CONTACT 2014
by Bill Woodley
Dave Haggarty, Tom Schatzky and I spent 3 days in Toronto last week looking at over 40 of about 200 exhibitions of photographs on display throughout the city during the month of May. For the complete lineup of shows, visit: scotiabankcontactphoto.com. Almost all the venues are free entry (if you can find parking!) and most have paper copies of the map and the complete catalogue available free of charge. There are also lots of opening receptions, free lectures, workshops and other special events.
This year’s theme is “identity”, and it is interpreted in 43 primary (P) and featured (F) exhibitions. As usual, we missed some of these, and some of the ones we found most interesting were among the 144 open exhibitions not directly related to the theme. Here are a few of the highlights we saw, listed by their number references in the Contact Catalogue.
• Top of our list would be P2 and F23, 2 exhibitions of Gordon Parks (1912-2006), the black American photographer, filmmaker, novelist, composer and poet. They include many of his iconic US civil rights photos, as well as some made more recently in Alberta and Ontario. If you only have time for one of these, the Band Gallery has the bigger selection and it is going to be on until August 3.
• Another highlight is open exhibition #16 showing stunning “Desert Air” photographs by George Steinmetz, a National Geographic photographer who floats around deserts on a hang glider powered by a small motor (really just a large fan!) strapped on his back.
• The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (P6) has some impressive large works by 8 international artists interpreting the theme: “Material Self – Performing the Other Within”. A Dutch photographer, Hendrik Kerstens, makes portraits of his daughter in the style of 17th Century Dutch painting, but he includes some modern articles (such as tin foil and a plastic bag) that are so well integrated that they are virtually invisible. Also worth seeing are self portraits by Mary Sibande of South Africa.
• The Distillery District is always worth a look. This year there are at least 4 venues including Proof Gallery & the Upstairs Gallery at Balzac Coffee House #89 and Arta Gallery #10, but the best is actually not part of Contact. It is Jane Corkin’s 35th anniversary selection of vintage photographs by Atget, Ansel Adams, Cartier Bresson, Edward Weston, and many others in the back of her large gallery and upstairs – more masters than you can see at the National Gallery! (F7).
• There are several interesting exhibits of pairs of people, for example Steven Beckly at TIW (F30) and the public installation by portraits outside Metro Hall on King St. (I4) where Richard Renaldi went around the USA asking strangers to pose on the street with someone ethey did not know. (only on until June 1)
• The Rift, an exhibit about Africa by Dominic Nahr, a Magnum photographer from Canada now living in Kenya, is at the O’Born Contemporary Gallery (F25).
• Katya Shkolnik uses an iPhone to make fascinating large images of floating buildings and streetscapes. She holds a degree in Nuclear Physics from Moscow but is now a photographer based in Toronto. Her studio (#58) is open Saturday or by appointment, but we were able to drop in and chat with her during the week.
(1)Dislikes
(0)