Akin Projects at Zine Dream 12 - Don't miss this FREE, one-day-only event

Akin is excited to exhibit at ZINE DREAM 12 alongside over 100 creative vendors at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA). Exhibitors will be showcasing self published books, comics, music, zines, handmade crafts, prints & much more! One day only!

Date: Sunday July 21
Time: 10am-5pm
Location: MOCA - 158 Sterling Road
Cost: FREE!

The Akin Projects table will be featuring work by Akin artists:

Emily Woudenberg - www.strikedesignstudio.com
Enas Satir - www.instagram.com/enas.satir
Jessie Elliot-Brunning - www.stomatacollective.com
Mia Zhou
Nuff - www.designbynuff.com
Minerva Mullally
Sherlyn Choe - www.smchoe.com
Stephanie Avery - www.stephanieavery.com

Akin artists Jenn Woodall, Loretta Miauw and Wenting Li as well as Akin alumni Jenn Kitagawa and Jackie Lee will be at Zine Dream exhibiting their work independently.

Art Metropole will exhibit their back catalogue of zines, featuring work by local and international artists collected by the organization over their 45 year history. This extensive zine library will be available to browse and buy at Art Metropole's storefront space on the ground floor of the MOCA all weekend long.

As a bonus you can enjoy free admission to the Museum exhibitions from 10am-2pm while you’re at Zine Dream!

Visit zinedream.com for more information including a full exhibitor list.

Also, we hope that you can join us for the official launch party of Zine Dream co-presented by Art Metropole featuring Readings & Musical Performances!

Date: Friday July 19
Time: 8pm
Location: MOCA
Cost: $10

Vector Festival presents Speculative Ecologies: Media Art at the Anthropocenic Precipice / July 11-14

Speculative Ecologies: Media Art at the Anthropocenic Precipice
At a time when humanity’s collective dithering in the face of impending ecological disaster is threatening to harm our world beyond repair, Vector Festival 2019 explores how contemporary media art reflects on this dire state of affairs. Featuring interactive installations, screen-based works, experimental games, generative art, performances, sound art, and other digital works, the festival’s curators invite you to join us in speculating on possible futures, alternative realities, and post-calamity archaeologies of the mess we have created for ourselves.

Vector Festival is a participatory and community-oriented initiative dedicated to showcasing digital games and creative media practices. This year, Vector Festival is happening from July 11-14 and the full schedule of programming includes screenings, lectures, workshops, panels, exhibitions and more! The theme of this year’s festival is Speculative Ecologies: Media Art at the Anthropocenic Precipice.

Events are happening at locations all over Toronto, including InterAccess, MOCA, the Ontario Science Centre, Trinity Square Video, Artscape Youngplace and more. Visit www.vectorfestival.org for a full schedule of events (Although many events are free, some are ticketed and require registration - an All-Access Pass is $25).

Vector Festival is brought to you by InterAccess, a non-profit gallery, educational facility, and production studio. The mission of InterAccess is to expand the cultural significance of art and technology by fostering and supporting the full cycle of art and artistic practice through education, production, and exhibition.

Vector Festival Launch Party & Opening Reception:
Join us on July 11 from 
7-10pm in celebrating the launch of Vector Festival 2019, and the opening of the festival’s flagship exhibition, Future Relics, curated by Katie Micak and Martin Zeilinger. The party is located at 950 Dupont St., Unit 1 and is FREE!

About Future Relics:
How will post-extinction media archaeologists rediscover our lost civilisation? What will robots have to say about the last days of humanity? What possible futures are already inscribed in the technologies and digital tools we use today? Future Relics, this year’s Vector Festival flagship exhibition, presents media artists whose work offers insights and outlooks on digital culture and the environment that oscillate between the playful and the critical, the hopeful and the dystopian.

Akin Summer Programming

Akin is pleased to present our July and August programming. We hope to see you at some of these events this summer! 

Pointillism at the Beach, an Afternoon with Seurat
July 14 / 12pm-2pm / $5-$10 (sliding scale) / Woodbine Beach

Calling all creatives, artists and hobbyists! Join us for some Georges Seurat style pointillism on the beach! Come meet other creatives, explore and draw beachy scenes from life with us in this fun-filled and summer space!

