Papier 15 as always dedicated its art fair programme towards works exclusively made on paper, to include drawings, prints, collages, photography as well as three-dimensional paper-based objects. The annual fair opened its 8th edition between 24 and 26 April, and over the years, Papier’s reputation has risen to now feature among the top do-not-miss events on Montreal’s contemporary arts calendar. For 2015 Papier relocated to Complexe de Gaspé, which is rapidly developing into a new arts hub, housing four floors of artist studios and six artist run spaces in the hip Mile End district. The fair took over the top three floors of this 11-story building filled in natural light, to accommodate 39 galleries from across Canada. Comparatively to previous years, the somewhat leaner line-up of exhibiters did combine many regulars with first timers such as Diaz Contemporary (Toronto [TO]), Lisa Kehler Art + Projects (Winnipeg), Initial Gallery (Vancouver) and Studio 21 Fine Art (Halifax). The smaller numbers of booths were nonetheless particularly well positioned in an otherwise enormous space, circling the middle of each floor to leave a wide walkway around the window-covered external walls, for visitors to also enjoy a 360 panoramic view of La Belle Ville.
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Art Marathon: Toronto’s vibrant art scene [Updated!]
Scott McFarland’s large-scale photographic mural “Corner of the Courageous, Repatriation Ceremony for Sergant Martin Goudreault, Grenville St., Toronto, Ontario, June 9th 2010” (2012) in the courtyard of MOCCA. Photo by M-KOS
Toronto’s vibrant art scene and exuberant artist community package many artist-run spaces, a number of notable commercial galleries as well as important public and private art institutions. The annual Scotibank Contact photography festival testifies as a case study to the city’s cultural dynamism, currently showcasing over 100 artists under the theme: Public. M-KOS journeyed to Toronto for this occasion and more, featuring the Canadian metropolis within our regular Art Marathon.
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Review: With the Void
With the Void
Stephen Andrews, Pierre Dorion, Dara Gellman
at Diaz Contemporary, Toronto
14 July – 27 August 2011
Dara Gellman “Reaching Out” Single channel video projection with stereo sound, 8mins loop, four MDF projection screens. Courtesy of the artist and Diaz Contemporary
“We wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.†* This month Diaz Contemporary adorned its walls with works that, at first glance, echo ghostly epitaphs from the glorious manifestos of American abstract painters. On closer inspection the three-person show, made up of Stephen Andrews, Pierre Dorion and Dara Gellman, rises beyond the oppositions between figurative and non, into velvety sensory aesthetics. Similarly, when Color Field painters favored abstraction in the 1950’s, their focus, according to Clement Greenberg, was on illumination and openness: they elevated the potential of color to its apex via painterly techniques, large-scale formats, and thus rendered barren and featureless pictures to keep an open-ended subject matter. While clearly in continuation with this visual vocabulary, the works of With the Void journey to the limits of the representational tableau, and even reach out to confer with other media.
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