The Art Museum at the University of Toronto took the top award at the Ontario Association of Art Galleries’ (OAAG’s) 40th Anniversary Gala. Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience, a project by Toronto-based artist of Cree descent Kent Monkman, which ran January 26 to March 5, received Exhibition of the Year. Barbara Fischer, associate professor in the Daniels Faculty’s Master of Visual Studies program in Curatorial Studies, was the exhibition’s Commissioning Curator.

“Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience is an epic and timely project that addresses and counters Canada’s 150 years of colonialism,” said the jury. “With the help of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, his time-travelling alter ego, Monkman reconfigures this history by disrupting the great Canadian narrative with painterly devices that reveal the damaging consequences of colonial occupation on indigenous people, culture and land.”

A number of other Daniels faculty and alumni were recognized by OAAG as well. Visiting Professor Luis Jacob won the award for Curatorial Art Writing: Short Text under 2,000 words, written for his exhibition Form Follows Fiction: Art and Artists in Toronto, also presented at U of T’s Art Museum.

“Form Follows Fiction: Art and Artists in Toronto, reflects the forging of Jacob’s relationship to the subject of art making in Toronto, in a manner that enables the viewer to visualize their own connection to the city,” commented the Jury. “It presents a (fifty-year) panorama of the blueprints that artists have drafted over many decades to give form to life in one of North America’s largest cities."

Daniels Faculty Assistant Professor Mitchell Akiyama was part of a team that received the Education Award for the event Why Look at Cages? An inter-disciplinary forum on human and animal captivity and questions of social control presented by U of T Mississauga’s Blackwood Gallery & Animals in the Law and Humanities Working Group. The Jury praised the innovative program for offering “opportunities for knowledge and cross-disciplinary education and interspecies engagement.”

The University of Toronto Scarborough’s Doris McCarthy Gallery’s exhibition: Heather Hart: Northern Oracle, curated by Associate professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough, Ann MacDonald received the Monographic exhibition of the year (Budget over $20,000).

And Recent Master of Visual Studies graduates Emelie Chhangur and cheyanne turions both received awards for Curatorial Art Writing. Chhangur for Major Text over 5,000 words; turions for text 2,000 – 5,000 words.

For more information on all 2017 OAAG award winners, visit the OAAG website.

This fall, as students and faculty at the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design start school in their new home at One Spadina Crescent, questions around the changing nature of the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, art, and urbanism and their evolving pedagogical approaches have become especially urgent.

To celebrate the school’s new home and speculate about how to make best use of it in the coming years, the Faculty is mounting a series of discussions, lectures, and workshops, as well as a symposium. These events will explore the relationship between our workspaces and the pedagogies, research projects, and forms of public outreach in which we engage.

What kind of a pedagogical instrument is a school? What is its scope and reach? How do we conceptualize its relationship to the public? How can a school be a both a place where ideas are cultivated and where they are subject to continuous experimentation? And what implications does this productive tension have for the politics at play in our approach to art, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design? The series will host a rich array of educators, theorists, historians, and practitioners and will culminate in a symposium in the spring that will bring together thinkers who are at the forefront of conceptualizing and designing our schools.

“My mantra has been that architecture and its allied disciplines are as much a way of finding the world, as they are of forming it, and how it follows that a great design school models practice by acting as a hinge between study and action,” says Professor Richard Sommer, Dean of the Daniels Faculty. “With our new platform at One Spadina, we have an unprecedented opportunity to explore and demonstrate this.”