We will begin with some quick and expressive warm ups, moving on to more focused Summer forms and scenes and we will end the day with a free-for-all drawing period. All levels and media are welcome - no toxic materials please. Bring your own materials. 

Click here to register or for more information

Akin Projects at Zine Dream 12
July 21 / 10am-5pm / FREE / MOCA Toronto Canada

Akin is excited to exhibit at ZINE DREAM 12 alongside over 100 creative vendors this July. Exhibitors will be showcasing self published books, comics, music, zines, handmade crafts, prints & much more! One day only!

Click here for more information

An Index - Opening Reception
July 24 / 6pm-9pm / FREE / MOCA Toronto Canada

An Index comprises work in a variety of media from sculpture, to video, to new wall murals by the first cohort of Akin residency artists who entered the year-long studio programme in September 2018. While the participating artists’ practices range widely in terms of conceptual approach, style and media; they have also been influenced to some degree by the experience of sharing and conversing within an open-plan studio structure for the last nine months. The exhibition runs from July 25–September 8, 2019 at MOCA Toronto Canada. Join us on July 24 for the opening reception! 

Click here for more information

Akin River Launch Party + Potluck
July 25 / 4pm-10pm / FREE / Akin River

Akin invites fellow artists, friends and family members to celebrate the opening of our new 3rd floor River Studios 2 & 3 !! Please join us on the patio Thursday July 25th for food and drinks and a little summer camaraderie. Let's get to know each other and the space!

Click here for more information

There is more coming soon! Save the date for these August Events at Akin: 

August 7 - Show & Tell at Akin MOCA - 4th Floor Studios at MOCA

August 14 - Flag Book Workshop with Jessica Thalmann - Remote Gallery

August 17 - MOCA After Dark Dance Party - MOCAToronto Canada

August 22 - Akin Ossington Launch Party + Backyard BBQ - 888 Dupont St.

THIS IS SERIOUS: Canadian Indie Comics

THIS IS SERIOUS: Canadian Indie Comics
at the Art Gallery of Hamilton
Opening June 21, 2019

THIS IS SERIOUS: Canadian Indie Comics presents a survey of contemporary Canadian artists working in the expansive genre of cartooning and indie comics. On the international stage, the comic arts are highly regarded, but in Canada, it is arguable that cartoonists don't receive the same level of art world recognition. Despite this, Canadians make considerable contributions to the greater field of international comics, and Toronto, Montreal, and Hamilton are all significant centres of comic art production.

In response to this void in the Canadian museum context, THIS IS SERIOUS takes the energy of underground artistic production and indie publishing as its impetus to make visible the breadth of activity by a diverse range of artists working in this genre, throughout Canada. Co-curated by award-winning graphic novelist Joe Ollmann and Alana Traficante, the exhibition is national in scope and features the work of 47 artists. THIS IS SERIOUS presents the recent arc of production that has helped shaped the current state of graphic storytelling, here and now on home soil.

Julie Doucet (Canadian b. 1965), Dirty Plotte (detail), ink on illustration board. Courtesy of the artist and Drawn and Quarterly.

Artists include: Sami Alwani, Ho Che Anderson, Kate Beaton, Marc Bell, Blaine, Simon Bossé, David Boswell, Chester Brown, Nina Bunjevac, Jessica Campbell, Geneviève Castrée, Marta Chudolinska, David Collier, Katherine Collins, Michael DeForge, Julie Delporte, Aminder Dhaliwal, Julie Doucet, Pascal Girard, Gord Hill, Jesse Jacobs, Patrick Kyle, Ginette Lapalme, Ness Lee, Hartley Lin, Graeme MacKay, Billy Mavreas, Carel Moiseiwitsch, Sylvia Nickerson, Obom, Simon Orpana, Meredith Park, Cole Pauls, Michel Rabagliati, Rebecca Rosen, Gord Pullar, Seth, Walter Scott, James Simpkins, Fiona Smyth, Jillian Tamaki, Maurice Vellekoop, Kat Verhoeven, Eric Kostiuk Williams, Connor Willumsen, Jenn Woodall, Doug Wright

Co-curated by Joe Ollmann and Alana Traficante
#AGHComics

2019 Summer Opening
Join us for the Summer Opening Thursday, June 20 at 6:00 pm celebrating the launch of THIS IS SERIOUS: Canadian Indie Comics along with This is Moving: Illustration on Screenand My Back Pages: The Art of Zines and Indie Publishing. The evening will feature a drum, dance, and storytelling performance led by Rod Nettagog, followed by a free outdoor screening of the celebrated Canadian film The Road Forward as part of National Indigenous History Month and Hamilton Arts Week!

