Must See Nuit Blanche Events

IN VIEW - East End Arts - Future Danforth

Walter Segers and Lilliput Gallery (Make Love Not War Installation at August Kinn, 1374 Danforth Avenue)

ARTIST: Walter Segers
THEME: Future Danforth
PROJECT: MAKE LOVE NOT WAR

Together with Lilliput Gallery, Walter presents a movable doll house consisting of still 2D images and 3D altered toys titled MAKE LOVE NOT WAR. Each room in the house will tell a unique story that reminds us to make ‘love’ instead of ‘war’. The future of the Danforth is bright, with a vision of love instead of war, he develops a cohesion for the neighbourhood community.



Learn more here.

The Artists Protest Resistance
Artist: Artists Protest Projects
Medium: Projection
Project Type: Independent Projects
Neighbourhood: West Queen West
Projecting images, GIFs and videos onto public surfaces, contemporary artists will express themes of protest and resistance.

Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W. Exterior, north wall

“The Artists Protest Resistance” will ask audiences to consider how the province of Ontario and the city of Toronto are under siege from major political forces. Many artists are concerned about the erosion of hard-won, democratic, community standards here. Global political currents are trending towards the decimation of human values, too. If the time for action is at hand, how are artists to respond? A vital mode of expression for artists in voicing their concerns is their artwork. Venues for political forms of expression must extend beyond studio walls and art-gallery spaces. Thus the collective Artists Protest Projects was born. Participating artists range from well-established to emerging. "The Artists Protest Resistance" will also be presented at a second location: Samara Contemporary at 156 Augusta Ave. in Kensington Market.

Learn more here.

Both of these exciting Nuit Blanche installations feature the work of Akin MOCA alum and current Akin River artist Walter Segers. Walter Segers is a visual artist who emigrated from Belgium in 1993 and currently lives and works in Toronto. He graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design University in 2008. He finished his year long residency at Museum Of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA) on September 30, 2019 where he worked on various photo-based projects.

Eulogy for the Coffin Factory at Nuit Blanche

We invite you to join Akin Ossington artist Nicole Crozier, and Akin Dupont artist Alison Postma (formerly members of the Coffin Factory) along with 22 other artists at Nuit Blanche at 89 Niagara St on October 5, 2019 for ‘Eulogy for the Coffin Factory’. 24 coffins adorned by former artist-tenants of the Coffin Factory will transform the audience into a funeral procession, mourning the passage of this creative hub.

“Eulogy for the Coffin Factory” is a ceremonial exhibition that will mourn the passage of the Coffin Factory at 89-109 Niagara Street. Originally built in the 1880s, this was home to the National Casket Company from 1908 until 1973. In more recent years, it has become known as the Coffin Factory, been used as artist studios and workshops, and served as an important space for the creative ecology of downtown. Now, these buildings are slated for redevelopment. Tenants were evicted in early 2019, marking the end of an era for the area. This project will provide an opportunity for the public to grieve, reflect and celebrate the Coffin Factory. Playing on the building’s casket-factory history, 24 former artist-tenants have been commissioned to adorn 24 coffins produced for the event. These will be displayed in a long row lining the south side of Niagara Street.

About Nuit Blanche:
For one sleepless night, experience Toronto transformed by hundreds of artists and nearly 90 art projects. This year's program responds to one event-wide curatorial theme of Continuum. The theme follows many paths during the event – set against a backdrop of the ever-present renewal of night into day, a continuum of experience and ideas is brought to light by the participating artists. A series of Nuit Talks will take place before and after the all night art event and nine extended art projects will remain on display through October 14.

Date: October 5, 2019
Time: Sunset to Sunrise – 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Studio Mates Group Exhibition

September 26 - October 1, 2019
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 26, 7 PM – onwards
Gallery Hours: September 27 - Oct 1 • 12 to 7 PM, Closed Monday

Curated by Mel Hayes and Dalia Hassan and hosted at Black Cat Showroom (1785 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto).

Studio Mates is a group show featuring work by 16 artists who share a space at the Akin Lansdowne studios.

Studio Mates is a snapshot of a shared studio’s constantly changing occupants and their diverse work, capturing a dynamic environment where at any given moment there is a plethora of concepts, processes, materials and creations.

