Jennifer Matotek’s favourite Canadian curated moments
[This list is part of an informal archive of Canadian curated moments put together by Canadian curators from across the country. Jennifer Matotek is an independent curator and videomaker based in Toronto. Formerly employed as the Assistant Curator of Exhibitions at...
Christopher Regimbal’s Top 5 Canadian curated moments
This list is part of an informal archive of Canadian curated moments put together by Canadian curators from across the country. Christopher Régimbal is an art historian and curator based out of Toronto, Canada. He is Curatorial Assistant at the Justina M. Barnicke gallery, University of Toronto and his criticism has appeared in Fuse Magazine, Art Papers and on 89.5FM CIUT. His next exhibition is Bruce Nauman: Audio/Video Piece for London, Ontario at the Forest City Gallery in London, Ontario.
An archive of Canadian curated moments
Last week, I wrote about Kitty Scott’s challenge to AGO audience members and emerging curators to list a handful of influential Canadian exhibitions, organized by Canadian curators, that have taken place over the past 30 years. So, in an effort to put together an informal archive of what Alissa Firth-Eagland suggested calling “Canadian curated moments,” and to generate some discussion about why it is so hard to put such a list together, I’m inviting “emerging” (though I hate that word – emerging from what? And into what?) and mid-career curators in Canada (or formerly based in Canada) to weigh in on the exhibitions that have influenced them
What are the “great” Canadian exhibitions of the past 30 years?
I just got back from Kitty Scott’s talk on Betty Goodwin, as part of the Art Gallery of Ontario’s current (very good) exhibition “At Work.” What piqued my interest about her presentation was actually one of her asides about the history of recent curatorial projects in Canada. Arguing that exhibitions are an important way that new knowledge is produced, and that histories of exhibition-making in Canada are not as thorough as they should be, Scott proposed that most people would find it difficult to name 6 or 7 Canadian curators, or “great” Canadian exhibitions, that have happened in the past few decades.
Zeesy Powers’ “Projected Realities”
On Friday night, I had the pleasure of seeing a set of new works by Toronto artist Zeesy Powers at Gallery TPW as part of the gallery’s ongoing series “You Had To Be There,” which investigates the relationship between liveness and images. I’ve known Powers’ work for a long time now (in fact, I’ve curated it into a few of my shows), so it was exciting to see her new performance-projections, including TOTAL PANIC, a new piece that uses professional dancers as performers rather than the artist herself.
Teaching as the modeling of practice
I have been thinking a lot lately about teaching as a methodology. Not just because I am in the midst of teaching my first course at OCAD, but also because my dissertation research is focusing on the relationship between photographic representation and pedagogy, or the way that photography is uniquely positioned as a way of performing, modeling and transmitting particular subject positions, especially in the colonial and post-colonial context. The fact that I come from two families that suffer from the “teaching disease” (both my parents, as well as more aunts, uncles and grandparents than I can count, were/are public school or university teachers) is probably also a contributing factor.
Toronto reviews in this month’s ARTnews
I haven’t seen a copy yet (and only their features are available online, sadly), but this month’s issue of ARTnews magazine features five reviews from Toronto in their “International” section, including three from me: a Jen Hutton-curated group show, “Site Exercises,” at Susan Hobbs Gallery; a solo show by architect and photographer Morden Yolles, curated by Ed Burtynsky, at Nicholas Metivier; and “The Storyteller,” organized by Independent Curators International, on view at the AGO.
Two Toronto reviews out in esse: Steve Lyons/Susan Lakin at Gallery 44 and Sarah Clifford-Rashotte at LE Gallery
The Montreal-based esse magazine’s fall issue just came out this week and includes two Toronto reviews that I penned back in the summer: a two-person show called “Monitors” hosted by Gallery 44 that included the work of Steve Lyons and Susan Lakin and a solo show by Sarah Clifford-Rashotte at the Dundas St. West LE Gallery.
Writing as Practice
I had a “studio visit” lunch with a curator colleague last week where we each talked (very informally) about our current projects and thinking, in an effort to break down the weird communication barrier that sometimes exists between curatorial colleagues. Cheyanne asked a good question, one that I hadn’t consciously considered before: how do you see writing fitting in to the rest of your work?
Art Fag City on Curators syndrome
I don’t know if Paddy Johnson over at Art Fag City has developed a wryer sense of humour over the past few weeks, or if I’ve just been paying closer attention to her blog since she started reporting on her recent art viewing experiences in Toronto. But either way, I’ve been really enjoying her commentary on the TO scene. Especially when she coined the term “curators syndrome” which she defines as “A selection of bad work from the 300 or so artists on the curator-darling list.”
Deschooling Society: art, education and “knowledge production”
Thanks to my friend and fellow curator Shaun Dacey, I found out about a two-day conference being co-organized by the Hayward Gallery and the Serpentine Gallery during my stay in London titled “Deschooling Society”. Though the conference was nearly sold out, I managed to get tickets and then spent April 29th and 30th taking more than 20 pages of hastily scribbled notes about the proceedings. The Hayward Gallery’s blog has recently uploaded podcasts from all of the major sessions and they’re worth a listen, but here are my highlights from the conference.
“This is uncomfortable” opens June 24 at Gallery TPW
After almost 18 months of work and feedback, “This is uncomfortable” is opening tomorrow night at Gallery TPW from 7-9 pm. Curated by myself and Arpi Kovacs, the show features five artists mining the awkward and uncomfortable results of interacting with other people.