Akin Vitrine Gallery + Laura Kay Keeling

Akin Vitrine Galleries are delighted to welcome Akin Dupont artist, Laura Kay Keeling back into our exhibition spaces for the months of June and July! Working primarily in collage, Laura is bringing one of her prints to life with her installation, Rocks and TV LIVE.

Opening this month on the second floor of 1485 Dupont St, Rocks and TV LIVE will move to 1747 St. Clair Avenue West for the month of July and will be visible at street level on St. Clair West.

“As an artist, I strive to explore and capture the magic that comes from everyday life. From the way the sunshine catches my eye, how the flowers look after it rains, a well groomed front lawn. I try to take moments that sometimes may be overlooked and give them a second chance to be admired. I am obsessed with landscape and how it changes in different regions, how nature’s colour palette is so vibrant and engaging and how we are so fortunate to have such beauty around us in so many different shapes and sizes. I love allowing the viewer to create their own narrative from a captured moment in time and hope my work evokes feelings from the viewer, whatever that may entail such that they can be engaged with the piece. With my 'HOT ROCKS' collage series, I feature interesting and beautiful images found in gemstone field guides which have been cut apart and put back together in a new way. Not only do I love photographing nature, I love allowing it to inspire me and guide my collages to become a new representation of things organically found in nature. My current digital collage series feature sourced imagery from National Geographic Magazines, old field guides and 35mm photos I have taken merged
together to create interesting, vibrant and engaging imagery.”

www.laurakaykeeling.com
Email: laurakay.keeling@gmail.com
Instagram: @laurakaykeeling & @lllllllllllllllllkk

Rocks and TV LIVE
Mixed media
Dimensions variable

For more information about our artists and our programming, join us on Instagram @akinvitrine.

Rocks and TV LIVE will be on view for the month of June in our Dupont Akin Vitrine Gallery, located in the Clock Factory Building at 1485 Dupont Street (entrance on Campbell Avenue). Find Akin Studio 215 on the second floor and follow the sign into the hallway around the corner. The building is open from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday.

The exhibition will then travel to the Akin St. Clair Vitrine Gallery and be on view for the month of July at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

For more information about Laura’s work, follow our Instagram account @akinvitrine.

Photography by Akin Sunrise artist Janne Reuss at Artscape Youngplace until June 1

There is still time to check out the Gallery 44 group show ‘Spectra’ in the Artscape Youngplace 3rd floor Hallway Gallery! ‘Spectra’ showcases work that represents a variety of photographic concepts and techniques, celebrates artistic practice, and reveals ways seemingly disparate work can intersect. Spectra reflects the spirit embodied by the community of Gallery 44.

Akin Sunrise artist Janne Reuss is exhibiting photography in this exhibition along with other members of Gallery 44 as a part of the CONTACT Photography Festival. ‘Spectra’ runs until June 1, 2019.

Artscape Youngplace
Hallway Galleries, 3rd Floor
180 Shaw Street, Toronto
Hours: 8:00am-8:00pm

About Janne Reuss:
Janne Reuss is a multidisciplinary and conceptually driven artist. Her work addresses the existential and cultural human conditions of freedom, confinement, as well as identity; especially from the female point of view, which she often performs and photographs. The spaces she creates are ambiguous and multilayered inviting the viewer to contemplate. Reuss cuts her photographs and rearranges the fragments manually. The resulting handmade collages are then scanned and printed as photographs. The final work consists of the initial original photomontage and a small edition of 3-5 digital prints. www.janneart.net

Andrea Bailey at the Riverdale Art Walk and the Rosedale Art Fair

Andrea Bailey will be showing her latest work in June at the Riverdale Art Walk and the Rosedale Art Fair. Andrea is an emerging abstract artist and Akin Lansdowne studio member. Andrea’s works have been shown in numerous galleries and art shows in Toronto and Baltimore among many other cities. Andrea has a dedicated studio practice and has produced some new and exciting images and methods for 2019 which will be on display at the shows.