Upcoming lectures include:

• Daniels Faculty Associate Professor and founding partner of Lateral Office Mason White, architect and urbanist Charles Waldheim, research manager at Harvard’s Urban Theory Lab Daniel Ibañez-Moreno, and architect, educator, and writer Clare Lyster, who will talk about their new book Third Coast Atlas, which strives to capture emergent and shifting forms of urbanization, increasingly understood as socio-spatial and political processes that defy conventional modes of description,
   
• Associate Professor and architectural historian Mary Lou Lobsinger and Joaquim Moreno, guest curator of the exhibition The University is Now on Air: Broadcasting Modern Architecture at CCA from Novebmer 14, 2017 to April 1, 2018, who will discuss how schools disseminate knowledge and what role mass media play in the transformation of the culture of architecture and design in conversation with Associate Professor John Harwood,
   
• Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture Liat Margolis and President of the Nunavut Association of Landscape Architects Chris Grosset, who will address the ongoing dialogue between Canadian landscape architecture practices and indigenous culture, and how this discussion informs how we might train the next generation of landscape architects.

For more information about this series, visit www.daniels.utoronto.ca/events/what-is-a-school

Daily VICE published an interview with alumna Shellie Zhang (HBA, Visual Studies 2013) on her artwork series Accent, which explores the complicated history of MSG, and how fear of the product has racialized undertones.

‘My partner and I were buying groceries in Parkdale, and we saw this beautiful bottle that was loudly labeled as MSG, which sparked my curiosity,' Zhang told Daily VICE. ‘MSG is usually marketed under a different name now, so I started collecting similar products and exploring the history.’

From Zhang’s website:

“In 1968, the New England Journal of Medicine published a letter to the editor from one reader describing radiating pain in his arms, weakness and heart palpitations after eating at Chinese restaurants. He mused that a combination of cooking wine, MSG or excessive salt might have spurred these reactions. Reader responses poured in with similar complaints, and scientists jumped to research the phenomenon, centring on the glutamic salt, MSG. Not long after, the ‘Chinese Restaurant Syndrome’ was born.”
 

Since graduating, Zhang has exhibited at WORKJAM (Beijing), Scope Art Fair (Switzerland) and Public House of Art (Netherlands). Earlier this year, the Accent series was on display at Whippersnapper Gallery and Y+ Contemporary Gallery.

“Many assignments and works produced [at U of T] were useful exercises that equipped me with the necessary knowledge to make work,” said Zhang in an interview with Public Parking. “Once I was thrown back out into the world, I had to confront all of these considerations and re-examine where I want to situate myself as an artist.”

Later this month, Zhang will exhibit artwork in the upcoming exhibition In Pursuit of the Perfect Pose hosted by Gallery 44. In Pursuit of the Perfect Pose explores internalized performative manifestations of femininity and cultural alterity imposed through social structures and societal expectations of marginalized women. Curated by Leila Fatemi, the exhibition includes artworks by Dalia Amara, Rah, Rajni Perera, and Tau Lewis. For more information, visit the Gallery 44 website.

Photo, top: Installation of Accent by Sessional Lecturer Morris Lum (HBA,Visual Studies 2006).

In early September, visual artist and design curator Elizabeth Czartoryski (MArch 2013) exhibited THE PERCH at the Mulherin Toronto gallery. The solo exhibition included time-based performances, a sculptural wall, and photo-works that aim to "enlarge the aperture of gender difference." The second installment of THE PERCH is part of a larger body of work orbiting around the idea of a "gender truce."

“Gender equity continues to be mistreated and misguided," said Czartoryski in her artist statement. "In order to broaden the spectrum of our gender roles, and, invent new ones, we must first surrender to existing prescriptions of social convention. These prescriptive ingredients disrupt our bodies from fully engaging in the creation of a gender-neutral social equilibrium.”

"Within the rituals of our everyday life, we are left with residual anxiety that consumes our desire to embrace each other as equals and re-imagine ourselves. We must strip to our flesh, express our vulnerability, and remind each other that we are all the same."

Although the show is now over, Czartoryski continues to explore new methodologies and formations of body politics, incorporated into a hybrid of mixed media and performance projects. She is currently developing another iteration of THE PERCH, details of which will be available on her website: www.elizabethczar.com. You can also find her on instagram at @elizabethczar.

