Carole Condé + Karl Beveridge
PUBLIC EXPOSURES: THE ART-ACTIVISM OF CONDÉ + BEVERIDGE (1976-2016)
A Space, Prefix ICA, Urbanspace, Trinity Square Video and YYZ (401 Richmond West), May 14-June 25, reception 2-4 pm May 14
This multi-gallery survey spans the career of the political-art duo, from their rejection of the New York art scene in the 70s and move to Canada, where they’ve collaborated with unions, communities and artist-run centres, to a recent work about climate change and hockey. They originally adopted the staged-photo format to protect unionists who feared identification by management, but soon found the strategy allowed them to push their social justice message further. They’ve devoted their life’s work to exploring the intersections of wage labour and creativity.
Public Studio (Elle Flanders and Tamira Sawatzky)
WHAT WE LOSE IN METRICS
Art Gallery of York University (4700 Keele) to June 19
Addressing the theme of what is lost when we treat nature as a source of commodities, the Toronto duo’s forest-based installation includes a cabin in the woods, a series of video games and a proclamation on the rights of nature by Haida lawyer Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson on a highway-sized LED screen that also serves as a grow light for tree saplings. They’re becoming ever more adept at crafting ambitious installations that pull in a broad range of ideas.
Eva by James Barnor.
James Barnor
EVER YOUNG
BAND Gallery (1 Lansdowne), April 28-May 29, reception 6-9 pm Thursday (April 28)
Black Artists’ Network in Dialogue partners with UK org Autograph ABP (responsible for some excellent shows here in recent years) to highlight Ghanaian photographer Barnor. Less well known than his Malian contemporaries Seydou Keïta and the recently deceased Malick Sidibé, Barnor ran the Ever Young studio in Accra, making portraits of people from all levels of society. He also worked as a photojournalist and captured the African diaspora in 1960s London. It’s exciting to discover more practitioners of African studio photography, an art form made by and for Africans.
Angela Grauerholz’s Sententia I – LXII (detail).
Angela Grauerholz
SCOTIABANK PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD
Ryerson Image Centre (33 Gould), May 4-August 21, reception 6-8 pm May 4, artist talk 6:30 pm June 22
The Montreal-based 2015 prizewinner exhibits photography and installations made since the 80s. Grauerholz explores the notion of memory and cultural preservation through depictions of museums and artworks in an off-kilter style and ambiguous personal and architectural images, often in blurry black-and-white. Her installations reflect her fascination with books and archives. Her training in graphic design, literature and linguistics informs her complex, difficult-to-encapsulate oeuvre.
Sarah Anne Johnson’s installation Best Beach.
Sarah Anne Johnson
FIELD TRIP
McMichael Canadian Art Collection (10365 Islington, Kleinburg) to June 5, artist talk 11 am May 14
BEST BEACH
Westin Harbour Castle Conference Centre (11 Bay), May 1-December 31
Johnson strikes a happier note than in the powerful recent Toronto performance and videos that expanded on House On Fire, her heartbreaking 2009 project about her grandmother, a survivor of the notorious CIA-funded LSD experiments in 1950s Montreal. The Winnipeg artist’s photos of the Toronto Islands for the Best Beach outdoor mural and millennials at play at music festivals for the Field Trip exhibit are cheerier images, doctored with expressive, painted-on explosions of colour and glitter. But they sometimes share a confused or unhinged feeling with her artworks on more painful subjects.
Michel Huneault’s Utatsu Remains Of A Bridge.
Michel Huneault
POST TOHOKU
Le Labo @ Campbell House Museum (160 Queen West), May 5-June 12, reception/artist talk 6-9 pm May 5
Before and after making his moving Post Mégantic project (shown at last year’s Contact) documenting grieving survivors and ruined landscapes, the Montreal-based Huneault visited Japan’s Tohoku region, which was devastated in 2011 by an earthquake, tsunami and leak from the Fukushima nuclear reactor. Typical of his humanist approach, he volunteered with rehabilitation projects in addition to taking pictures. As he did at Lac-Mégantic, he focuses here on how communities struggle to evolve after long-term trauma.
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