Counterpoints:
Photography Through The Lens Of Toronto Collections
Art Museum at University of Toronto (7 Hart House, 15 King’s College), May 6-July 30, reception 7 pm May 12
Former gallery owner Jessica Bradley curates this exhibit of more than 100 images owned by private collectors, including Ydessa Hendeles, Kenneth Montague of Wedge Curatorial Projects and Ann and Harry Malcolmson, whose treasure trove includes works by 19th-century pioneers of the medium. From 20th-century greats like Brassaï, Berenice Abbott and André Kertész to contemporaries like Rebecca Belmore, Stan Douglas and LaToya Ruby Frazier, just about every photographer you’d hope to see is here.
Jeff Bierk’s Jimmy.
Jeff Bierk, with “Jimmy” James Evans and Carl Lance Bonnici
10 Blankets
Annex neighbourhood and Queen East at Church, May 1-31
Having evolved from a photographer of the homeless to a friend of people he once saw as subjects, Bierk offers a radical critique of the ethics of photographic representation. Friends he’s made near his home and workplace now collaborate with him, deciding how they want to be portrayed and sharing in sales. Concern for people sleeping out in the cold led to the idea of printing life-sized portraits of them on fleece blankets that will be in use on the street and can be followed on Bierk’s Istagram (@jeffari).
Mickalene Thomas’s narrative-transforming installation.
Mickalene Thomas:
What It Means To Be Beautiful
Billboard at Spadina and Front, May 1-31
This outdoor installation is part of a series that Contact has mounted in cities across Canada in which the Brooklyn-based photographer, painter and installation artist places smartly dressed black women – her relatives, friends and lovers – in poses cribbed from fashion magazines or classical paintings against collaged backgrounds of 70s-style Afrocentric fabrics. The daughter of one of the first black fashion models, Thomas, by putting the focus on these powerful figures, transforms a cultural narrative that has often excluded black women.
Gabriellede Montmollin’s doctored images about the Ghomeshi trial hang at Red Head.
Gabrielle de Montmollin
We Shall See What We Shall See
Red Head Gallery (401 Richmond West, #115), To May 21
The Toronto artist presents images of Canada in lenticular prints – the technique, often used on novelty souvenirs, of printing on a grooved plastic surface so you see different images when viewing from different angles. Various work features doctored media images from the Ghomeshi trial, Mounties and Group of Seven-ish woodlands, and ghostly Barbie dolls acting out various scenarios. I find artworks using this tacky medium irresistible.
Vikky Alexander de-constructs fashion poses in Decent, at Cooper Cole.
Vikky Alexander
The Temptation of Saint Anthony
COOPER COLE (1134 Dupont), May 13-June 18, reception 6-8 pm May 13
These prints were made in the 1980s when Canadian conceptual photographer Alexander lived in New York City and was part of a group of artists that included Richard Price and Sherrie Levine who worked with appropriated images. In the Temptation series, Alexander de-contextualizes fashion photos of the era in various ways to unmoor them from their accepted patriarchal message about female beauty on display for the male gaze.
Christian Patterson:
Bottom Of The Lake
Contact Gallery (80 Spadina, #205) To June 30
Patterson’s installation paints an eccentric portrait of his hometown, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in the 70s. Objects mingle with photographs: images of the lake and snowy town adorn pages from a local phone directory, a blue telephone is accompanied by a photo of its disassembled parts, vitrines hold matchbooks and Watergate memorabilia. It’s not exactly about the artist’s own memories – he was born in 1972. Instead, it’s an assemblage of strange signifiers of a specific time and place. (Also check out the gallery’s adjacent show of recent notable photo books.)
Don’t miss: Six must-see shows at CONTACT 2016
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