It’s not often that a graduate of the Bachelors of Arts, Visual Studies has the opportunity to create an installation for their professor’s bathroom, but Chantal Hassard did just that earlier this year. Professor Joanne Tod had taken a liking to Hassard’s MOOP (Matter Out of Place) artwork, and invited her to create the installation with the desire to have “bottles tumbling down from the skylight.” Since graduating, Hassard started b[art]er (an artist exchange network), exhibited work at Honest Ed’s Farewell Festival, and was profiled by Narcity as one of “14 Toronto Artists To Follow On Instagram If You Want To Be Inspired.” Honours Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies student Josie Northern Harrison (HBA 2017) met up with Hassard to chat about her recent initiatives within the artist community, her experience saying goodbye to one of Toronto’s landmark buildings, and how counter-cultural communities have inspired her work.

While you were studying, did you take part in any opportunities at U of T that changed your perspective on art?
My perspective on art really changed when I did a semester abroad in Tel Aviv with U of T’s Centre for International Experience. While studying Political Science and travelling, I stumbled into the Isreali Burning Man community, which organizes Midburn, the third largest Burning Man offshoot event worldwide. I knew Burning Man was a self-sufficient artist community, and I wanted to explore their ideas. I got involved by volunteering with the Department of Public Works to go into the Negev desert to install infrastructure for the temporary city.

The immersive environment really expanded my understanding of how art affects viewers. It was eye-opening to watch large scale installations be built and celebrated, only to be lit on fire and destroyed later on. The counterculture ideology of radical inclusion — the idea that everyone should be welcome — seemed especially valuable in an exclusive state like Israel.

How did you continue your art practice after you graduated?
After graduating from the Visual Studies program, I initiated b[art]er, an artist exchange network, to recreate a setting where people could engage with each other through art. Anyone can bring anything they made to trade with other artists. By exchanging work, participants invest in each other. There is so much rejection in the world, so I hope that b[art]er can be a place where people might try things they’ve never done before just for fun.

I also gallery sit, help install shows, and bartend at Northern Contemporary, an illustration gallery in Parkdale. There is a lot of experimentation going on there, and I can test ideas like b[art]er in the space. I am volunteering in exchange for a show of my own, so I am making work with that in mind now.

Out Home and Native Land by Chantal Hassard, 2017.

It seems like you have a really good relationship with Joanne Tod; has she been a mentor for you?
Yeah, totally. Joanne Tod was my professor during my final semester at U of T. In undergrad courses, I was formally introduced to postmodernism through her figurative work from the 80’s, so I made it a priority to take her painting course. I was new to painting and had hoped to learn some technical skills, but ended up really connecting to Joanne through our shared appreciation for social commentary. At the same time, she advised my Visual Studies thesis course, so she saw how my far-out ideas could hang together. After I graduated, she invited me to extend a series called MOOP — the Burning Man word for garbage, or Matter Out Of Place — in the bathroom of her home. She is a total rockstar, and her support has had a profound effect on my own confidence as an artist.

For the installation in her bathroom, I made Our Home and Native Land (2017). I wanted to acknowledge Canada’s 150th year by creating a nauseating archive of material and cultural consumption that highlights the exploitive relationship our society has with the natural world. I was very inspired by and wanted to highlight the references associated with a tree branch in Joanne’s bathroom from Byng Inlet where Tom Thomson’s painted his iconic White Pines. The branch inspired her artwork Divided Touch (2010), and in an interview with The Walrus (http://walrusmagazine.com/rbc/2010.11/) she describes how impressionists conceptualized their use of unmixed dabs of paint so that colours could be brightened by association. I see the same principle at play in the branding of many products; bright colours create recognition with consumers. To create the installation, I spent a year assembling female bathroom products together with personal photography, materials from tree planting, many cutouts of works by Joanne and many other artists working in Canada who influence me. I assembled all these objects together onto a series of canvases that all had their own dominant colour based on the packaging. Each canvas acts like an impasto brush stroke to paint a hysterically realistic defragmenting landscape that tumbles down from the skylight above her bathtub.

MOOP by Chantal Hassard, 2016.

