After four and a half years at its original location in 100 McCaul Street, Onsite [at] OCAD University will use this winter’s break to move to a new, much-expanded location at 230 Richmond Street West as part of this year’s on-going celebration of OCAD University’s 135th anniversary.

The inaugural exhibition in this new venue is the first in a series of partnerships between Canadian and foreign artists that is called “Twinning Artists—Twinning Cities,” and that was conceived of in collaboration with Partners in Art. Avalon (Bangalore and Toronto) is the first project in the “Twinning” series. To launch Avalon, Toronto’s Oliver Husain completed a residency in Bangalore this fall, during which he shot a new film titled Item Number — a backstage drama inspired by architect KM Heinz, which will premiere in Bangalore in late April. 

The Toronto exhibition of Avalon, co-curated by Shai Heredia and Charles Reeve, will introduce three highly regarded artists from Bangalore — Abhishek Hazra, Yashas Shetty and Bharathesh G D — and incorporate collaborative elements by Oliver Husain. This exhibition will explore fantasy through drama — dreams of flamboyant houses with eclectic facades — mythological imaginings of Kannada cinema — visual exploration of local micro organisms… Avalon is a place where art confronts the science of modernity.

Featuring:
Abhishek Hazra(Bangalore, India)
Oliver Husain Toronto, Canada)
Yashas Shetty Bangalore, India)
Bharathesh G D (Bangalore, India)

Curator’s Tour with Charles Reeve:
Thursday, February 16, 6:30 p.m.

Gallery Tour with Pamila Matharu
Thursday, March 23, 6:30 p.m.

Heinz performance by Oliver Husain
Saturday, April 14, 4 p.m.

When: Exhibition runs from Thursday January 26, 2012 to Sunday June 3, 2012
Where: at Onsite [at] OCAD U gallery’s new location at 230 Richmond Street West

More about the participants:

Abhishek Hazra is a visual artist based in Bangalore. He graduated from the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology. His work explores the intersections between technology and culture through animated shorts and performance pieces that often integrate textual fragments drawn from real and fictional scenarios. He is also interested in the social history of scientific practices in colonial India.

Oliver Husain is a filmmaker and artist based in Toronto. After studying film and art in Germany and India, he was founding member of two collectives, the performance troupe Da Group and the music video production Husain Klöfkorn. His experimental films and videos often expand into the cinema or gallery space as screening performances or installations. Using multiple formats and genres, his work proposes a re-imagining of social formations and normative spaces. Recent solo exhibitions include the Art Gallery of York University and Susan Hobbs Gallery. In 2011 his work was included in shows at Portikus Frankfurt, ICA Philadelphia and the National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta.

Artist, composer and educator Yashas Shetty is an Artist in Residence and faculty at the Centre For Experimental Media Arts at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology and an artist in residence at the National Centre For Biological Sciences (NCBS). His practice includes installation, sound, software and biotechnology, and bridges art and science. He also creates dialogues between scientists, artists and the larger community. He has conducted workshops and taught in colleges in India and abroad. He is developing an open source framework and community for artists and designers working with living organisms.

Bharathesh G D is a video and performance artist based in Bangalore where he studied art history and philosophy. His practice is often based on collaboration and explores various disciplines such as installation, public art, sound, art outreach programs, and video.

In 2003, curator and filmmaker Shai Heredia founded Experimenta, an international festival for moving-image art in India that has become a significant forum for artists’ film and video. Heredia has curated experimental film programs at major venues worldwide, including the Tate Modern; the Berlin International Film Festival; the Images Festival, Toronto; EXIS, Seoul; and Light Cone’s nomadic Scratch Projections, Paris. Her latest film, I Am Micro, co-directed with Shumona Goel, has screened at the Guggenheim Museum (Berlin/NYC), the Rotterdam Film Festival, and the Images Festival.

Charles Reeve is Associate Professor of Liberal Arts & Sciences and Art at OCAD University, where he is also Curator for Onsite [at] OCAD U.

Onsite [at] OCAD U Gallery Hours:
Tuesday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.

Admission to the gallery and all related events is free.

Specifically, we are looking for works that address the following questions:

o   Why is water important? How do we relate to water?

o   What does safe water access mean in the 21st century?

o   How do we envision the future of water in our communities, in Canada and in the world?

The Conference, which is taking place on 29-30 March 2012, will bring together leading international experts, policy-makers and students to generate cross-disciplinary discussion on the most pertinent water-related issues and potential solutions.

In addition to understanding the issue of water scarcity and politics from this perspective, we want to invite artists to contribute to the dialogue.

