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Deep State: Exhibition Review
Karen Mirza & Brad Butler in Person! Sponsored by SAVAC and Blackwood Gallery
Tuesday, September 25, 7 pmCineCycle, 129 Spadina Avenue (down the lane)Opening Reception: Wednesday September 19, 5–9 pm.
Exhibition Dates: September 12 — October 14
For more information, please visit www.savac.net.
Deep State is an experimental film about activism, corruption and political struggle. Exhibited in a bicycle-themed shed-like venue called CineCycle to a small audience, the 45-minute film covered contemporary and historical protests. It wove a complex storyline with a mix of staged and archival footage, including interludes involving a woman making repetitive choreographed gestures and making vocal sound effects. Though the concept was interesting, the film seemed to be bogged down by pretension and strong socio-political bias, creating a skewed dichotomy between police and protesters. The question-and-answer session that followed reflected this mishmash of strong opinions, with many audience members using their brief spotlight as an opportunity to soapbox with incomprehensible tangents. Would not recommend other than to the politically-minded left-wing hipster-activist type; it is too heavy-handed for general audiences, in this reviewer’s opinion.
http://pdome.org/2012/deep-state/
The Grange Prize at AGO - Exhibition Review
The Grange Prize is a prize awarded each year to an outstanding contemporary photographer. The candidates exhibited their varied collections of photographs in the Art Gallery of Ontario between September and November 2012. Emmanuelle Léonard exhibited a film, “On Beauty and Ugliness in Photography,” as well as her photo series “Citizens, Protest, March 15, 2009” and “National Assembly of Québec.” Jason Evans exhibited his “The Daily Nice” photo series as a set of free postcards for gallery attendees, as well as a series of mixed media called “Pictures for Looking At.” Annie MacDonell had an installation, “Fade/Wipe/Dissolve;” a mixed media/sculptural series, “The Fortune Teller;” and a photo series, “Picture Collection.” The winner was Jo Longhurst, who exhibited her series of gymnast photographs entitled “Other Spaces.” My vote was for Longhurst, whose photographs were displayed in a conceptually appropriate and engaging manner, and the smaller sizes were interesting in that they drew the viewer closer.
http://thegrangeprize.com/the-grange-prize-2012
Summer Special: Exhibition Review
Corinne Carlson, Robin Collyer, Barr Gilmore, Jen Hutton, Sarah Lazarovic, Ron Terada
June 21 to November 11, 2012
Koffler Gallery Off-Site at Honest Ed’s
581 Bloor Street West
Curator: Mona Filip
A number of artists contributed work to this subtle exhibition hosted by an otherwise garish location: Honest Ed’s. One artist, Barr Gilmore, created a sign in the style of the landmark Honest Ed’s sign, but scrambled the letters to simply say “THE SON” (Ed Mirvish had only one child, a son). Sarah Lazarovic painted tweets about Toronto on signs, designed to resemble the hand-painted signwork around the store, and hung them above shopping racks on one of the the street-level rooms. Ron Terada uses Frank Stella-esque backgrounds for his outdoor pieces, which have several Honest Ed slogans over abstract lines. Overall, the exhibition’s strongest point was its subtlety. The work blends in well, and went mostly unnoticed by shoppers, from my observations during our October gallery tour.
http://www.kofflerarts.org/Programs/Event-Detail/?recordid=198
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Current Project: Depths (Drawing 4)
Before ink wash: fictional jellyfish #2
Current Project: Depths (Drawing 4)
Before ink wash: squid
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Current Project: Depths (Drawing 4)
These are some previews of the project I’m currently working on. I stretched eight pieces of black Stonehenge paper (temporarily dying my shower black in the process, as seen above); this way I could use wet media - namely ink - on the paper without warping the paper. I accidentally created a small art installation in the process.
(Source: mareeped)
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Personal Work - Poster Design (Design 3)
This poster was the final assignment of the “objects of influence” project series in Design 3, a class I’m taking this year. The idea was to create a poster using your typeface to reflect the original object of influence, as well as the look and feel of the typeface. I used a photo I had taken of a video installation at the Museum of Modern Art in New York this February, and attached a slogan that would directly clash with the look of the font, giving it a sense of dark humour.
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