Bill Woodley writes:
Contact – Toronto’s annual photography festival – started 15 years ago, and it is now one of the largest in North America. There are about 200 exhibitions all over the city during the month of May. Some RA Photo Club members such as Peter Juranka and Bill Young have exhibited in past years, and this year Barbara Bolton, Abby Gossage, Lesley Hossack and Pat Wallace (Studio 255) have an impressive show about Berlin at the German Consulate.
This past week, 5 Club members – Stan Aronoff, Dave Haggarty, Jacques Mailloux, Tom Schatzky and I – made what has become an annual pilgrimage to Toronto where in 3 days we managed to see about 30 of the 200 shows, including most of the feature exhibitions. We also got to talk to some of the artists. The main theme of “Figure and Ground” is well represented. There are many documentary shows, some quite depressing, but overall we found the quality somewhat higher than in recent years.
The thought of choosing from 200 exhibitions/displays might be somewhat overwhelming! So here are my personal picks, as suggestions for anyone planning to visit Contact this month. Unless noted, shows are free. The numbers are from the Contact printed program and website, where you can also find more details (the Studio 255 show is #35).
- Ed Burtynsky has 2 large format shows: “Oil” (# P4), which is also a book; and “Monegros” (#F25) aerial shots of a dry region in Spain. Entrance to “Oil” at the ROM is free on Wed from 3:30pm to 5:30pm.
- At the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (#P3), the best shows are “Vancouver” by Fred Herzog, and Viviane Sassen’s “Dynamic Landscape” works.
- Guy Tillim’s “Avenue Patrice Lumumba” is at the Design Exchange (#P1) where the admission fee is $10. This is a heritage building so take a look at the art deco Toronto Stock Exchange trading floor & staircase at the same time.
- Show #69 – “Pictures of Resistance: the wartime photographs of Jewish partisan Faye Schulman” are as interesting for the commentary as the photos.
- Colour landscape shows of note include #42, #49 & #F17 in the Distillery District; and two outside downtown, show #155, “Motherstone” about BC’s central plateau by Chris Harris; and Richard Johnson’s “Ice Villages” (show #137)
- Three good black & white landscape displays are show #3 “Figure and Ground” by Steve Sherman; Robert Bourdeau’s “The Station Point” at the Stephen Bulger Gallery (#F32); and one that is not part of Contact but well worth seeing – “Between Heaven and Earth” by Bret Culp about Ireland, at the Akasha Gallery, 2nd floor, 511 Church St.
Bill Woodley
“CONTACT is an annual festival of photography in Toronto, during the month of May, with over 1000 local, national and international artists exhibiting at more than 200 venues. Founded as a not-for-profit organization 15 years ago, the festival is devoted to celebrating, and fostering the art and profession of photography. It stimulates excitement and discussion among a diverse audience that has grown to over 1.5 million. CONTACT is the largest photography event in the world, and a premiere cultural event in Canada.”
http://www.scotiabankcontactphoto.com/
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