news from the art gallery of mississauga /summer/fall/winter 2013

NEWS FROM THE ART GALLERY OF MISSISSAUGA / SUMMER/FALL/WINTER 2013
P. Mansaram, On the Way to Udaipur (detail), 2009,
Acrylic accentuated Mansamedia giclee on canvas,
51 x 117 cm
Dipna Horra,
Dhunia: Part One (video still),
2011, single channel audio/video,
28:00 min loop
011+91|011+92
July 18 – September 7, 2013
Telephone calling codes of India and Pakistan initiate
a critical discourse on Locational Identity and home.
ARTISTS | Khadija Baker, Avantika Bawa, Sunil Gupta, Dipna Horra,
Eshan Rafi, Meera Sethi, Sumaira Tazeen, Joshua Vettivelu
Curated by Stuart Keeler
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 18, 6 pm. All are invited to attend
the Opening Reception. There will be a FREE bus from The Gladstone Hotel
(1214 Queen St W, Toronto) at 6 pm. Admission to the Gallery is FREE.
011+91 | 011+92 is a curatorial research project that aims to initiate a critical discourse
and presentation on locational identity as explored and presented by first and second
generation Canadians who hail from South Asia. What part does a geographical divide
play in notions of home, place, and being?
Mississauga represents the diaspora of many cultures; an estimated 58% of citizens
speak Hindi, Urdu, or Punjabi as a first language. The act of communicating to, from
or about home, frames contemporary artists at the forefront of a social conversation
where identity may or may not be central to the work, whereas life experience and
humanistic values are at the forefront of this complex cipher. In an age when we are
everywhere at once, how can being and displacement create a homing instinct?
Meera Sethi, Mariam Maharaj (Mary), (Foreign Returned series), 2013,
Acrylic on canvas, 122 x 183 cm
P. Mansaram
Past|Present
July 18 – September 7, 2013
Print, collage, photography and drawing from 1966 - 2013
explore the experience of reinvention and “being.”
Curated by Stuart Keeler
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 18, 6 pm. FREE bus from The Gladstone Hotel
(1214 Queen St W, Toronto) at 6 pm. Admission to the Gallery is FREE.
This is the first retrospective exhibition of acclaimed Canadian artist Panchal Mansaram,
who was born in Rajasthan India and immigrated to Canada in 1966. Tracing Mansaram’s
considerable artistic output, the exhibition features more than 20 preparatory drawings,
sketches, collage studies and panels relating to his early work from the 1960’s until 2013.
The exhibition features several early pieces, among the first of Mansaram’s exhibited
works, which offer a glimpse into the artist’s struggle to channel cultural commentary
into layered, subversive observations of Canadian life. Mansaram’s collaborations
with Marshall McLuhan are also included. As well, a significant portion of the exhibition
is devoted to collages, a medium that in its myriad forms has consumed the artist
throughout his career. Produced between 1978 and 2011, this body of work highlights
the commitment and vision of a senior artist. Mansaram’s work is held in the public trust
in numerous collections, including the Royal Ontario Museum, Air India, Marshall McLuhan
estate, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Government of Ontario Art
Collection, National Gallery of Canada, and Modern Art New Delhi.
P. Mansaram, On the Way to Udaipur, 2009, Acrylic accentuated Mansamedia giclee on canvas, 51 x 117 cm
XIT-RM
Sponsored by
The RBC Foundation.
The XIT-RM is a project space initiative at the AGM
showcasing emerging and regional artists in the GTA.
Alice Wang
The fallacy of
misplaced Concreteness
July 18 – September 7, 2013
Tenses speak to each
other in artist Alice Wang’s
The fallacy of misplaced
concreteness. An XIT-RM
project by emerging guest
curator Erik Martinson.
Alice Wang, The fallacy of misplaced concreteness
(video still), 2012. Courtesy of the artist.