Featured artists:
Rakefet Arieli, Andrea Bailey, Elizabeth Basskin, Brianne Burnell, Rachel Butler, Claire Correia, Dalia Hassan, Mel Hayes, Kim Kermode, Michelle Evelyn Lee, Aaron Lozynsky, Linds Miyo, Eloisa Morra, Nick Murido, Michelle Rawlings, and Gwen Tooth.

Child of Rock: Solo Exhibition by VAYA

September 5 to September 28, 2019

VAYA UNPLUGGED/Acoustic Performance: Thursday September 19 2019 • 6 PM to 7 PM

RSVP either event to info@urbangallery.ca 

ABOUT VAYA

An incisive & provocative artist, Akin Ossington member VAYA explores, mixes, meets & transcribes the darkness in the angels’ voices. An energetic claw on each canvas, VAYA dances as she works and often by candlelight to be closer to the imperceptible. "It's always a discovery the next day in daylight." She also employs a camera to share her creativity, "A way of getting out of yourself and becoming your own observer is fun and fascinating". VAYA has fun, dances, writes prayers on the souls of her music legend subjects. "I like to pay tribute to those who have suffered so much, laying some particles of peace over their restless souls - isn’t that the artist's role? Transfigure suffering into masterpieces?

"It's always a discovery the next day in daylight."

~Would she become animal or simply an expression of the painting, these faces that invite her to dance, whatever it is? 

"The limit is tiny between Madness and Genius." It's just a question of knowing how to pass the stirrup to this crazy horse that takes you to the depths. Keep your eyes closed in all confidence with it, holding the reins with your fingertips, while keeping a clear vision, discipline and flexibility.

When she has fun with a camera, VAYA plays the photographer as the muse. 

"A way of getting out of yourself and becoming your own observer is fun and fascinating".

VAYA has fun, dances, writes prayers on the souls of Legends, particularly iconic.

"I like to give a tribute to those who have suffered so much, some particles of peace over their restless souls: Isn’t it the Artist's role? Transfigure suffering into masterpieces?”

Akin Vitrine Gallery + Erin Candela

We are delighted to introduce our current Akin Vitrine Gallery artist, Akin King alumi, soon to be Akin MOCA artist and staff member Erin Candela. Erin’s work will be on exhibit in our galleries beginning at 1485 Dupont for the month of September and then 1747 St. Clair Avenue West for the month of October.

Erin Candela is a Canadian artist originally from northern BC, currently living in Toronto. Often using historical documents such as photographs, public school books, nature encyclopedias and community journals, themes of Memory and identity are frequently present in her drawings. Ideas of North, Canadian landscape, and portentous depictions of wild creatures and characters are also common and contribute to a scattered and ambiguous narrative.

Things Go So Wrong?
Mixed Media
Dimensions Variable
2019

To contact the artist:
Instagram: @candles_
#Akinvitrine
www.erincandela.ca

Akin Collective + Akin Projects are excited to present our 2019 programming in two Vitrine Galleries located at Akin Dupont and Akin St. Clair. These miniature galleries feature the diverse talent of our members with travelling installations rotating each month. Each artist will be featured for the first month at Dupont and second month at St. Clair. For more information about our artists and our programming, join us on Instagram @akinvitrine.

‘Things Go So Wrong?’ will be on view for the month of September 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 October at 1747 St. Clair Avenue West. Gallery is street level and can be viewed at any time.

Charmaine Lurch: Compounding Vision

Compounding Vision by Charmaine Lurch at RiverBrink Art Museum

September 12, 2019 – February 1, 2020

Join us Thursday September 12th from 5 – 7 p.m. to celebrate the opening of Compounding Vision by Akin Sunrise artist Charmaine Lurch curated by Debra Antoncic.

Toronto-based artist Charmaine Lurch interrogates complex histories of humans and the environment. This exhibition presents the artist’s recent work exploring borders and boundaries, in painting, photography, sculpture and installation.

The exhibition runs from September 12th, 2019 – February 1, 2020 at RiverBrink Art Museum (116 Queenston Street, Queenston).

Charmaine Lurch is a sculptor, painter and installation artist who creates work that imagines inside and outside of history, involves quiet moments of joy, and draws our attention to human-environmental relationalities. an inherent sense of movement resides in the pieces. Lurch maps belonging and representation in space and place, outside of normative racial scripts. Her work has been exhibited at The Art Gallery of Ontario, Durham Art Gallery, the Montreal museum of art, Royal Ontario Museum , Station Gallery, Toronto Centre for the Arts, The Gladstone, Nuit Blanche, the National Gallery of Jamaica, and more.

