JAKUB DOLEJS, YAEL EBAN, ANDREW B. MYERS, TIM RODA, OLI SORENSON: Exhibition Narrative Angell Gallery (12 Ossington), to May 30. 416-530-0444.
Narrative takes centre stage in this group show of five photographers who explore the subtle ways photographs can tell a story. Tim Roda’s curiously timeless images stage dreamlike family scenarios in which children play, unaware of figures standing under black shrouds. Collaging images from public archives and private collections, Yael Eban documents how families tell their stories. Jakub Dolejs gives us narrative at its most abstract: a fantastical Rube Goldberg sequence of mechanical events triggered by chance. Taking the idea even further, Andrew B. Myers shows how our stories are inextricably intertwined with the thousands of commercial and consumer objects we consume.
David Jager
Siebren de Haan and Lonnie van Brummelen’s beautiful Episode Of The Sea shows at Gallery TPW.
SIEBREN DE HAAN AND LONNIE VAN BRUMMELEN: Episode Of The Sea Gallery TPW (170 St. Helens), to May 23. 416-645-1066.
Inaugurating its new space, formerly a fish wholesaler’s, TPW programs this hour-long video transfer of a film about Dutch North Sea fishermen from the town of Urk. Shooting on expired black-and-white film with an 80s-vintage camera, the artists draw connections between the decline of fishing and of film photography. Beautiful, rhythmic sequences of the sea, people at work and squirming fish contrast with strangely stilted readings by local stand-ins of a script based on conversations with the fishermen.
Fran Schechter
The Accelerators, by Elle Flanders and Tamira Sawatzky, journeys through flash points in history from 1787 to 2015.
PUBLIC STUDIO: The Accelerators O’Born Contemporary (131 Ossington), to June 27. 416-413-9555.
In this thought-provoking multimedia show, Elle Flanders, Tamira Sawatzky and collaborators nimbly jump around through history, from the 1787 Toronto Purchase to Marie Antoinette’s breast, from the assassination of Oscar Romero to Charlie Hebdo.
FS
Matthew Stone’s nude Infinity Witness hangs as part of Outside The Frame.
MATTHEW STONE, TALIA SHIPMAN, ANDREA WOLF, LALA ABADDON: Outside The Frame Drake Hotel (1150 Queen West), to June 28. 416-531-5042.
A roster of young international artists explores the 2D photo emerging into three dimensions and moving images. Optimism As Cultural Rebellion is Matthew Stone’s dominating contributions in the form of intertwined nudes installed across the front windows and a photograph printed on a three-dimensional wooden sculpture. The tone is classical, the take-away heady and hedonistic.
DJ