The Riverdale Art Walk is a two day event on June 1 and 2 in Jimmie Simpson Park on Queen Street East. The show will be open from 11 am to 6 pm on both days. www.riverdaleartwalk.ca

The Rosedale Art Fair is the following weekend on June 8 and 9, Andrea will show again in the park space across from the LCBO at Summerhill Station on Yonge Street.  Hours are 11-6 on Saturday and 12-5 on Sunday. www.rosedalemainstreet.ca/event/art-fair

Zach Atticus solo exhibition 'Perennial' - this weekend at REMOTE Gallery

‘Perennial’ is a solo exhibition of paintings and drawings by Zach Atticus of Akin Dupont happening this weekend at REMOTE Gallery. Akin invites you to join Zach for the opening night reception on Saturday evening.

SHOW HOURS:
May 25th 5-9pm (opening reception)
May 26th 12-6pm

REMOTE Gallery
568 Richmond St W, Toronto

About Zach Atticus:
Zach Atticus is an artist and OCADU graduate based in Toronto. Zach grew up with a love of art that was passed down to him from his mother and learned much of his craft from a childhood batman colouring book. In kindergarten, Zach received animal crackers as compensation for a drawing of a brontosaurus, becoming his first commissioned piece. Today, Zach is a freelance artist and illustrator. His preferred mode of creating has evolved from drawing brontosauri with crayons to a more cultivated approach of oil painting and multi media illustration. www.zachatticus.com

an endless, formless ruin by Jessica Thalmann

Jessica Thalmann

Such Places as Memory (Seattle I)

Folded archival pigment print, unique

22" x 17"

Enquire about this work

ANGELL GALLERY is pleased to present Toronto-based artist and Akin MOCA member Jessica Thalmann’s second solo exhibition at the gallery. Titled an endless, formless ruin, the exhibition presents new photographs and photo-based sculptural works, and opens on Saturday, May 4, with the public reception and artist talk on Saturday, May 11 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. The exhibition runs until Saturday, June 1.

It is the desperate moment when we discover that this empire, which had seemed to us the sum of all wonders, is an endless, formless ruin…

                                                                        — Italo Calvino: Invisible Cities (1972)

In the novella Invisible Cities, we find about fifty short impressions of mythical cities relayed to the Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan by the Italian explorer Marco Polo. Polo describes the different sensory, physical and psychological affects these cities have on their inhabitants, which have been interpreted as different aspects of one city – Venice. But, ultimately, the book is about more than a single city; rather, it raises ideas about what it means for a city to be ‘home’, and how we can feel either ‘in possession’ or ‘possessed’ by a place through our memories and experiences of it. Polo is the book’s main narrator, but we sympathize with Khan, a man who can’t rule his homeland effectively because he doesn’t truly understand it.

Jessica Thalmann is an artist, curator and writer currently based in Toronto and New York City. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Advanced Photographic Studies from ICP-Bard College and a BFA in Visual Arts from York University. She has worked at the Doris McCarthy Gallery, Toronto International Film Festival, C Magazine, the Art Gallery of York University and Yossi Milo Gallery.

Opening Tomorrow at MOCA: The Honest Shop & Last Chance to View Films by Chantal Akerman

Tomorrow, Friday, May 10th 2019, MOCA presents the fourth project in our Art in Use series, the Honest Shop. A self-service store that showcases and sells products handmade by people in the Junction area, the Honest Shop relies on a system of trust and generosity, where customers must record their purchases and leave cash in the ‘honesty box’ for collection. There are no salesclerks; no Air Miles; and no receipts given.

Rather than have a special selection process for what can be included in the Honest Shop, the products are only those made locally by hand. The disparate array of handcrafted items on display in the shop brings attention to the individual efforts and hidden talents of makers in the community. This unregulated model for trading offers an alternative to commercial mass consumerism—one that is driven by individuals, enthusiasm, and goodwill.

Last chance to view In the Mirror (2007) and NOW (2015) by renowned filmmaker Chantal Akerman at MOCA - these two films speak to the issues that Akerman has explored throughout her career: trauma, gender, belonging and identity.

This is the first Canadian presentation of NOW, which was originally produced for the Venice Biennale in 2015. It creates a sense of being immersed in an arid landscape. The content and controlled point of view make us very aware of the passage of time and the many-layered stories and histories of human occupation.