All submitted artwork must be original to the artist, not a reproduction of original artwork, created within three years of entry date.  Artists will be profiled prominently at the exhibit.

Deadline for submission:1 March 2012
Dates of the public artists’ exhibit: March 22-April 5 2012
Location:Munk School of Global Affairs, main building at 1 Devonshire Place, Toronto, ON

SUBMISION REQUIREMENTS:

Interested artists please submit:

·       Short description of proposed project

·       Detailed Artist Statement

Artists may submit more than one piece for consideration.

Email to: Munk.graduateconference@utoronto.ca

More on the Conference:

Not a Drop to Drink: Water Scarcity and Politics in the 21 Century will explore the causes of water scarcity, accessibility and ownership of water as a resource, and how water diplomacy will impact future relations between people, communities and states.

Where: Angell Gallery @ 12 Ossington Avenue
When: January 19th – February 18th
Opening reception: Thursday January 19th 6–9 PM

Curated by Luke Painter, “Pixel Pusher” brings together 4 artists, David Clarkson, Michael Antkowiak, Jillian Kay Ross and Craig Skinner, whose painting practices have strong connections to digital processes. Although painting is a medium that is well known for its plasticity and movement, artists have continually found new ways to incorporate and mediate the techniques and methods of digital space into their paintings.

In Michael Antkowiak’s work these methods include using online content as a source that is translated through paint to canvas. Antkowiak has researched personal webcam sites that individuals set up in their homes (often every room), where anyone can view the activities of their everyday lives. Antkowiak, who is interested in voyeurism and surveillance, takes these pixilated and blurry low-resolution images and further transforms them through paint into emotionally charged, dynamic spaces.

Known for planning paintings out via digital interfaces and painting them after the fact, Jillian Ross has created an entirely virtual space that is animated through the use of 3D software and shown on a HD monitor in the gallery. The animation starts with a framed painting that is sitting on the floor of what we presume to be a gallery space. Water rises up through the floor and eventually covers the painting. The water level falls so that that the scene returns to its original configuration and the animation loops through the cycle again. The realistic looking scene becomes an unusual and irreverent narrative take on the familiar white cube of exhibition spaces.

The artists in “Pixel Pusher” are seeking new ways of incorporating diverse uses of digital media in their work. Utilizing tools found in social media and commercial 3D animation these artists provide a conversation between the rich history of painting and the technologies permeating our everyday lives.

Opening Reception: Friday January 20, 2012 from 7pm to 9pm
Exhibition from: January 21 – April 1, 2012

The NOW service bureau kicks off 2012 inside the Young gallery. This Do It Yourself (DIY) agency offers visitors the opportunity to use the gallery as a forum for pressing Toronto issues. Pushing the idea of Toronto Now to its edge the artists appropriate the AGO logo and the NOW name to provide a place of artistic creativity that encourages mindful action on local issues. This project reflects the artists’ interest in the tension between the rush and impatience of our current lifestyle and the benefit of slowing down, being mindful and aware of environmental, political and cultural subjects. This tension is supported by the DIY mentality that privileges the experience of the here and now in order to provoke change through self-consciousness, self-transformation and social interactions or exchanges.

GIFT SHOP GIFT SHOP

Gift Shop Gift Shop, a store within a store features souvenirs of the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) gift shop itself, rather than the expected gallery mementos, as well as other related open-edition art multiples. Gift Shop Gift Shop works by artists Sean Martindale and Pascal Paquette will be available alongside both collaborative and independent multiples by other local Toronto-based artists, designers and illustrators. The products for sale develop out of self-reflective art making and many of the works transform raw street and everyday materials and images into privileged, valuable objects. This project builds off the artists’ affinity for collaboration and the practice of using reclaimed materials. Taking inspiration from existing gift shop souvenirs or using gift shop overstock, these items will be examined and reworked to deconstruct how consumable objects are given value.

Martindale and Paquette run Gift Shop Gift Shop with shopAGO as a parallel project during the course of the NOW exhibition in the Toronto Now Series. Located in the Young Gallery, the Toronto Now Series promotes Toronto’s local arts community, in addition to providing visitors free access to contemporary art. Situated on in the eastern corner of the AGO, the Young gallery is accessed through the museum’s FRANK Restaurant. Developed from an exploration and recognition of the Young gallery’s position within the larger institution and through meetings with the museum’s gift shop and FRANK Restaurant, the artists extend their project beyond the gallery into other areas of the museum.