Surface Play | Lindy Fyfe and Ruth Adler

Samara Contemporary is pleased to present ​Surface Play,​ an exhibition of work by Canadian textile artists Lindy Fyfe and Ruth Adler, curated by Rafi Ghanaghounian. The exhibition is an exploration of the artists’ respective investigations into textile as painting. Both Adler and Fyfe employ textiles as the chief component in their work, however their approaches contain more similarities than their outcomes.

Fyfe, who works with recycled fabric from thrift shops, breathes new life into discarded materials through harnessing their existing forms and patterns, translating them into new compositions. This creative and intuitive process results in abstract compositions that strongly reference the masters of modernist painting including Rothko and Mondrian, but also hint at the earth’s topographic surfaces.

Adler’s similar creative impulse is reflected in the vibrant assemblages she constructs through material conversations. When looking at the structural appearance of her works, it becomes clear that Adler gains inspiration from anatomy and architecture, among other things. Utilizing textile remnants as well as water-based inks and paints, her pieces reference the aesthetics of fashion and other cultural forms.

When: On view now. Exhibition runs till September 29 

Where: Samara Contemporary, 156 Augusta Ave, Kensington Market

ABOUT RUTH ADLER

Ruth Adler’s work has been exhibited internationally since the 1980s. She has presented numerous solo exhibitions including, Jim Kempner Fine Art (New York), Lonsdale Gallery (Toronto) and Lorber Gallery (Tel Aviv). In the 80s and throughout the 90s she ran her own t-shirt label in Tel Aviv and designed t-shirts for Marci Lipman (Toronto). Ruth received awards and grants for her work including a Bravo Fact award for her video “How Yellowknife Got Its Name.” She has also did commissions for the Iroquois Hotel (New York) and The Schneider Children's Medical Centre (Petach Tiqvah, Israel). In 2000 Ruth began making her digital circles on paper that are currently represented by Artstar (New York). Ruth currently lives and works in Toronto and Tel Aviv.

ABOUT LINDY FYFE

Lindy Fyfe is a visual artist based in Toronto where she maintains an active studio practice concentrating on painting, fabric construction, drawing and collage. In 2010 The Robert McLaughlin Gallery presented 'Confluence', a major solo exhibition surveying Fyfe's work across her full range of media. In 2014 she installed a solo exhibition of fabric work as a component of World of Threads, Oakville, and participated in Fibreworks 2014, at the Cambridge Galleries. In 2015 Fyfe was selected as a finalist for the Salt Spring National Art Prize exhibition in British Columbia, was included in the annual Art With Heart auction in Toronto, and had a solo exhibition, titled Shift Twist, at Verso Gallery in Toronto. In 2016 she installed Tilt, a site-specific work at *QueenSpecific in Toronto. In 2019 her work will be included again in the annual Art With Heart auction to be held at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

VEER way out of line by Kai Hart

Exhibition September 3rd - 22nd, The Corridor Gallery

Explosive new paintings by Kai Hart, recent graduate from Centennial College’s Fine Arts Studio program. Intense and expressive large scale paintings take over the Corridor Gallery. City banners, urban caves, rumble, ancient symbology, this exhibition is way out of line!

Toronto Biennial of Art Announces Inaugural Programs

Toronto Biennial of Art (the Biennial) recently announced an extensive series of free public programs during the 10-week Exhibition that will take place during its inaugural edition, from September 21 to December 1, 2019. More than 70 local and international participants will lead talks, workshops, and performances that intersect with and expand ideas emerging from the 2019 Biennial’s central question: “What does it mean to be in relation?”

Led by Deputy Director and Director of Programs Ilana Shamoon, and conceived by Curator Clare Butcher and Associate Curator Myung-Sun Kim, the Biennial’s Programs team has developed five programming streams: Co-Relations, Currents, Storytelling, Tools for Learning, and the Toronto Biennial of Art Residency.

Programs will take place at more than 15 Biennial sites across Toronto. Conceived to extend beyond the event itself to activate the Biennial between editions, Programs is responsive to conversations that emerge during the inaugural Biennial and will precipitate ongoing projects, research, events, and partnerships that create a foundation for continued exchange into 2021.