NOW, is set in stark contrast to the slow and gentle sense of exploration of In the Mirror. Yet both are reflections of and meditations on how we, as individuals, confront and experience our position in society and the world at large.

This exhibition is the first time that Akerman’s work is being shown in a museum in Toronto. The project was introduced to MOCA by curatorial consultant Andréa Picard who invited Akerman to exhibit in Toronto before she passed away in 2015. The opening of MOCA created an opportunity to give space and attention to this important artist. As a companion piece to this exhibition, Picard is curating a retrospective survey of Akerman’s films at TIFF Cinematheque in fall 2019.

Period of Adjustment an Exhibition by Carrie Perreault

Working primarily in sculpture and performance, Akin St. Clair member Carrie Perreault balances resistance and restraint in onerous actions that recount long-term precarity. In making her work, she expends great effort to achieve minimal results. This isn’t about labour; she prioritizes process to reflect on systems of abuse and their connection to emotional and psychological experiences. Through gestural, often repetitive acts and narratives that resist closure, she alludes to complex trauma and its residual effects. By exploring, in a visceral way, failures, vulnerabilities, and the limits of her body, Perreault makes viewers keenly aware of their own.

NAC’s Show Room Gallery
Opening Reception Friday 10 May 2019 7PM-10PM
On display until Saturday 17 August 2019

Presented as part of NAC’s Homecoming Series.

Carrie Perreault is an artist based in Toronto and New York. Her work has been included in exhibitions and projects at Idea Exchange, Cambridge Galleries, curated by Iga Janik (2019); Deathnastics, as part of Gymsick, curated by Hazel Meyer and Lucy Pawlak, Toronto (2018); Hamilton Biennale (2017); Strange Beauty, Tangled Arts +Disability Festival, Toronto (2015); Treasure Hill Artist Village, Taipei (2014). Perreault has been awarded residencies at Open Studio (Toronto), The Banff Centre and Taipei Artist Village.

Idea Exchanges Show.19 Opens Friday!

SHOW.19 brings together emerging artists from across Ontario whose works, processes and preoccupations are the latest in the ever-changing world of contemporary art. The exhibition is exclusively dedicated to those new on the scene and gives the necessary and well-deserved voice to the most ambitious and dedicated.

Idea Exchange

Where: Queen's Square, 1 North Square, Cambridge, ON

Opening Reception: Friday May 10, 2019 7:00 - 9:00 PM

SHOW.19 Features work by Akin members Nicole Crozier and Melanie Keay of Akin Ossington, and Carrie Perrault of Akin St. Clair.

Selected from an open call for submissions, the 13 artists chosen for SHOW.19 shed light on what's happening today and what Ontario has to offer the world of contemporary art in the coming years. This latest edition of SHOW presents works by: Tommy Bourque, Nicole Crozier, Rosellen D'Agostino, Laura Demers, Ioana Dragomir, Sylvia Galbraith, Mélika Hashemi, Hilary Hung, Melanie Keay, Neeko Paluzzi, Michelle Peraza, Carrie Perreault, and Tait William.

Opening Today! Satisfaction Guaranteed by Stephanie Avery

Satisfaction Guaranteed: Paintings by Stephanie Avery
Where: Flying Pony Gallery, 1481 Gerard Street East
When: May 3 - 31
Opening Reception: May 4, 4 - 7
Interactive workshop: May 12, 1 - 4. Come make some AdHacks of your very own!

Join Akin MOCA member Stephanie Avery for an exhibition of her ongoing 'AdHack' painting series. Stephanie uses reclaimed magazine ads as her canvas, painting her own whimsical additions directly onto them to critique and subvert the duplicitous aspects of consumer culture. ‘AdHack’ shifts the traditionally passive viewer/advertiser relationship into something much more active and empowering. By using humour and absurdity to co-opt advertisements, viewers gleefully disengage from the original narratives. 'AdHack' is a fun and engaging way to inspire critical thought/dialogue about advertisements and the role they play in our everyday lives.

Stephanie Avery is a Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist. Focusing on themes of play, discovery, identity and memory, Stephanie uses humour and absurdity to intervene with familiar objects and imagery to give them new meanings and narratives. Her goal is to inspire new perspectives and initiate critical dialogue about elements of contemporary culture that are often taken for granted.

