee in 2020/21. Catherine is the Indigenous Arts Program Manager at Toronto Arts Council and continues teaching, learning and exploring her creativity and that of others.
Learn more about Catherine and her projects through her website, twitter, or instagram. You can listen to Catherine’s music project subductionCurrent, here
Image Description: Image with five logos. The logos are: Akin, Remote Gallery, Toronto Arts Council, Conservation Halton and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
This project was supported by the Canada Council of the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, Conservation Halton, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Dr. Labelle, the Wendat/Wyandot Women’s Advisory Council, Akin and the Remote Gallery.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. @CanadaCouncil #BringingTheArtsToLife
Furoshiki - Opens Saturday!
SAMARA Contemporary in collaboration with Kid Icarus, are pleased to announce Furoshiki, A group exhibition that will feature the works of 20 artists working with the theme: “Gifting”. Furoshiki wrap is an eco-friendly alternative to traditional wrapping paper.
Where: Samara Contemporary, 156 Augusta Avenue, Toronto
When: Saturday, November 30th, 12-6pm
Every holiday season more than 8 million tons of gift-wrap ends up in landfills. Disposable and chemically processed, this waste is destroying our environment. Furoshiki can be re-used, passed on from one gift receiver to the next.
Cloth wrapping has been used for over 1200 years in Japan. The word Furoshiki came about during the Edo period (1603-1868) when cloths were commonly used in bathhouses to wrap clothes or as bath matts. Today, Furoshiki can be used to wrap gifts, wine bottles, books, groceries, or just about anything!
This year and onward present your special gift enveloped in beautiful art created by some of Canada’s
top illustrators and artists! An environmentally ethical and unique option to gift giving!
Participating artists:
Daniela Roessler, Dave Setrakian, Fiona Smyth, Flips, Akin Ossington alum Jenn Kitagawa, Jill Holmberg, Jimmy Chaile, Akin Sunrise artist Jieun June Kim, Justin Broadbent, Akin Ossington alum Kendra Yee, Kirsten McCrea, Luke Parnell, Happy Sleepy, Marijke Bouchier, Mariko Paterson, Mike Ellis, Orbital Arts, Rachel Joanis, Santiago Paredes, Trio Magnus
Surface Play | Lindy Fyfe and Ruth Adler
Samara Contemporary is pleased to present Surface Play, an exhibition of work by Canadian textile artists Lindy Fyfe and Ruth Adler, curated by Rafi Ghanaghounian. The exhibition is an exploration of the artists’ respective investigations into textile as painting. Both Adler and Fyfe employ textiles as the chief component in their work, however their approaches contain more similarities than their outcomes.
Fyfe, who works with recycled fabric from thrift shops, breathes new life into discarded materials through harnessing their existing forms and patterns, translating them into new compositions. This creative and intuitive process results in abstract compositions that strongly reference the masters of modernist painting including Rothko and Mondrian, but also hint at the earth’s topographic surfaces.
Adler’s similar creative impulse is reflected in the vibrant assemblages she constructs through material conversations. When looking at the structural appearance of her works, it becomes clear that Adler gains inspiration from anatomy and architecture, among other things. Utilizing textile remnants as well as water-based inks and paints, her pieces reference the aesthetics of fashion and other cultural forms.
When: On view now. Exhibition runs till September 29
Where: Samara Contemporary, 156 Augusta Ave, Kensington Market
ABOUT RUTH ADLER
Ruth Adler’s work has been exhibited internationally since the 1980s. She has presented numerous solo exhibitions including, Jim Kempner Fine Art (New York), Lonsdale Gallery (Toronto) and Lorber Gallery (Tel Aviv). In the 80s and throughout the 90s she ran her own t-shirt label in Tel Aviv and designed t-shirts for Marci Lipman (Toronto). Ruth received awards and grants for her work including a Bravo Fact award for her video “How Yellowknife Got Its Name.” She has also did commissions for the Iroquois Hotel (New York) and The Schneider Children's Medical Centre (Petach Tiqvah, Israel). In 2000 Ruth began making her digital circles on paper that are currently represented by Artstar (New York). Ruth currently lives and works in Toronto and Tel Aviv.