The video considers the artist’s family history in China, from her grandfather’s
secret operative work for the Chinese government during WWII, with a masquerade
of wealth as his cover in Hong Kong, to the violent reforms of the 1960s, and the
perception of this privilege that lead to his family’s torment. Memory and history
come in and out of focus, across generations. The backdrop of a Cultural Revolution
set in Zhenbeibao Western Film Studio, a site of artifice, allows an interrogation of
how we see history. A tour of a lens factory furthers this line of questioning, the
mechanical construction of sight laid bare before us.
Franco Arcieri: Astral Noise
September 26 – November 9, 2013
Emerging artist Franco Arcieri investigates motion and movement with the
use of fabric as a means of concealing his body. Appearing as an archetype
and performing in an almost dreamlike trance, the artist plays with our
memory and senses. Arcieri employs sculpture, video and sound to create
an encounter with the viewer through an innovative fibre-based performance.
Nataliya Petkova
in collaboration with NAISA
November 21, 2013 – January 1, 2014
New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) is a non-profit organization, based in Toronto
that produces performances and installations spanning the entire spectrum of
electroacoustic and experimental sound art. Join NAISA and the AGM with a curated
emerging artist project of sound, technology and new approaches to the medium.
The objectives of NAISA are to foster awareness and understanding locally, as well
as nationally and internationally, in the cultural vitality of experimental sound art
in its myriad forms of expression.
Ontario
Arts
Council
The AGM is now an Artist Recommender for Exhibition Assistance Grants
The Ontario Arts Council’s Exhibition Assistance Program assists visual
artists, craft artists and media artists with costs directly related to presenting
their work in confirmed, upcoming, public exhibitions. The AGM now serves
as a disburser of Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance grants. The
Gallery will accept exhibition assistance applications from both Peel Region
and Mississauga based artists who have confirmed exhibitions, and make
recommendations for funding amount to the OAC. Applications are received
and assessed by the Curatorial Team at the AGM.
Please see the AGM website for more information, deadlines, and workshops.
ARTIST
PROFESSIONAL
PRACTICES
New Session Begins October 1, 2013 10 sessions, Tuesday nights, 7 – 9 pm
See website for updates and details. Registration fee: $100 for all 10 sessions.
Scholarships Available.
Register by September 13, 5 pm. 905 896 5088 / [email protected]
The workshops will introduce valuable tactics – from planning and assessment
to time management and negotiation – which are seldom offered to visual
artists in ways that are relevant to their practice. Close collaboration with
granting agencies, professional writers, as well as arts professionals enable
a transparent learning experience and networking source. Presentations
by established mid-career artists, as well as emerging artist conversations
will generate an open dialogue and foster an environment of exchange.
All workshops are taught by recognized professionals in the field.
A series of 10 workshops presented at the AGM will demonstrate
community building as well as artist network support systems which
will create a culminating experience to strengthen each artist’s
professional knowledge and confidence. Take charge of your Career!
<905>engage</905>
Funded by the
Community Foundation of Mississauga
<905>engage</905> is a youth-led, emerging artist collective with open membership
for artists aged 14-25. Supported by the Art Gallery of Mississauga (AGM), the
collective, led by artist Robert O’Halloran, aims to actively foster and retain talent in
the City by serving as a professional and social hub for Mississauga’s young creative
class through social and educational events and monthly exhibition opportunities.
The demonstrated need this project addresses is the lack of young local artists’
exposure to meaningful contemporary art experiences. To address this gap,
<905>engage</905> targets local Youth who have already expressed a desire
to form a group that is removed from school, religion or family constructs
to organize exhibition opportunities, with outings and forums for learning
that can include, but are not limited to, friendly art battles, sketch-crawls,
movie nights, artist lectures, workshops, studio tours, mentorships, and
field trips. The goal is to empower youth with activation in the arts, where
the AGM and environs become a meeting space and positive activation
space for youth energized by visual art. Contact the AGM to get involved!
SocialFabric
Funded by the
Community Foundation of Mississauga
A new collaborative art and social platform for Mississauga residents to define and
interact with contemporary art, culture and heritage. This project situates artists
at various locations, from library branches to social services sites and community
gardens to document grassroots movements and “alternative” histories that
are often overlooked in the story of Mississauga. The AGM is interested in a civic
dialogue on how history and heritage are considered as populations and social
structures diversify. How can art celebrate overshadowed histories and movements
alongside mainstream narratives of the city? Interested in becoming involved?