On View Now: Kin Collective's Constructing Liminal Space

In Constructing Liminal Space, KIN portrays the personal dilemma of being an immigrant and the impact of relocation on individual identity. Jieun June Kim of Akin MOCA and Marina’s immigration experiences have forced them to straddle the boundary between their homes in Korea and Russia (respectively), and their new home in Canada. Their work reflects the duality of the “in-between” space where their identities collide such as realities and dreams, and past and present life.

KIN Collective will also be hosting a FREE family-friendly collaborative art installation, “The Place of Belonging,” on May 4.

Date: April 25 – May 13
Opening Reception: April 25

Opening Reception: 6pm – 9pm

Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Friday 1pm to 6pm
Thursday, May 2 the Gallery will be open until 8pm

Place: Toronto Centre for the Arts, Lower Gallery

AGYU Upcoming Public Programs

Artist Tour | Wednesday April 17, 2019 @ 6:30 PM | AGYU

Join us at Toronto’s Igloolik outpost (aka AGYU) for a rare opportunity to hear Arnait discuss the development of their practice over three decades and the importance of women making art in the north. Members of Arnait will share their work in English and Inuktitut with translation. Coincides with our opening reception.

Igalaaq (Seeing Through) | April 17 and May 4, 2019 | AGYU

Step into the portal! Igalaaq promotes new configurations of Inuit/non-Inuit relations through video chat technology. On April 17 at 7:30 pm we open the portal between North and South for a conversation between installation artist, curator, writer, and educator Bonnie Devine(Serpent River First Nation, Anishinaabe/Ojibwa) and Arnait members Susan Avingaq, Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Madeline Ivalu, and Uyarak (Lucy Tulugarjuk).

On May 4 from 10 am to noon we host a special three-way transcontinental portal between Igloolik, AGYU, and Venice, where Isuma, the celebrated film collective from the North, is representing the Canadian Pavilion at the Biennale. This conversation is hosted by artist, educator, curator, and Vtape co-founder Lisa Steele, in conversation with Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Madeline Ivalu, and Uyarak (Lucy Tulugarjuk). Keep an eye on our website and socials for the time when the portal will open!

Public Talk | Thursday April 18, 2019 @ 12 pm | The Commons, 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 440

Members of Arnait from three generations—Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Susan Avingaq, and Uyarak (Lucy Tulugarjuk)—dialogue about their collective filmmaking practice with writer and curator Candice Hopkins (Carcross/Tagish First Nation). This talk will be in English and Inuktitut with translation. Presented in partnership with Images Festival.

Contemporary Art Bus Tour | Sunday May 26, 2019, 12 – 5 pm

The bus departs from OCADU (100 McCaul Street) at noon and travels to AGYU for a Curator’s Tour of Arnait Ikajurtigiit at 1 pm and continues with stops at the Doris McCarthy Gallery and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery where other CONTACT exhibitions are on view. To reserve a seat, please email Alissa Firth-Eagland, alissafe@yorku.ca. Co-presented with Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

Student Tour Series | Wednesday May 15, 2019 @ 5:30 pm | AGYU

As Indigenous communities come to adopt new digital technologies in the North, what are the potential effects on Indigenous sovereignty of exploring their identities online? Join PhD candidate in Communication Studies at York University Ali Hirji for a tour of Arnait’s exhibition. Ali discusses the artists’ broad creative practice through his experience and research in artificial intelligence, broadband, cyber security, and Indigenous populations in remote communities like those in Nunavut. Courtesy of York U’s Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage.

Seneca Illustration Graduation Show - starts Friday!

Artscape Youngplace
3rd floor hallway Gallery
180 Shaw St, Toronto ON M6J 2W5

April 19-27, 2019
Reception: Wednesday April 24 from 7 – 10p.m. (RSVP)
Gallery Hours: 8AM. – 9 PM daily

Seneca's Illustration diploma is excited to present its 15th Graduate Exhibition from a program that produces a diverse array of talented artists in both digital and traditional mediums. These skills, combined with the entrepreneurial business knowledge produce individuals ready to work in many different specialties including comics, indie arts, children’s books, concept art, spot and packaging illustration. Aboveground Art Supplies is again sponsoring the exhibit with Best in Show award and the Japanese Paper Place is sponsoring with the Japanese Paper Place Traditional Media Award. Both awards will be selected at the reception.