Co-Relations explores critical local issues—livability, access, interconnectivity—that extend ideas addressed in the Biennial’s first edition. The program demonstrates a deep commitment to placemaking in a series of performances and gatherings, including artist talks, participatory games, civic conversations, youth-engaged projects, workshops, and communal meals. Participants are invited into shifting and expanding dialogues that reveal our often invisible, intangible, or overlooked connections to each other and our environment. These unseen or unnoticed connections provide insights into how we can better build and sustain symbiotic relationships over time.

Currents is a platform for artist-led programming that invites visitors to engage directly with the creative and critical processes at work in the exhibition. This stream consists of talks, performances, symphonies, star-gazing, and ceremonies that trace ideas circulating within and beyond the Biennial’s main sites and connect with other exhibition locations. Be it through acts of restitution, revolutionary wearables, ways of knowing with the water, or the ethics of making, Currents asks participants to reconsider what it means to be in and out of relation in the context of artworks featured in this year’s Exhibition.

Storytelling seeks to shift the mediation of contemporary art away from conventional modes of interpreting and informing to narrating and embodying through weekly walks and conversations. An intergenerational and multilingual group of storytellers share personal insights and experiences of the city as they guide visitors through the exhibition’s site-specific installations, research, and generative proposals. Storytellers will bring submerged narratives to the surface in relation to the history and politics of Toronto’s shifting shoreline.

Tools for Learning is generated with Biennial participants and collaborators, and comprises group exercises, performative scores, proposals for collaborative thinking and making, artist interviews, and audio tours. Whether in the Biennial, the classroom, or at home, our multimedia toolbox can be put to use by educators, students, and other community members in connecting their own experiences and curricula with process-based, playful approaches to contemporary artistic practices.

The Toronto Biennial of Art Residency is an experimental platform for artists with socially engaged practices. It supports artists whose work is challenging disciplinary and aesthetic conventions to expand notions of community and enact social change at various scales. For its inaugural residency, the Biennial is proud to present Life of a Craphead, a collective whose work spans performance art, film, and curation.

Double Vision II: Clara Hirsch and Jake Hirsch-Allen

September 12-22

2nd floor gallery

Opening reception: September 12, 7-10pm, everyone welcome!

Double Vision II is the continuation of a mother-son collaboration, first shown in Madrid in 2016. It brings together Akin Alum Clara Hirsch’s painted images and the photographs of Jake Hirsch-Allen. Double Vision II portrays the tension between urban space and the natural environment. The series illustrates Clara’s conflicted perspective: on the one hand, a delight in architecture, culture and the vitality of urban life; and on the other, her love of nature and organic forms. This series also includes four of Jake’s stand-alone photographs.

Image via: clarahirsch.com

Only a few days left to check out Tsunami by Gwen Tooth at Red Head Gallery

There are only a few days left to check out Tsunami, a solo exhibition by Akin Lansdowne artist Gwen Tooth at Red Head Gallery. The show runs until August 24, 2019. The exhibition is Gwen’s exploration of expressing the soul, energy and movement of bodies of water.

“This exploration into the destructive and damaging force of tsunami walls took me further into the dark side and danger of uncontrollable walls of water. I incorporated bits of gold foil, and many types of textured mediums, such as black lava, resin, sand and glass beads, to express the nature and power of the churning and fast-moving wall of water as it picked up debris, crunched prized possessions, and stirred up the ground beneath it. This was and is the force of total destruction. I look back upon the evolution of my work as the semblance of reality disappears, yet the essence and feeling remain. With the installation of these paintings in close proximity, as I stand in the middle of the room, I am feeling that nature is in charge, not humans.”
- Gwen Tooth

About Gwen Tooth:
Gwen is an experimental and expressionist painter. She has in recent years completed several series of acrylic paintings revealing the moods and energies of water – whirlpools, waterfalls, and tsunamis. Gwen is a member of Propeller and of Gallery 1313. She is an Associate member of the Society of Canadian Artists. Gwen holds a B.A. from Western University, a BFA (Honours) 2005 from Ontario College of Art and Design University and a Fine Arts Certificate (Honours) from Humber College. www.zhibit.org/gwentooth

Gallery 44 Launches Chapter 2 of “A maze of collapsing lines”

Gallery 44 is excited to launch Chapter 2 of A maze of collapsing lines; titled A Dark Room, Chapter 2 features the self-curated work of Black Artists Union members Jem Baptiste, Oreka James, Sylvia Limbana, Filmon Yohannes and Zoma.

