Gregory Scott “Dialogue” (2011) archival digial print, oil on panel & HD video. at Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago.
Toronto International Art Fair‘s 12th edition took place between October 28-31 2011, in the city’s main Convention Centre, officially ranking as one of the biggest events on Canadian cultural calendars.
Within the context of Canada’s limited art market, TIAF proposed a commendable program of exhibiting galleries, ensuring an unhurried but confident progress from the figures of previous years. A total of 109 commercial galleries took part in 2011, 72 of which Canadian, perhaps enough to look into this event as a cross-section of the nation’s recent artistic activities. The remaining fair booths represented cities such as New York, London, Berlin and Dublin, adding a welcomed international flavour to the overall show. At the closing of the fair last weekend, it’s estimated the paid attendance has risen to above 18,000, with art sales at around CAN$20 million.
Toronto’s MKG127’s booth
Unfortunately enough, a sizable portion of the fair galleries were offering decorous landscapes, nudes and other stylishly modern paintings, in a secondary market context. While again indicative of the local economy, such focus on re-sales obstructed our scrutiny over the endeavours of Canadian contemporary artists. But among the faction of galleries that did champion a cutting edge attitude, we found a burgeoning artistic panorama. For instance, Angell Gallery was one of the few spaces to dare and sell video, MKG127 offered works which convincingly balanced high and popular culture and René Blouin pitched an impressive array of monumental pieces from hot young Quebecois artists. On the international side, Chicago’s Catherine Edelman gallery introduced Gregory Scott’s satirical take of conventional image-making, seamlessly fusing video monitors with photographic and painted surfaces.
Painting by Anthony Burnham at René Blouin, Montréal
Several satellite projects extended the fair’s art commerce mandate, including Kent Monkman’s The Art Game sponsored by Caviar20. Literally presented in the guise of a side-show, a circus master invited participants to enter Monkman’s life-size maze, and simultaneously play with their artistic career when choosing different corridors. In so doing one read messages left on the walls and windows, suggesting to have taken the loser path when coming out from one end of the maze, or as a Biennale golden palm winner at the other end. From fate to chance encounters, Paul Butler was also soliciting public participants in TIAF, with Collage Party. This time taking part in a four day long set of exquisite corpse, Winnipeg-born Butler invited the audience to collaborate with him in this massive mixed-media collage installation, which started and ended concurrently with the fair.
Works by Steve Lambert at Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles
Toronto’s influx of art professionals coming to see TIAF made it a perfect setting for networking parties beyond the walls of the convention centre, including a benefit event at the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) as well as another especially for art collectors, organized by AGAC (Contemporary Art Gallery Association). Curious art lovers would have also benefited to visit Toronto’s gallery district around Queen Street West, such as Clint Roenish Gallery presenting the refreshingly understated yet adventurous work of Polish born Aleksander Hardashnakov. Conveniently next door to Roenish, we find MOCCA (Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art) presenting a comprehensive selection of politically engaging video works by international artists and curated by Paco Barragan. A profusion of other galleries can be found by just walking a little further along Queen Street or Ossington Avenue, such as Paul Petro Gallery, InterAccess Media Arts Centre and many more, generously adding to the spectrum of art to be found in and around TIAF in 2011.
Painting by Wanda Koop at Galerie Division, Montréal