ABOUT LINDY FYFE
Lindy Fyfe is a visual artist based in Toronto where she maintains an active studio practice concentrating on painting, fabric construction, drawing and collage. In 2010 The Robert McLaughlin Gallery presented 'Confluence', a major solo exhibition surveying Fyfe's work across her full range of media. In 2014 she installed a solo exhibition of fabric work as a component of World of Threads, Oakville, and participated in Fibreworks 2014, at the Cambridge Galleries. In 2015 Fyfe was selected as a finalist for the Salt Spring National Art Prize exhibition in British Columbia, was included in the annual Art With Heart auction in Toronto, and had a solo exhibition, titled Shift Twist, at Verso Gallery in Toronto. In 2016 she installed Tilt, a site-specific work at *QueenSpecific in Toronto. In 2019 her work will be included again in the annual Art With Heart auction to be held at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Borelson, 2018. Photo: Andrei Pora
Toronto Biennial of Art Announces Inaugural Programs
Toronto Biennial of Art (the Biennial) recently announced an extensive series of free public programs during the 10-week Exhibition that will take place during its inaugural edition, from September 21 to December 1, 2019. More than 70 local and international participants will lead talks, workshops, and performances that intersect with and expand ideas emerging from the 2019 Biennial’s central question: “What does it mean to be in relation?”
Led by Deputy Director and Director of Programs Ilana Shamoon, and conceived by Curator Clare Butcher and Associate Curator Myung-Sun Kim, the Biennial’s Programs team has developed five programming streams: Co-Relations, Currents, Storytelling, Tools for Learning, and the Toronto Biennial of Art Residency.
Programs will take place at more than 15 Biennial sites across Toronto. Conceived to extend beyond the event itself to activate the Biennial between editions, Programs is responsive to conversations that emerge during the inaugural Biennial and will precipitate ongoing projects, research, events, and partnerships that create a foundation for continued exchange into 2021.
Co-Relations explores critical local issues—livability, access, interconnectivity—that extend ideas addressed in the Biennial’s first edition. The program demonstrates a deep commitment to placemaking in a series of performances and gatherings, including artist talks, participatory games, civic conversations, youth-engaged projects, workshops, and communal meals. Participants are invited into shifting and expanding dialogues that reveal our often invisible, intangible, or overlooked connections to each other and our environment. These unseen or unnoticed connections provide insights into how we can better build and sustain symbiotic relationships over time.
Currents is a platform for artist-led programming that invites visitors to engage directly with the creative and critical processes at work in the exhibition. This stream consists of talks, performances, symphonies, star-gazing, and ceremonies that trace ideas circulating within and beyond the Biennial’s main sites and connect with other exhibition locations. Be it through acts of restitution, revolutionary wearables, ways of knowing with the water, or the ethics of making, Currents asks participants to reconsider what it means to be in and out of relation in the context of artworks featured in this year’s Exhibition.
Storytelling seeks to shift the mediation of contemporary art away from conventional modes of interpreting and informing to narrating and embodying through weekly walks and conversations. An intergenerational and multilingual group of storytellers share personal insights and experiences of the city as they guide visitors through the exhibition’s site-specific installations, research, and generative proposals. Storytellers will bring submerged narratives to the surface in relation to the history and politics of Toronto’s shifting shoreline.
Tools for Learning is generated with Biennial participants and collaborators, and comprises group exercises, performative scores, proposals for collaborative thinking and making, artist interviews, and audio tours. Whether in the Biennial, the classroom, or at home, our multimedia toolbox can be put to use by educators, students, and other community members in connecting their own experiences and curricula with process-based, playful approaches to contemporary artistic practices.
The Toronto Biennial of Art Residency is an experimental platform for artists with socially engaged practices. It supports artists whose work is challenging disciplinary and aesthetic conventions to expand notions of community and enact social change at various scales. For its inaugural residency, the Biennial is proud to present Life of a Craphead, a collective whose work spans performance art, film, and curation.