A Dark Room takes the form of two mini-series that explore Black representation in film through self-expression and storytelling. The first mini-series, The Body Talks and I’m Listenin’, consists of two videos that highlight Black nightlife as the originator of many popular styles of dance that have been appropriated by mainstream culture. These videos function to give credit back to the originators of these dance styles, that include queer nightlife, and “voguing”, among others. The second series, I Declare this Meeting of the Midnight Society Closed, foregrounds storytelling as a way to learn Black histories and ancestral lineage, and honours the domestic labour performed by Black wimmin. These videos will be released sequentially, on a weekly basis.

Alongside the film series, A Dark Room serves as a place for interaction and discourse about Black film and Black media for the Black community; A Dark Room features an online archive, created by and for the community. Only members of the Black community will be given access to this section of the website, and will have the opportunity to embed and link to their own content, creating a crowd-sourced archive.

The Storefront Gallery at Arts Etobicoke Presents Etobicoke School of the Arts Dual Show

Dates: July 22 - August 23, 2019
Location: The Storefront Gallery
Opening Reception: July 31 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Join us on Wednesday, July 31, for the opening reception where the artists will speak about their artistic processes and concepts. Flow State is a dual show by grade 11 artists Ruby Davies and Eli Lang from Etobicoke School of the Arts.

Flow State is the state of creating where everything else around you, except your art, becomes irrelevant. Artists Eli Lang and Ruby Davies show off their unique, and yet complementary, artistic works in this brand new exhibition. Lang's breathtaking landscapes and Davies's wonderful representation of the body truly take the eye and imagination on a journey, and make anything else you see seem irrelevant!

"Untitled", Lang (Painting)

Sorry to bother you - on now!

Sorry To Bother You

Abstraction in an age of anxiety

July 11 - September 1, 2019

Corkin Gallery - 7 Tank House Lane, Distillery District, Toronto

Artists:
Virgil Baruchel
Christian Butterfield
Hana Elmasry
Neil Maguire
Rafael Yaluff

Sorry to bother you explores the disquiet and apprehension of contemporary life. Troubled and inspired by the looming global crises of environment, identity and economic viability, these brave works respond as signs of empathy in an age of anxiety.

Christian Butterfield, Akin staff member Hana Elmasry and Neil Maguire mix tradition of abstract painting with found objects and collage. Rafael Yaluff draws on pop art and comics to reflect upon our culture of consumption. Using electric colours, Virgil Baruchel blurs the real world with virtual existence through his tapestries and pastels.

Tangled and urgent, the works in this show are a tentative tap on the shoulder. What can we do? Who do we want to be? Are we able to adapt?

MOCA Goes Dark: Night Visions Dance and Art Party on August 17

For the first time ever MOCA Goes Dark, and invites you to explore  the museum transformed by the artists and curators of the exhibition “An Index” from the Akin Studio Program at MOCA.

Come see MOCA transformed into an interactive art party by some of Toronto’s best emerging artists. 158 Sterling Road was once the site of illicit dance parties, raves, and punk gigs that were legendary. Taking inspiration from its past as an underground nightlife hub, we will relive this wild legacy for one night only with amazing art and music that will light MOCA up in the dark. Starting at nine o’clock, come play with artist-led interactive installations and activities on the ground floor. Dance among art with beats by DJ Lulu Wei on our black light dance floor.

This party is presented with the exhibition An Index, featuring twenty-four artists from the inaugural Akin Studio Program. An Index makes visible the labours of artistic creation through an open and honest charting of the processes, challenges, delights, and failures of making art in the city. Night Visions credits the importance of social play in creative production. For the first time ever MOCA Goes Dark, and invites you to explore the museum transformed by local artists. Cash-only bar will be available.

MOCA Toronto aims to be a barrier-free and accessible museum for all.

Doors at 9:00pm

Advance tickets are encouraged and are available at https://experience.museumofcontemporaryart.ca/452/802

$15 dollars regular, $10 MOCA members and students.
MOCA members log in first to add tickets to your cart.

REUNION: Sunday Drive returns in August with an immersive art show in Lakefield, Ontario

SUNDAY DRIVE ART PROJECTS is once again exposing audiences to art in unexpected places, this time presenting contemporary art in the picturesque rural setting of the Kawarthas. Returning with a new show format, in a new town, Sunday Drive will present REUNION, an immersive art experience on a private farm just outside of Peterborough in Douro-Dummer, running Friday and Saturday evenings in August 2019. 