Band-Aid Solution by Chantal Hassard, 2016.

Do you have any advice for incoming students?
Get out there! Volunteer for events that interest you. Go on an exchange. Go to galleries. Submit to shows. Take all kinds of classes. Follow your intuition and definitely don’t waste time being intimidated or wishing you were done studying — it will all be over before you even know what happened. 

Image, top (in order of appearance):
Februus by Chantal Hassard, 2016.
Reserve Zone by Chantal Hassard, 2017.
Detail of MOOP by Chantal Hassard, 2016.
Detail of MOOP by Chantal Hassard, 2016.

The Graduate Architecture, Landscape, and Design Student Union (GALDSU) will launch this year’s issue on Friday, October 6. This issue will explore “the multiplicity of ways in which the graduate students of Daniels confront the realities of our world – and their worlds – as a way to imagine and create space for multiple futures.” How, Co-Editors and Alumni Jasper Flores, Elise Hunchuck, and Dayne Roy-Caldwell ask, do the “practices of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, and visual studies suggest ways for us to design with and for each other?”

The launch party will take place at OFFSITE Concept Space at 867 Dundas Street West. There will be music, food, and a cash bar. Copies of the new publication will be available to purchase. For more information, visit the Eventbrite page.

A note from the editors on the cover image (pictured above): “The moon was installed at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto in April 2016, alongside Gillian Dykeman (MVS 2016)'s video 'Dispatches from the Feminist Utopian Future,' watercolour schematic drawings of the earthworks, and a keystone covered in tachyon particles. For more, please see 'Dispatches from the Feminist Utopian Future (page 13-18) and Psychic Strata: Land, Art, Subjectivity (page 19-26). Both works are by Gillian Dykeman. The cover photograph was taken by Jesse Boles (MVS 2015), courtesy of Gillian Dykeman (2015).

Other photos (in order of appearance): 2-On Spheres by Ekaterina Dovjenko, 3-Wasting Futures by Elaine Chau, 4-To Melt Into Air, Slowly by Vanessa Abram, 5-∆ Museum by Melissa Gerskup and Ray Wu

Alumna Deanna Bowen (MVS 2008) was recently profiled by Canadian Art for her research on anti-Blackness in 20th-century Canada. Bowen is a descendant of the Alabama- and Kentucky-born Black Prairie pioneers of Amber Valley and Campsie, Alberta, and this family geneology largely informs her artwork.

“To understand how her family history positions her in Canada today, Bowen’s deep historical research ranges from community and institutional archives, first-person conversations and forgotten photographs to newspaper clippings and television recordings,” writes Canadian Art. “She uses whatever medium can best tell the stories she uncovers: shot-for-shot remakes in video and performance, documentary photography, text-based reproductions, and a theatrical production for a fall 2017 solo exhibition at Mercer Union.”

In 2013, Bowen’s exhibit at the Art Gallery of York University explored the Ku Klux Klan’s role in 20th century Canadian history by strategically displaying violent, white supremacist banners. The exhibit sparked a conversation on campus and caused “people who pass by everyday to literally trip over themselves.”

Professor Joanne Tod was recently profiled by U of T’s  The Bulletin Brief on her experience as an artist, her role as a teacher of new artists, and her portraits of distinguished people including Bruce Kidd, Jane Gaskell, Hal Jackman, Michael Wilson, Margaret MacMillan and Robert Prichard. Tod has exhibited her work nationally and internationally for the past thirty years; a career which began when she was 12 years old.

“In grade 7, my art teacher was the late David Cowan,” said Tod to The Bulletin, writer and editor Veronica Zaretski. “He bought several early drawings and paintings from me as well. This was undoubtedly the first affirmation, to myself and maybe even to my parents, that it might actually be feasible to pursue a career in art.”