We need your voice. Contact Tina Chu, Engagement Officer, for more information.
ArtInFocus
Every month a 905 | GTA cultural producer will be featured at the AGM with a talk
and roundtable conversation series on their work. Artists and a variety of art
professionals will discuss their practice, various projects they’ve worked on,
what drew them to a particular medium in the first place, and what continues
to conceptually inspire or motivate them. A one-on-one conversation or critique
on their work with each producer will be available on a first come first serve basis.
See the AGM website for details.
30minuteCuratorFridays
Book a 30 minute appointment with an AGM Curator to discuss your work or
questions you may have about your artistic career. Occurs monthly on a rotating
basis with Director | Curator Stuart Keeler and Assistant Curator Erin Rutherford.
Email [email protected] to book an appointment.
F’dUp!
September 26 – November 9, 2013
Contemporary directions in fibre-based art create a radical vocabulary
around material invention and sculptural ambitions.
ARTISTS | Franco Arcieri, Claire Ashley, Amanda Browder, Lyn Carter, Kai Chan,
Noelle Hamlyn and Colleen Snell, Hazel Meyer, Judith Tinkl, Anne Wilson
Curated by Stuart Keeler
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 26, 6 pm. FREE bus from The Gladstone
Hotel (1214 Queen St W, Toronto) at 6 pm. Admission to the Gallery is FREE.
The intent of F’d Up! is to bring together significant works by artists that employ
the skills and techniques of traditional craft or fibre. However, Fibre vs. Craft
or Craft vs. Art is not the topic or interest. What is “f’d up” is that the artist who
works with thread, string, yarn or fabric is often equated with the backroom
politics of the moniker “women’s work,” a gender-based derogatory term that
precludes the possibility of male artists working with fibre. However, it seems
the conversation now involves notions of masculinity, identity, diaspora and
global politics in addition to the queer crafting movement.
F’d Up! aims to explore the tension between these new directions that redefine
the concept of “fibre art” based on examples of significant artists working in North
America today. Founded upon experimentation, these works differentiate the
protagonists from decades before, thereby illustrating how a new vocabulary
is created as the result of a formative radical gesture. F’d Up! aims to evolve the
discussion of artists’ conceptual intent alongside technique, while simultaneously
exploring the slippage that begins to undermine materiality, both at the time a work of
art was made, and subsequently as it ages and deteriorates. The exhibition expands
upon the conversation between sculptural ambition and the multiple forms of fibre.
Anne Wilson and Shawn Decker, Mess, 2006, Edition of 20. A single projection video and
sound installation derived from Errant Behaviors. Animator: Cat Solen; Post-production
Animators: Mark Anderson and Daniel Torrente. Copyright 2006 Anne Wilson
paradigmshift:thepermanentcollection
November 21, 2013 – January 1, 2014
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 21, 6 pm. FREE bus from The Gladstone
Hotel (1214 Queen St W, Toronto) at 6 pm. Admission to the Gallery is FREE.
Curated by Erin Rutherford
In 1994, the Art Gallery of Mississauga began collecting artworks for its
Permanent Collection. In 1998, the collecting process was placed under a
moratorium. In 2013, the moratorium will be lifted.
This exhibition presents artworks from the current AGM Permanent Collection and
envisions how the tone of collecting will be modernized as the AGM moves into the
future. The placement of artworks within the gallery harkens back to a traditional
Salon. Yet upon closer inspection, we notice it is punctuated with difference. A new
direction takes shape, and the collection is reactivated through contemporary
image and lens-based practices. Paradigm shift: the permanent collection puts
the methods and madness of transformation, digitization and rejuvenation on full
display: from artwork pairings representative of our new direction to a professional
team at work in the Robert Freeman Gallery. Herein we mirror the notions of
Thomas Kuhn, with our advancement occurring as a “series of peaceful interludes
punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions.” Come join our movement.