For Torontonians, Sunday Drive is providing buses leaving from Toronto on specific nights. These buses are exceptionally fun with food and drinks provided. REUNION happens at sundown in open fields and wooded areas. Once you arrive in Lakefield, a bus hosted by the farm’s owners, is waiting to take visitors to REUNION, ten minutes away. This short ride provides time for visitors to get the full backstory of how REUNION came to be, to meet the artists who own the farm and deepen the experience they are about to have.

The show runs approximately 90 minutes. Tickets are $20. Group rates are available.

SHOW DATES: August 9, 10, 16 and 17 (please note, busses from Toronto are only for select shows).
BUSSES FROM TORONTO: August 10 and 17 (Future dates will be announced as current dates get filled. )

“We’re not providing too many details so that audiences get the most from the experience. This is definitely a show you need to experience for yourself.”

- Tania Thompson, Sunday Drive’s Creative Director

ABOUT SUNDAY DRIVE:
Sunday Drive is a registered not-for-profit organization presenting contemporary arts events to audiences in unexpected places. Run by a passionate group of arts professionals drawn to open spaces and concentrated culture. Sunday Drive has one foot in the city and one foot in the country, believing contemporary art should be accessible to everyone, everywhere. For more information visit www.sundaydrive.org or call 416-985-3369

Art Bus 2019

From June through October, get on board the Art Bus that will travel from downtown Toronto directly to the McMichael in Kleinburg. For only $15 + general admission, spend the day viewing the exhibitions, and walking the grounds on 100 acres of forested land along the Humber River. The McMichael is a major public gallery uniquely devoted to collecting the art of Canada located in the charming Village of Kleinburg, approximately a 30 minute drive from the city of Toronto.

Toronto departure: 11 am
McMichael departure: 4 pm
Departure point: 80 Spadina Ave.
Departure dates: July 21, July 28, August 4, August 11, August 18, August 28, September 1, September 8, September 15, September 22, September 29, October 6, October 13, October 20 and October 27

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is located on the original lands of the Ojibwe Anishinaabe People. It is uniquely situated along the Carrying Place Trail which historically provided an integral connection for Aboriginal people between Ontario’s Lakeshore and the Lake Simcoe-Georgian Bay Region. As an institution, McMichael recognizes the importance of acknowledging the original territories of the Ojibwe Anishinaabe First Nations people.

The McMichael’s permanent collection consists of over 6,500 artworks by Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, their contemporaries, and First Nations, Métis, Inuit and contemporary artists who have contributed to the development of Canadian art.

Aisle 4 presents In Residence: July-November 2019 at the Scarborough Museum

Aisle 4 is a Toronto-based curatorial project that initiates and promotes socially engaged artwork. Through collaborations with artists from a range of disciplines, they present critical public art experiences that reach beyond core arts audiences to animate unsuspecting spaces and connect communities.

In Residence is an artist-in-residence series at the Scarborough Museum that examines the role of a colonial house museum in present-day Scarborough. Seeking to expand the museum’s institutional capacity, five participating artists and collectives will introduce new narratives, perspectives, and timeframes that build stronger linkages with the surrounding Bendale neighbourhood. The residency participants are Sameer Farooq, Petrina Ng, Serena Lee, Annie Wong, and the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective.

Focusing on ideas of intergenerational, diasporic traditions; cross-cultural hauntologies; traditional labour and leisure practices; and experimental culinary interventions, the artists will activate the site with attention on the targeted demographics adjacent to the museum.

In Residence is a collaboration with the dedicated staff at the Scarborough Museum to both challenge and enhance its function as an operating “historical” site through contemporary art and social practice. Each artist/collective will inhabit a space at the Museum and create work in conversation with local residents, business owners, and community organizations during their projected residency period. The Museum will become a temporary home, office, or studio in which artists can conduct research, create work, workshop ideas, host meetings, and run public programs.

The Sin Fronteras Monarch Butterfly Project – A Flight Path Without Borders

Every summer and winter, monarch butterflies migrate across the North American continent. Coinciding with the arrival of monarch butterflies in Canada and their departure to Mexico, the Davenport Perth Community Ministry, alongside Canada Nos Une Multicultural Organization, held a series workshops and events within the Davenport Perth community. These workshops led to the creation of a multitude of ceramic butterflies that highlight Turtle Island’s connection with ancient Indigenous cultures and the monarch.

