We are pleased to launch our newest initiative in support of emerging artists and curators: Summer Sessions, a program through which we are making free space and staffing support available to graduates of local and regional colleges and universities to present their thesis exhibitions in downtown Toronto.
This past fall, the Images Festival and TYPOLOGY launched Moving Images in Contemporary Culture, a new series of talks and workshops on the changes, challenges, and advances in curating and presenting the moving image. Our pilot event, Beyond the Projection, took place on October 17 with the participation of many local curators and programmers. Our second event, The Space of Production: Notes on Technical Support, took place January 23 and featured a presentation by Victoria Brooks, EMPAC Curator of Time-based Visual Art (more information on this page under Events).
TYPOLOGY presents Script, Stage, Screen | Ciprian Mureșan, curated by Oana Tanase. Featuring a critical selection of this internationally known artist’s experimental films, Script, Stage, Screen is the first solo exhibition of Mureșan’s work in Toronto, which we are very pleased to present in partnership with the 29th edition of the Images Festival (April 14–23, 2016).
(Note to our mailing list subscribers: sorry about that bait and switch from yesterday — but we hope you enjoyed the posts by our resident curator, Oana Tanase, and intern, Katelyn Gallucci. We’re now sending you the info on our upcoming screenings from CHINA NOW: Independent Visions, for reals! Read on for details, and if you’re as excited as we are, contact us at rsvp@typology.ca to get your own personal discount code for 10% off advance tickets — a bit of special treatment for our long suffering subscribers. :)
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TYPOLOGY is proud to announce our support for CHINA NOW: Independent Visions, in the form of two exciting film screenings we’ll host in Small World Music Centre’s theatre space at Artscape Youngplace this spring.
Organized by Toronto-based curator and critic Shelly Kraicer, LA-based producer Karin Chien, and Chicago-based filmmaker JP Sniadecki, CHINA NOW is the touring arm of Cinema on the Edge, a program of 29 experimental films representing the best of Chinese independent film festivals from 2012-14. Launched to wide acclaim in New York last summer, Cinema on the Edge will debut in Toronto this March with a monthlong program of eight documentaries hosted by TIFF Cinematheque, under the series title The Crisis of the Real: New Chinese Independent Documentaries.
Following fast on their heels, TYPOLOGY will present our own selection from the original series: three groundbreaking animations and one experimental feature which comprise an eye- and ear-opening program of independent contemporary cinema from across China. Featuring filmmakers from Shenyang in the north to Guangzhou in the south, and Tibet in the west to Taiwan in the east, this selection bespeaks volumes on the vastness of space, time scales, and cultural difference experienced by these artists, who must find their voices in a country where censorship remains the order of the day.
Join us this Friday from 5–11 for a major building-wide Halloween-themed event organized by artists and organizations at Artscape Youngplace, including TYPOLOGY. See below for all the amazing stuff we have in store for all ages.
photo: The School’s opening celebration by James Prinz Photography
Just 13 miles up Route 9 from Hudson, in the village of Kinderhook, NY, is gallerist Jack Shainman’s latest venture, aptly named The School. Repurposed from a decommissioned Federal Revival public school built in 1929, this beautiful new exhibition venue has been thoughtfully redesigned by Spanish architect Antonio Jimenez Torrecillas into a multifaceted project space and gallery featuring work and projects by Shainman’s roster of internationally known artists.
Closing after this long weekend is the Power Plant’s sprawling summer exhibition, Postscript: Writing After Conceptual Art. Curated by Andrea Andersson and Nora Burnett Abrams, this multi-sensory feast for the eyes, ears, and mind is a testament to the variety and richness of artistic and poetic approaches to language undertaken by conceptual artists and writers since the 1960s.
Spring is in full swing and Occupy has exploded back on the scene with impressive May Day demonstrations. As a movement which unites an incredible array of (sometimes conflicting, but that’s part of the beauty) agendas under the inclusive umbrella of the 99%, it has been uniquely effective in staying on message: Occupy isn’t going anywhere. Or perhaps: it is going to be everywhere.
What’s always been striking about the movement (as we noted in our previous post on Occupy’s aesthetic beginnings, linked below) is its focused attention on creating visually powerful moments that appeal to the heart and linger in the mind. From the start it has adopted a sophisticated, multifaceted approach to protest that is informed by contemporary art, design, and social media as much as it is by socio-economic theory and political action. While we can’t pretend to be able to cover all of the visual, performative, and often subversive mass media tactics that Occupy has deployed over the past weeks and months, we can offer a selection of some of the more intriguing arts-related articles and images that have surfaced in our news feeds over recent days. To a limited extent, we’ll try to update this post with fresh links and images as they emerge during what we’ll call OWS Chapter Two.
On the advice of artist Ken Nicol, we stopped in to MKG127 to see Michael Dumontier’s current show, the middle of the air. Featuring a series of well-crafted works in various media including acrylic on MDF, foil stamp and coloured pencil on matboard, foil stamp on fabric, and string, nails and a fishing weight, the exhibition is both playful and spare, quiet yet engaging. With an incredibly light hand and wry sense of humour, Dumontier utilizes tromp l’oeil effects to fool the eye and surprise the mind. Like zen koans, the best of the works call into question not only the material processes used in their making, but the nature of reality itself.
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The Ministry of Artistic Affairs hosted its first event of the season last Wednesday evening at the capacious Neubacher Shor Contemporary. Currently on view in the main gallery is new work by the collaborative duo Tibi Tibi Neuspiel and Geoffrey Pugen, made in the aftermath of their gripping Nuit Blanche performance, The Tie-Break. Conceived as a reenactment of what ESPN once called “the most riveting episode in the sport’s history”, Neuspiel and Pugen set out not only to memorize and execute the legendary fourth set tie-break from the 1980 Wimbledon Finals between Björn Borg and John McEnroe, but to do it over and over again, all night long. As anyone who was there that frigid evening last October can attest, their composure and sheer endurance in the face of blistering winds and a few too many drunken hecklers further electrified the atmosphere of tension and suspense, despite the audience’s assumed knowledge of the match’s outcome.