FaisalAnwar
November 21, 2013 – January 1, 2014
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 21, 6 pm. All are invited to attend
the Opening Reception. There will be a FREE bus from The Gladstone Hotel
(1214 Queen St W, Toronto) at 6 pm. Admission to the Gallery is FREE.
Curated by Stuart Keeler
Join Faisal Anwar with a new digital media work in the Main Gallery at the AGM.
Currently in the progress of research and secrecy...shhhhhhhh! Stay tuned!
Anwar is an artist with an interest in interactive production and technology.
He is the founder of an interactive art studio, DigitalDip, and co-founder of
Me A Monster Inc. His project series, Odd spaces, brings together art, culture
and technology in an odd configuration to explore our perceptions towards
architectural space, private or public spaces and social interactivity in modern
urban cultures. He has shown at the Winter Olympics 2010, and has performed
nationally and internationally.
His project, Odd spaces, was part of Vancouver Olympics- 2010 Code live exhibition,
a real-time remote installation between Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vancouver. In
October 2011, Odd spaces was also shown at Nuit-Blanche Toronto and created
a real-time installation between Karachi, NewYork and Toronto. Odd spaces was
presented at the exhibition Six Degrees of Separation: Chaos, Congruence &
Collaboration, 2008, curated by KHOJ, International Artists’ Association in Delhi,
India and was presented in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh in September 2008.
THANK YOU TO THE RBC FOUNDATION
FOR THEIR GENEROUS SUPPORT
SILVER CORPORATE
MEMBER
$2,500 plus
Mercedes-Benz Mississauga
Walkers Fish Market
E.I. du Pont Canada Company
BRONZE CORPORATE MEMBERS
$1,500 plus
BDO Dunwoody, LLP
HONOURARY MEMBERS
Mayor Hazel McCallion
Janice Baker
Paul Mitcham
FOUNDING MEMBERS
D.R. Lane
J.B. MacNaughton
R. Rhind
P. Sharpe
R.V. Smith
G.F. Suma
S. Van Camp
SUPPORTING
$1,000 PLUS
Robert Tattersall
Susan Collacott
CONTRIBUTING
$500 PLUS
Arun & Jean Menon
Don & Bonnie
Flavours Inc.
Mississauga Cosmetic
Surgery Clinic
Pallett Valo LLP
CURATOR’S CLUB
$250.00 PLUS
Dr. S.V. Anand
The Flower Cellar Inc.
Cathy Griggs
John Kucera-Studio UA3
Racquel Lindsay
Ali J. Rana
Michael Spaziani
FRIENDS
$150.00 PLUS
Jacqueline &
Dennis Bryant
Prophix Software Inc.
David Elliott
Hugh Fraser
Heather Grindley
Doriel & Doug Laing
David MacKay
Museumpros
Alice Piotrowski
Albert & Joan Spavins
Fred & Kathy Troughton
SILVER DONORS
Christine Montague
Z’Anne Keele
Thanks to Our Supporters
The Art Gallery of Mississauga gratefully acknowledges the financial support of The OAC Investment
in the Arts Fund as well as the Hazel McCallion Foundation for the Arts, Culture and Heritage.
Engage. Think. Inspire. This phrase opens the dialogue at the AGM. The Gallery connects with the people
of Mississauga through the collection and presentation of relevant works from a range of periods and
movements in Canadian art. Expressing multiple ideas and concepts, this visual art translates into
meaningful cultural and social experiences for all audiences. The AGM employs innovative education, artist
projects and other forms of dialogue to advance critical enquiry and community connection to the visual arts.
Gallery Address:
Art Gallery of Mississauga
300 City Centre Drive, Mississauga, ON L5B 3C1
Tel: 905-896-5088
Web: Check website for updates.
artgalleryofmississauga.com
ISBN 978-1-895436-98-3
Staff:
Stuart Keeler – Director | Curator
Gail Farndon – Operations | Development
Tina Chu – Engagement Officer
Erin Rutherford – Assistant Curator | Registrar
Jaclyn Qua-Hiansen – Communications
Melanie Gausden – Lead Animateur | Visitor Services
Laura Carusi – Animateur