When: Thu Aug 22 to Sep 04, 2019

Where: Gardiner Museum, 111 Queen’s Park, Toronto

Part of the Community Arts Space: What we long for
Artists-In-Residence
Co-presented with Akin and Canada Nos Une Multicultural Organization

Facilitated by Monterrey, Mexico-born artist Lourdes (Lumy) Fuentes and Community Minister and artist Tina Conlon during their residency at Akin St Clair, these art-making activities explore the challeng­es faced by migrants in the context of the monarch but­terfly’s risk of extinction. These ceramic butterflies, installed in the Gardiner’s Exhibition Hall and Ancient Americas Gallery, are intended to mobilize conversation and action surrounding the both decline of the monarch and the migrant crisis.

Image source: Gardiner Museum

Programming

July 17, 6 – 9 pm
Clay & Conversation
Make ceramic butterflies that will be part of The Sin Fronteras Monarch Butterfly Project.

July 24, 6 – 9 pm
Clay & Conversation
Make ceramic butterflies that will be part of The Sin Fronteras Monarch Butterfly Project.

August 22, 6 – 8 pm
Exhibition Launch
All are welcome to attend the public opening of The Sin Fronteras Monarch Butterfly Project, featuring a butterfly dance performed by seniors of the Davenport-Perth Community, music, refreshments, and more.

August 25, 11 am – 3 pm
Family Sunday: Spread Your Wings
Just before the monarch butterflies begin their annual migration to Mexico, join us for a special ceramic butterfly-making workshop in English and Spanish.

About Community Arts Space: What we long for

Grounded in the ability of clay to transform, Community Arts Space is a platform for experimentation and socially-engaged art. Established in 2016, the project connects artists, makers, organizers, and residents through the creation of public projects that inspire social action. This year, the Gardiner is showcasing four public projects inspired by the theme “What we long for.”

An Index: Exhibition of Artists from the Akin Studio Program at MOCA

An Index
July 25 - September 8, 2019
Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada - Floor 4

An Index Opening Reception
Wednesday, July 24, 6-9pm
Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada - Floor 4

The exhibition, An Index, exposes work by the first cohort of residency artists who entered Akin’s Studio Program 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 Akin’s open-plan studio structure for the last nine months.

To find common points of departure for an exhibition, MOCA has invited curators Marsya Maharani and Marjan Verstappen, associated with the Younger than Beyoncé Gallery, to work with the 24 participating artists. The curators’ proposal, An Index, speaks to process and production, to the varied artistic approaches found within one context and the relationships built through this programme.

Left: Photo of artist Samar Hejazi. Photo by Shannon McClatchey. Right: Adria Mirabelli’s studio. Courtesy of the artist.

Taking their inspiration from Akin’s residency at MOCA, in the former Tower Automotive building, Maharani and Verstappen drew on the site’s history as a car parts factory and also a venue for raves and artist studios. “Throughout the past year, the fourth floor of MOCA served to extend this legacy by opening space for studios, residencies, as well as programmes exploring art’s utilitarian role in contemporary society,” they explained.

“In the context of the site’s histories, this exhibition features works by artists who have produced within this space as part of the inaugural Akin Studio Program. An Index makes visible the labours of artistic creation through an open and honest charting of the processes, challenges, delights, and failures of making art in the city.”

The exhibition comprises work in a variety of media from sculpture, to video, to new wall murals by:

Adria Mirabelli, Carrie Chisholm, David Constantino Salazar, Emily Woudenberg, Emma White, Eva Kolcze, Helen Liene Dreifelds, Humboldt Magnussen, Jennifer Dany Aubé, Jessica Thalmann, Jieun June Kim, Leone McComas, Liang Wang, Maren Boedeker, Nuff, Polymetis, Raoul Olou, Raquel Da Silva, Samar Hejazi, Sara Mozafari, Stephanie Avery, Su Bin Ee, Tanya Louise Workman, and Walter Segers.

Over the next couple of months, Akin will be sharing profiles on our blog of all of the artists from Year 1 of the Akin Studio Program at MOCA. Click here to see the most recent posts in the Akin MOCA Series.

Photo of artist Leone McComas. Photo by Jessica Thalmann

Accessibility
MOCA Toronto aims to be a barrier-free and accessible museum for all. Each floor has elevator access. Two wheelchairs that are available to borrow. Service animals are welcome.