Black Artists Union, I Declare this Meeting of the Midnight Society Closed: Part I, video still, 2019
Gallery 44 Launches Chapter 2 of “A maze of collapsing lines”
Gallery 44 is excited to launch Chapter 2 of A maze of collapsing lines; titled A Dark Room, Chapter 2 features the self-curated work of Black Artists Union members Jem Baptiste, Oreka James, Sylvia Limbana, Filmon Yohannes and Zoma.
A Dark Room takes the form of two mini-series that explore Black representation in film through self-expression and storytelling. The first mini-series, The Body Talks and I’m Listenin’, consists of two videos that highlight Black nightlife as the originator of many popular styles of dance that have been appropriated by mainstream culture. These videos function to give credit back to the originators of these dance styles, that include queer nightlife, and “voguing”, among others. The second series, I Declare this Meeting of the Midnight Society Closed, foregrounds storytelling as a way to learn Black histories and ancestral lineage, and honours the domestic labour performed by Black wimmin. These videos will be released sequentially, on a weekly basis.
Alongside the film series, A Dark Room serves as a place for interaction and discourse about Black film and Black media for the Black community; A Dark Room features an online archive, created by and for the community. Only members of the Black community will be given access to this section of the website, and will have the opportunity to embed and link to their own content, creating a crowd-sourced archive.
Image: Rafael Yaluff, El trabajo cotidiano, 2017, oil and acrylic on canvas, 67 x 67.5"
Sorry to bother you - on now!
Sorry To Bother You
Abstraction in an age of anxiety
July 11 - September 1, 2019
Corkin Gallery - 7 Tank House Lane, Distillery District, Toronto
Artists:
Virgil Baruchel
Christian Butterfield
Hana Elmasry
Neil Maguire
Rafael Yaluff
Sorry to bother you explores the disquiet and apprehension of contemporary life. Troubled and inspired by the looming global crises of environment, identity and economic viability, these brave works respond as signs of empathy in an age of anxiety.
Christian Butterfield, Akin staff member Hana Elmasry and Neil Maguire mix tradition of abstract painting with found objects and collage. Rafael Yaluff draws on pop art and comics to reflect upon our culture of consumption. Using electric colours, Virgil Baruchel blurs the real world with virtual existence through his tapestries and pastels.
Tangled and urgent, the works in this show are a tentative tap on the shoulder. What can we do? Who do we want to be? Are we able to adapt?
an endless, formless ruin by Jessica Thalmann
Such Places as Memory (Seattle I)
Folded archival pigment print, unique
22" x 17"
ANGELL GALLERY is pleased to present Toronto-based artist and Akin MOCA member Jessica Thalmann’s second solo exhibition at the gallery. Titled an endless, formless ruin, the exhibition presents new photographs and photo-based sculptural works, and opens on Saturday, May 4, with the public reception and artist talk on Saturday, May 11 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. The exhibition runs until Saturday, June 1.
It is the desperate moment when we discover that this empire, which had seemed to us the sum of all wonders, is an endless, formless ruin…
— Italo Calvino: Invisible Cities (1972)
In the novella Invisible Cities, we find about fifty short impressions of mythical cities relayed to the Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan by the Italian explorer Marco Polo. Polo describes the different sensory, physical and psychological affects these cities have on their inhabitants, which have been interpreted as different aspects of one city – Venice. But, ultimately, the book is about more than a single city; rather, it raises ideas about what it means for a city to be ‘home’, and how we can feel either ‘in possession’ or ‘possessed’ by a place through our memories and experiences of it. Polo is the book’s main narrator, but we sympathize with Khan, a man who can’t rule his homeland effectively because he doesn’t truly understand it.
Jessica Thalmann is an artist, curator and writer currently based in Toronto and New York City. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Advanced Photographic Studies from ICP-Bard College and a BFA in Visual Arts from York University. She has worked at the Doris McCarthy Gallery, Toronto International Film Festival, C Magazine, the Art Gallery of York University and Yossi Milo Gallery.