About the artists:

Toronto-based Sean Martindale has been living and working in Toronto since completing his MFA at OCAD University. A graduate from Emily Carr University in design Martindale combines his fine art background with street art to communicate complicated ideas with visual simplicity driven by the hope of connecting to a pluralistic audience. His process involves ongoing interventions that use reclaimed, recyclable and plant materials. Determined to start a conversation, Martindale’s work focuses on exploring the visual language of signs while making sculptural DIY creations that are often reproducible and open-sourced.

A recognizable figure in two distinctive art worlds, Pascal Paquette has spent the last decade traversing the contemporary art scene, while learning and expanding on his graffiti writing practice under the pseudonym Mon Petit Chou. Paquette’s thematic interests interrogate the transformation of culture that occurs when two or more economic, social or cultural realities collide. He works primarily through painting but also employs street art, graffiti and photography in projects that are often site-specific or geographically dependent. Paquette is a graduate of the Graphic Arts program at La Cite Collegiale in Ottawa, Canada.

About the Project:

Martindale and Paquette join forces for the first time to create a collaborative installation for the Toronto Now Series. Curated by Katherine Dennis, an MFA candidate in Criticism & Curatorial Practice at OCAD University this exhibition is the focus of her thesis. Over the course of five months the artists and curator have worked closely with the AGO including the FRANK restaurant, the AGO gift shop and the Weston Family Learning Centre to construct an integrated project that playfully works with and responds to established museum systems.

Harbourfront Centre is pleased to issue the fifth Call for Submissions for the national commissioning programme, Fresh Ground new works. Prize-winners will receive funding of up to $20,000 toward the creation and presentation of their projects during Harbourfront Centre’s 2013-2014 season.

A key facet of Harbourfront Centre’s mandate is championing the creation of new artistic works, providing a forum for originality, invention and inspiration. Through Fresh Ground new works, over $400,000 has been granted to 19 new interdisciplinary Canadian works created by artists and companies from across the country since 2004.

In 2012, a maximum prize of $20,000 will be awarded to each of the winning projects which successfully fulfill the selection panel’s criteria for a new, collaborative multidisciplinary artistic creation. As in previous years, the work must be original, never before presented or performed, and be ready for presentation or installation at Harbourfront Centre between September 2013 and June 2014.

Potential applicants should visit harbourfrontcentre.com/whatson/freshground/ for detailed information on proposal criteria and submission instructions. Briefly, proposals should:

- focus on Harbourfront Centre’s unique site, its relationship to the surrounding area, its history, environment and role as a gateway to the city;
- demonstrate an understanding of and be complementary to Harbourfront Centre’s mission and vision;
- engage the widest possible audience.

The Call for Submission deadline is 5:00 p.m. on Monday, January 30, 2012.

Short-listed applicants will be invited to submit a more detailed proposal and will be notified by Thursday, March 1, 2012.

For more information on Fresh Ground new works, the first 14 award-winning projects and the five projects being presented this season, as well as guidelines on applying for funding, please visit harbourfrontcentre.com/whatson/freshground/.

“Magic Realism is commonly used as a term to describe an aesthetic style of fiction where magic and mythology blends with the real world. Showing in the Gladstone Gallery, the artists in Ethereal Existence use their work to show this concept, usually reserved for fiction, in a visual format. Their drawings, paintings, photographs, illustrations and prints show the darker side of reality, depicting scenes from everyday life to the mythological and where the two meet.”

Showing at the Gladstone Gallery from January 10th to January 22nd, 2012.
Opening Reception: Thursday January 12, 2012 from 7pm to 10pm.

PIN UP
Front Gallery: A Fundraising Sale of Limited Edition Posters by Artists
Back Gallery: Archival Show of posters from the collection of Michael Parke-Taylor

“It’s that time of year again… Mercer Union is offering fine art at street prices! Limited edition posters by artists, each available for just $75, are hot off the press just in time for the holiday season. No nudes but other good things to make the eyes pop: optical tricks, word games, and slick design concepts. Like the best guerrilla advertising, these gift-worthy posters will fill our walls and disappear just as fast. Mark your calendars now – the show is up for three days only!

Posters will be available in limited editions of 5 at $75 each. All sales support Mercer Union’s exhibitions and public programs. For more information, click here.

Running alongside the new works selected for PIN UP, Mercer Union will feature a special exhibition of Toronto gig posters drawn from Michael Parke-Taylor’s extensive collection. This show provides a rare opportunity to peak into the former AGO Curator of Modern Art’s personal archive of paste-up print design. The selection offers an eclectic index of posters for famous and not-so-famous musical acts who have performed in Toronto over the last fifteen years.”

by Lindsay Denise

XPACE will be hosting an UNDERWEAR DANCE PARTY* for the closing reception of Lindsay Denise’s “Dancing With Myself & Others,” which has been on display for the past 4 weeks.
Attendees are encouraged to participate in the exhibit through exhibitionism and share their groovy moves. DJ FoodCourt will take the lid off your id and dish out the dirty dance-pop ditties you secretly crave. Feast on guilty pleasures from across the decades as we launch the bedroom dance party into XPACE.

