Sally McKay’s Top 7 Canadian curated moments

Curator, artist and kick-ass neuroaesthetics researcher Sally McKay has put up her own list of her favourite 7 Canadian exhibitions/events/moments on the blog she shares with L.M. It’s a great list that combines DIY, artist collective moments from the likes of Persona Volare (who McKay considers self-curating, an apt description I’d never considered before) with big institutional exhibitions at the AGO and recent group shows in Toronto and Barrie (happy to see Meryl McMaster on the list, who is doing some incredible things with portrait photography).

Here’s a rundown of the titles that made her list (full descriptions and images are available on her blog).

1) Free Parking Gallery (1996-1997)
curators: Michael Buckland, Jill Henderson, Anda Kubis
artists: too many to list here, but Sally provides the full rundown

2) Persona Volare (2000-ongoing)
artists/curators: David Acheson, Carlo Cesta, Michael Davey, Reid Diamond, John Dickson, Rebecca Diederichs, Brian Hobbs, Lorna Mills, Lisa Neighbour, Chantal Rousseau, Lyla Rye, Kate Wilson, Johannes Zits

3) House Guests: Contemporary Artists in the Grange (2001), Art Gallery of Ontario
curators: Jessica Bradley, Christina Ritchie, Jenny Rieger
artists: Rebecca Belmore, Robert Fones, Luis Jacob, Elizabeth LeMoine, Josiah McElheny, Elaine Reichek, Christy Thompson

4) Speaking about Landscape, Speaking to the Land, AGO (2005)
curator: Richard William Hill
artists: Rebecca Belmore & canonical Canadian art history greats

5) past now, MacLaren Art Centre (2010)
curators: Lisa Myers and Suzanne Morissette
artists: Meryl McMaster and Luke Parnell

Bonus (6) Unreal, York Quay Galleries at Harbourfront Centre (2010)
curator: Patrick Macaulay
artists: Tyler Clark Burke, Jason Dunda, Christy Langer, Sto, Jennifer Rose Sciarrino, Jennie Suddick, the slomotion, Jason van Horne

Bonus (7):The 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion at AGYU (2009)
curator: Philip Monk
artists: General Idea