Artscape Youngplace is fully accessible by Ontario standards, with a wheelchair ramp at the 180 Shaw Street doors, an elevator servicing every floor and a fully accessible washroom on every level. The nearby 63 Ossington bus on the TTC is wheelchair accessible. (http://artscapeyoungplace.ca/about-us/accessibility/)

The Illustration Diploma offered within the School of Creative Arts and Animation at Seneca College is a two year diploma that combines traditional illustrative media, digital media and business skills. It educates the independent artist to succeed in the rapidly changing world of professional illustration. In addition to building on visual art skills such as drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture and digital media, students also register their own small business. With website, accounting, marketing and revenue generating skills in the curriculum, students will succeed as entrepreneurial artists. Graduates go on to work in children's and comic book illustration, spot and advertising illustration and concept art for TV, film and game animation.

OPENING TOMORROW NIGHT! Arnait Ikajurtigiit: Women helping each other

The Art Gallery of York University’s (AGYU) spring 2019 exhibition includes film, objects, and photography made over three decades by internationally celebrated Arnait Video Productions, the dynamic collective of Inuit and non-Inuit women artists from the North who put Inuit innovation and tradition first. Arnait Video Productions (Igloolik, NU/Montreal, PQ) gives voice to several generations of Inuit who articulate the challenges and opportunities that arise when living and working between Inuit and non-Inuit world views. Arnait Video Productions was founded in 1991 by Atuat Akkitirq, Susan Avingaq, Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Madeline Ivalu, and Carol Kunnuk. Uyarak (Lucy Tulugarjuk) is the newest member of the team.

Arnait Ikajurtigiit is curated by AGYU’s Interim Assistant Director/Curator Alissa Firth-Eagland and is a Primary Exhibition of Toronto’s Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, presented in conjunction with the 2019 Images Festival Off-Screen program. Arnait Video Productions is distributed in Canada and internationally by Vtape.

Upcoming Exhibitions

Tarpaulin - Greg McCarthy

Exhibition Reception: April 20th, 1-5pm, artist talk at 3pm
Exhibition Dates: March 30- April 28, 2019
Location: Patel Projects 184 Munro St back entrance
Patel Projects is open for receptions and by appointment only, please contact info@patel.gallery to schedule a viewing.

About the Work:
Tarpaulin uses the physical similarities between the material of tarpaulin and a painting, as a way of critiquing the role of landscape painting in Canadian art. The work uses the commonplace object of a camouflage piece of tarp, with its woven structure and abstracted depiction of nature, and insists on its value as being similar to that of a landscape painting by a member of The Group of 7. Throughout the exhibition the sculptures and collages involved will change and evolve, exploring different facets of the project. Although the works are never fully resolved, this unrest illustrates how our changing approaches to creating depictions of the Canadian landscape and proposes a reassessment of our visual vocabulary when moving forward.

About the Artist:
Born in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Greg McCarthy is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Toronto, Canada. His work often deals with the ethics of archiving and the role of photography in forming a visual narrative for history. McCarthy received a BFA from OCAD University and is a founding member of OKAY Collective an art collective based in Toronto, focused on publishing and promoting the works of emerging artists.

His works have been featured in Magenta Magazine, Art With Heart, Edition Toronto and have been collected by various private collections and The Library of The National Gallery of Canada.

About the Gallery:
Patel Projects is a project space and incubator that presents accessible, cutting-edge work by emerging artists and curators. The alternative arts space provides a platform for experimental practices, innovative exhibition formats and new experiences of art. With an emphasis on artistic integrity and ethical practice, Patel Projects also works on public art, programming, licensing, publishing, sponsorship, activations, and more.

Ryerson New Media students META 2019!

Opening Reception: Thursday, April 11th 6 - 9 pm Opening remarks take place at 6:15pm
Exhibition Hours: Friday, April 12th - Sunday April 14th: 2pm - 8pm
Location: Black Cat Showroom 1785 St Clair Ave W, Toronto

META is an annual exhibition that showcases artwork by students of Ryerson's New Media program. The event celebrates creative innovation by providing a platform for displaying work created at the intersection of art and technology. META includes installation art, interactive storytelling, augmented reality, video art, interactive sound projects, performance, and games. The exhibition takes place at an off-campus gallery and invites friends, family, colleagues, as well as institutional and industry professionals, to experience the work of next-generation new media makers.