Period of Adjustment an Exhibition by Carrie Perreault
Working primarily in sculpture and performance, Akin St. Clair member Carrie Perreault balances resistance and restraint in onerous actions that recount long-term precarity. In making her work, she expends great effort to achieve minimal results. This isn’t about labour; she prioritizes process to reflect on systems of abuse and their connection to emotional and psychological experiences. Through gestural, often repetitive acts and narratives that resist closure, she alludes to complex trauma and its residual effects. By exploring, in a visceral way, failures, vulnerabilities, and the limits of her body, Perreault makes viewers keenly aware of their own.
NAC’s Show Room Gallery
Opening Reception Friday 10 May 2019 7PM-10PM
On display until Saturday 17 August 2019
Presented as part of NAC’s Homecoming Series.
Carrie Perreault is an artist based in Toronto and New York. Her work has been included in exhibitions and projects at Idea Exchange, Cambridge Galleries, curated by Iga Janik (2019); Deathnastics, as part of Gymsick, curated by Hazel Meyer and Lucy Pawlak, Toronto (2018); Hamilton Biennale (2017); Strange Beauty, Tangled Arts +Disability Festival, Toronto (2015); Treasure Hill Artist Village, Taipei (2014). Perreault has been awarded residencies at Open Studio (Toronto), The Banff Centre and Taipei Artist Village.
Rosellen D'Agostino, Untitled Faceless Portrait 1138, 2017/10/23. Image Courtesy of Artist
Idea Exchanges Show.19 Opens Friday!
SHOW.19 brings together emerging artists from across Ontario whose works, processes and preoccupations are the latest in the ever-changing world of contemporary art. The exhibition is exclusively dedicated to those new on the scene and gives the necessary and well-deserved voice to the most ambitious and dedicated.
Idea Exchange
Where: Queen's Square, 1 North Square, Cambridge, ON
Opening Reception: Friday May 10, 2019 7:00 - 9:00 PM
SHOW.19 Features work by Akin members Nicole Crozier and Melanie Keay of Akin Ossington, and Carrie Perrault of Akin St. Clair.
Selected from an open call for submissions, the 13 artists chosen for SHOW.19 shed light on what's happening today and what Ontario has to offer the world of contemporary art in the coming years. This latest edition of SHOW presents works by: Tommy Bourque, Nicole Crozier, Rosellen D'Agostino, Laura Demers, Ioana Dragomir, Sylvia Galbraith, Mélika Hashemi, Hilary Hung, Melanie Keay, Neeko Paluzzi, Michelle Peraza, Carrie Perreault, and Tait William.
Converging Passages: An Exhibition by Curtia Wright and David Chinyama
Converging Passages is a visual art exhibit of history, migration and the experience of two artists who are part of the African and diaspora that features work by Akin King members Curtia Wright and David Chinyama. Their work for this exhibition is centre around different time frames of colonization and each personal story shapes a passage that redefines profounds aspects of their identities, beliefs and relevance towards their cultural traditions and takes them on a journey of self searching.
Join 918 Bathurst and Muse Arts as they celebrate the immense contributions of Black Canadian artists to Toronto ’s cultural and artistic scene beginning with the opening of Converging Passages on January 31st 2019. Black History Month is a time to learn more about these Canadian stories and the many other important contributions of Black Canadians to the settlement, growth and development of Canada, and about the diversity of Black communities in Canada and their importance to the history of this country.
Converging Passages
Date: January 31st to February 15th 2019
Opening: January 31st 2019, 7-9PM
Artist Talk: February 13th 2019, 7-9PM
Location: 918 Bathurst, Toronto
Curtia Wright was born in Scarborough, Ontario. Her art practice revolves around the idea that the human body is in constant collaboration with its surroundings; often in ways that exceed the boundaries of physical reality. She creates images that exist on both analog and digital planes through their production and execution; “I believe these alternating layers of production reference the discourse between the human body and environment.” She’s interested in the way societies perceptions of bodies, specifically black bodies, have the ability to form and deform them while changing their narratives without consent.
David Chinyama is an award-winning Zimbabwean born multi-disciplinary Artist based in Toronto, Canada, whose work is inspired by form, movement and color. His work explores subject matters often centered upon aspects of identity, political, socio-economic and religious connotations.
