artists @ project at Project (504 Pape) to July 22. 416-461-6446. Rating: NNNN
when stefan schmuhl moved intoa storefront on Pape last summer, he had no intention of going into the exhibit biz. But he realized it was the perfect spot to showcase some of the artists he’d met during the two years he’d lived in Brooklyn en route to Toronto from his native Germany, so he did the obvious thing: he opened a gallery.In the 10 shows since, he’s offered some of the city’s most exciting programming. But the lease is running out and he’s moving on after wrapping up the final show in his Project series.
For his closer, Schmuhl has selected 20 Toronto artists and invited Eyewash Gallery (located in the cutting-edge Williamsburg gallery district) proprietor Annie Herron to show 20 of her faves from New York City.
Of the 42 works crammed into a single modest room, there are some real gems and a couple that are merely good. Highlights on the Toronto roster include the incomparable Julie Voyce’s Star Guy, Mala Sinha’s textile Meditation, Richard Stipl’s clay-and-wood self-portrait, Inhale/Exhale, and Dana Holst’s bawling Green Baby Head.
Star New York works include Bruce Houston’s Mondrian Truck, Ward Shelley’s brilliant text-cartoon Autobiography, Lori Taschler’s Untitled (Swimming Pool) and Sebastian Blanck’s Untitled (Boy In Shower), in which a very loose underpainting is overlaid by a formal grid of dots.
Go see this show or kick yourself.
