Make CONTACT: Our essential guide to the photography festival
One month, one bajillion photo exhibits. What to see? Here, I’ve picked a handful of shows I think you should like. For so much more, go play around the official site, scotiabankcontactphoto.com.
Larry Fink: Paradise
Fink, a Beat photographer with a poetic sense of composition, documented postwar youth in soft black and white. At the opening, guests tried to suss out which of the tough, innocent faces and half-dressed figures were famous; I concluded none of them were. It’s just that Fink could made cool nobodies look iconic.
At Neubacher Shor Contemporary (now through May 31, 5 Brock, 416-546-3683, neubachershor.com)
Chris Curreri: Model in the Sculptor’s Studio
A surreal, sly provocateur, Curreri treats his models as found objects, contorting or (conceptually) mutilating their bodies. The photos are clean and beautiful, but disturbing; powerful work.
At the University of Toronto Art Centre’s Art Lounge (now through May 31,15 King’s College Circle, utac.utoronto.ca)
Hermann & Audrey: Exhibit.
This is Hermann & Audrey‘s second cool collective show. I like the minimal portraits of clean-faced, wide-eyed models by Steve Carty; moving images, he calls them, implying a double meaning. There’s also a 3D installation by Javier Lovera and Simon Rojas, starring the National Ballet’s first principal dancer, Jillian Vanstone, in a black cloud of chiffon.
At the 99 Gallery (now through May 22, 99 Sudbury, hermannaudreyexhibit.com)
Suzy Lake: Political Poetics
If you haven’t read my profile of this quiet, revolutionary feminist artist in our May issue, can you please? Then go see her retrospective, in which she’s both master and subject, by curators Matthew Brower and Carla Garnet.
At the University of Toronto Art Centre (now through June 25, 15 King’s College Circle, utac.utoronto.ca).
Drake Hotel: I’m Not Here
Robyn Cumming, Sara Cwynar, Daniel Gordon, Alex Prager, Geoffrey Pugen: if you’re even a little bit into art, you’ll recognize a name or two here. I love Prager’s retro, cinematic sets; they make you stare, waiting for something to break out of the frame. Cumming’s work is creepy and sublime. And Cwynar, a Toronto girl making good in New York, is one to watch.
At the Drake Hotel (now through June 20, 1150 Queen St. W, 416-531-5042)
Jessica Eaton and Lucas Blalock: The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts
The Gestalt aim of Montreal’s Jessica Eaton and Brooklyn’s Lucas Blalock is achieved by revealing the parts that form the whole. Eaton uses a complicated in-camera system to break out her colours into Divisionist dots (they also have a lit-up Impressionist quality). Blalock makes visible his layers in Photoshop, creating a fragmentary, reality-challenging perception. None of that craftiness would mean anything if the photos weren’t pretty and arresting, but they are.
At the CONTACT Gallery (now through May 31, 80 Spadina Ave. Suite 310, 416-539-3955)