Evolving from an early interest in Pop Art and documentary photography, Tod is widely known for her subject of social critique in the guise of high realism paintings. Between 2007 - 2011, Tod painted every Canadian soldier that fell in Afghanistan. The project, entitled Oh, Canada – A Lament, consisted of 6" x 5" portraits that were interspersed with other painted panels arranged to resemble a fragmented Canadian flag. The installation travelled to prominent galleries and museums across Canada including the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, Toronto's Harbourfront Centre, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Tod is sometimes commissioned to paint portraits of distinguished figures. Says Tod of her process:
 

Usually I will meet with the person informally first, to get to know them a little. In this way I am prepared to converse with them during the modeling session, and to glean interesting information about them as academics and as people. Hopefully, some of what I learn imbues the portrait with a greater depth of understanding. It’s important to ascertain the preferred setting for the portrait – formal or informal? Institutional or domestic? Often people will want to insert something personal, such as a memento, book, or a pet, etc. which is included in the final work. I would like to think that viewers of the portraits do actually get a sense of the personality of the subject. My goal always is to get a good likeness, and to depict the subject at his or her best.
 

Since teaching at U of T, it has been an important goal for her to support former and current students. Recently, she commissioned recent graduate Chantal Hassard (BVS 2016) to create an installation of artwork in Tod’s bathroom (pictured above).

“It’s a bit like playing the stock market, although I am not as concerned with resale value as I am in observing how certain students evolve in their careers,” says Tod. “And I do get to witness this development because I remain friends with many of them.”

Read the full article on The Bulletin Brief’s website.

Professors Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak have contributed the 3 channel video installation "The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected" to the recently launched exhibition titled Every. Now. Then: Reframing Nationhood at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Acknowledging that Canada’s sesquicentennial represents a narrow slice of time in the larger historical record, Every. Now. Then: Reframing Nationhood aims to address the mistakes of the past, rewrite and reclaim history, and move into the future with new insight. Steele and Tomczak’s artwork is among 33 new and recent projects by artists from across Canada. Curated by Andrew Hunter and Laura Robb, the exhibition will run until December 10, 2017, on the fourth floor of the contemporary tower.

Steele and Tomczack have other artworks on display as part of the traveling exhibition The Long Time: the 21^st Century Work of Steele and Tomczak curated by Paul Wong, which was initially shown in 2013. Central to the exhibit is the "…before I wake trilogy." The result of twelve years of work, it is comprised of three video components: We’re Getting Younger All The Time, Practicing Death, and Entranced. The Long Time will be open at the Dalhousie Art Gallery until July 16, 2017 in Halifax.

Additionally, Lisa Steele has early works included in two exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada. PhotoLab 2: Women Speaking Art will run until September 10, 2017, and Canadian and Indigenous Art: 1968 to Present will run until April 30, 2018. For more information, visit www.gallery.ca.

Photo, top: Still from "Becoming...," which is part of the exhibition The Long Time: the 21^st Century Work of Steele and Tomczak, by Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak, 2008.

Master of Visual Studies graduate Sandra Brewster has been awarded the Gattuso Prize for her exhibition It's all a blur… on at Georgia Scherman Projects (133 Tecumseth Street) until June 24.

The Gattuso Prize of $5,000 acknowledges an outstanding Featured Exhibition in the CONTACT Photography Festival. The jury, which includes Rosemary Heather (writer and curator) and Anique Jordan (executive director, Whippersnapper Gallery), based their decision on the caliber and concept of the work, the curatorial vision, and overall impact and presentation of the exhibition.

Wrote the jury:

With It’s all a blur… Sandra Brewster takes portraiture in a strongly metaphoric direction. Using a labour-intensive method, the artist creates tactile works suggestive of a number of ideas. While evoking the customary role of the photograph as memento, at the same time, these works appear to call forth the emerging subjects of history. The unavoidable scale, presence, and motion embedded in these still images command the attention of viewers to discover the details and traces left behind by the portrait participants.
 

Sandra Brewster is a Canadian multi-disciplinary artist based in Toronto whose work has been exhibited nationally and abroad, engaging many themes that grapple with notions of identity, representation and memory.  

For more information, visit the CONTACT website.