FEATURING:

OCADU Hip-Hop Collective, I.B. Scene to kick-off the night with a freestyle throw-down! Starting at 8:00pm.

OCADU Zine Collective will be selling zines made by OCAD U students, showing samples of the zines from their library, and teaching people how to make a quick book with just a 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper and a pair of scissors.

*Dress code is definitely not mandatory! Wear what makes you comfortable!

When: Friday November 11 –  7pm-11pm
Where: XPACE Cultural Centre @ 58 Ossington Avenue, Toronto

Last Friday, XPACE hosted a panel discussion exploring the growing convergence between the internet and the arts. For most of us, the internet simply acts as a supplement to our daily lives. A near boundless source of information, a tool for social connection, a varied means of entertainment- the web is undeniably multifunctional. Yet it remains secondary to “real life” for the majority, for whom first-hand relationships take priority over virtual engagement.

Media artist Jon Rafman discussed the few who choose to replace their reality with virtual alternatives, provoking questions about the boundaries between reality and virtual reality. With the help of “Kool-Aid Man”, his Second Life avatar, Rafman gives tours of the online community to public audiences. Second Life is basically a computer game, that’s very similar to “The Sims.” But instead of controlling anonymous avatars that are distinct from the player’s identity, each player manipulates an avatar that is representative of themselves. So the “game” then becomes an extension of the player’s reality, with the avatar’s actions motivated by the player’s own intentions and desires.

Rafman considers himself a “twentieth-century flaneur, always keeping a cool distance” from the virtual world that he traverses. Second Life provides the venue for a sort of hyper-charged urban exploration, since users are afforded the chance to create their own spaces and environments. The result is a myriad of bizarre landscapes, each pertaining to a particular member’s whims or ideals. The game also acts as a “hyper-charged chatroom”, allowing users to form meaningful bonds with other users from around the world.

The most common reaction to Second Life is one of condescending shock, bordering on disgust. How can these people waste their lives in front of a computer screen? Don’t they want real friends, a real social life? In part, I think this reaction is borne of embarassment for the Second Life user. By explicitly rejecting their own reality, in favour of one they can completely control, Second Life users are essentially admitting their dissatisfaction with their own lives. We assume that they must consider their lives boring, unfulfilling, or somehow inadequate to seek out another one. But as Rafman so politely pointed out, Second Life is not much of a stretch from other online social networks, like Facebook and Twitter. Each platform allows its users to create their own online identities, which serve as representations of themselves to some degree or other.

Most interesting, I thought, was Rafman’s question of why we value “reality” so much more than virtual reality. Are things experienced online somehow less true or meaningful? And how are we to navigate the boundary between real life and virtual life, when the two are becoming ever-more dependent? Is this real or virtual?

I post the excellent Richard Condie short above for a couple of reasons. First, because people should be aware of the increasing amount of NFB content being made available for free online. This stuff was my bread and butter during days home sick when I was a kid. Don’t ask me how I saw them, but I figured the chances of seeing any of this fantastic material again was lost once our family vault of badly dubbed VHS tapes went the way of the dodo.

Secondly, I was asked to join the roster of folks blogging for XPACE through the XBLOG way back in october sometime, and have quite frankly not contributed until now. Perhaps it was a little stagefright and an unexpectedly busy last semester at OCAD, though I think Condie’s short nails the sentiment quite well.

Why do creative tasks seem to require so much more initiative? I suspect it has to do both with our abilities to visualize creative or expressive content before making, and with the standards to which we hold this type of work. (Whereas arbitrary taskwork really only consists of an action that is fulfilled). Many artists working conceptually run into this trap, because the impetus to create an object is often secondary to the development of the concept. Combine this with the impossibly high standards most creative people hold themselves to and its a wonder anybody gets anything done at all.

That being said, the new year is a time for resolutions, and with that I am happy to announce I will be a regular contributor to this blog. You may expect from me discussion and resources surrounding: the state of the object, readymade, function and abstraction in contemporary sculpture and installation work, as well as hopefully a good deal of art history crate digging and the occasional non-sequitur.

To get a better idea of where I am coming from, I use a Tumblr blog for my portfolio, and it can be found here: liamcrockard.tumblr.com

Later this week – predicted art trends for 2010!