About the Gallery:
Black Cat Showroom is the second iteration of Black Cat Artspace, the contemporary art gallery in Roncesvalles Village.Taking over one part of a former Chevrolet Oldsmobile dealership, gallery owner Andrew Williamson (who clearly has a penchant for transforming old spaces) has once again turned a run-down room into a place for art.

Pancakes and Booze Toronto April 12

Pancakes and Booze Toronto April 12
Event Date: April 12
Location: Revival 8pm- 2am
$10/$13

Aaron Lozynsky is an Akin Lansdowne member and is the Canadain coordinator of Pancakes and Booze Toronto. Pancakes and Booze is an LA based event originated in 2009 and has since popped up more than 500 times in 35+ cities around Europe & North America.

Batter sizzles, beer foams, and canvas lines the walls from ceiling to floor as hundreds, sometimes thousands, of revelers indulge in endless pancakes.

This is no stuffy wine-and-cheese, pretentious, someone-gag-me art event. It’s an innovative reimagining of the art show concept. A welcoming vibe for up-and-coming artists to sell and strut their stuff in a free verse, anything goes environment.

Pancakes and Booze travels the world transforming some of the best music venues and event halls into exhibitions of art, photography, jewelry, & music. Pancakes and Booze focuses on keeping the work on display local and original in an effort to help living artists of all types sell their work. Each show features up to 150 local artisans, a unique lineup of live musicians and/or DJs, live painting, and body painting along with many other forms of entertainment.As well as free PANCAKES all night! Pancakes and Booze aim is to bring the art community and those outside the artist community together by creating an upbeat and unique event. They work to make each event a judgement-free environment in which artists, potential buyers, and pancake fanatics alike can make connections with a diverse community that they may not have an opportunity to engage otherwise.

About the Artist:

Akin Lansdowne member Aaron Lozynsky  is a Toronto based Canadian visual artist. Exploring the human figure and the soul. Conveying the energy and vitality of my subjects with expressive colour and vibrant brushwork. Acrylic works on panel board that illuminate their surroundings.

Through Rose — a solo exhibition by Curtia Wright

The MOEG invites you to join us for the opening of ‘Through Rose’, a solo exhibition of Akin King member Curtia Wright. ‘Through Rose’ is a series of works discussing the complex skin of Black femininity through Wright’s own relationship to femininity as a Black womxn. Directly referencing the phrase "through rose coloured glasses", ‘Through Rose’ suggests that our concept of Black women’s everyday reality is stilted by a blissful ignorance. Delving into the psychological ramifications of having to navigate spaces that dissect you – examining our perception of Black femininity and the often one-dimensional the gaze that dehumanizes Black women’s bodies.

Opening Reception: April 18th, 2018 from 7-10pm
Exhibition Dates: April 19th – May 4th
Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Friday from 12-7pm, Saturdays from 12-5pm

Entry to the exhibition will be PWYC, will all entry proceeds donated to Black Women in Motion.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Curtia Wright is a multidisciplinary artist and muralist based in Toronto, Ontario. She’s interested in the way society’s perceptions of bodies—specifically Black bodies—have the ability to shape their narratives without consent. Her current works delve into the spiritual and mental wellness of African peoples, links to mythology, and disseminating what 'fantasy' is and who it belongs to. Her work questions our indoctrinated beliefs of what femininity and Blackness are, the perseverance of the black body, and issues surrounding mental illness in the Afro-Caribbean community.

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CUE is a radical arts initiative dedicated to providing funding and support for new-generation artists who live and work on the margins in Toronto. Since 2008, the initiative has provided almost $300,000 in high-access grants to support the creation of more than 290 art projects.

The MOEG is a project of CUE: a multidisciplinary arts space dedicated to showcasing the work of new generation artists aged 15-29 who live and work on the margins. Some of the most important artwork is being created by artists who experience social, cultural, and economic marginalization, and systemic barriers can preclude many relevant artists from contributing to our cultural narrative. The MOEG is a space to engage with these artists and their work--an environment where communities that have been excluded within the arts can be recognized and represented.