As storyteller, his love for the arts dates back from his childhood days in Zimbabwe, the period in which he discovered his artistic interest to create stuff. Old Illustrated picture books and comic strips, often borrowed from friends at school would fascinate and inspire him to create his own artworks using old scrap cardboard paper, wood charcoal and self-made natural pigments as medium.
Call for Artists: Framed by Feminists & Made by Feminists →
Feminist Art Collective (FAC) is very excited to partner with the Gladstone Hotel to present two markets of feminist works. Framed by Feminists takes place October 28 and Made by Feminists takes place November 18. Submissions deadline for both is August 15th 2018.
Image from FAC 2015.
Framed by Feminists
An affordable market of feminist art
Gladstone Hotel Ballroom
October 28, 2018
10am – 4pm
Calling visual artists who identify as feminist.
Presented by the Feminist Art Collective (FAC) and the Gladstone Hotel, this market of affordable feminist art will run concurrently with Art Toronto. Visual artists will have the opportunity to utilize a 6 foot table to display and sell their work.
Accepting artists who work with paintings, small sculptures, prints, photographs, and mixed media.
Email questions to: framedbyfeminists@gmail.com.
Click here for more information.
Image from FAC 2015.
Made by Feminists
Handmade goods, natural products and textiles made by persons who identify as feminist
Gladstone Hotel Ballroom
November 18, 2018
10am-4pm
The Feminist Art Collective (FAC) is partnering with the Gladstone Hotel to present Made by Feminists. Makers will have a 6 foot table to display and sell their wares.
Accepting handmade goods, natural products and textiles.
Email questions to: madebyfeminists@gmail.com.
Click here for more information.
About FAC
The Feminist Art Collective (FAC) is a grassroots, not for profit, volunteered-based organization committed to inspiring social change. FAC started in 2012 with a yearly goal of putting on a conference to exhibit and discuss feminist art. FAC now includes yearlong programming, including education projects and an annual artist residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point. It also engages in several community partnerships dedicated to the promotion of feminist art across artistic disciplines in Toronto and abroad.
Call for Artists: Catching Joy →
WHAT IS CATCHING JOY?
Neilson Park Creative Centre (NPCC) invites artists working in all creative disciplines to submit an application for an opportunity to participate in an upcoming exhibition, Catching Joy. The exhibition will tell the story of Joy by Averiss Corinne through visual representation. 35 Artists will be given a line from the story which will be used as the inspiration to create an artwork. This creates a unique opportunity for collective storytelling by presenting a diverse range of practices, which will be on display during Culture Days 2018.
Application deadline: Sunday August 12, 2018. FREE TO PARTICIPATE.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
Send in a completed application form via email to gallery@neilsonparkcreativecentre.com or in person at the NPCC front desk by Sunday, August 12. 35 artists will be selected through a random draw to participate in the exhibition. All applicants will be informed on Monday, August 13 by email regarding the status of their application. Selected artists will be assigned a section from the story Joy, which they can interpret however they wish and used to create an artwork through direct representation or abstraction. The artwork must be finished by Sunday, September 9.
Photo via NUIT ROSE
New Works by Akin Member, Kyle Yip, at NUIT ROSE Festival →
NUIT ROSE is back for its fifth annual festival of queer art and performance this week. Taking the theme Unbound, this year’s festival features art that crosses borders, both real and imagined. The 2018 festival takes place over five nights in June, with programming across Toronto neighbourhoods, including West Queen West, University & College, and the Church-Wellesley Village.
This year's festival features the work of Akin Ossington member, Kyle Yip, among many other creatives. Kyle Yip also known as Discrete, is a Toronto based multimedia artist, DJ, producer and label owner of Savvy Records. He is known not only for his Juno Award Nominated full-length album, but also his remixes for international artists such as Brabe, Society of Silence and many more.
Find his work this week at the following NUIT ROSE events:
NUIT ROSE - Opening Night & Group Exhibition
Wednesday, June 13th, 7:00 – 10:00 pm
NUIT ROSE x Tapette Pop-up Art Party
Thursday, June 14th, 10:00 pm - 2:00 am
Friday, June 15th, 1:00 pm - 2:00 am