Sasha Pierce, Cycle (detail), 2011. Courtesy of Jessica Bradley Art + Projects and the artist
June 23 – August 12, 2012
Opening: Saturday, June 23, 2–5 p.m.
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN ART
Main Space
952 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON, M6J 1G8
T: 416.395.0067
E: info@mocca.ca
www.mocca.ca/
Hours: Tues–Sun 11:00–6:00 p.m
trans/FORM
Matter as Subject > New Perspectives
Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art
Curated by David Liss
This exhibition features eight Toronto artists exploring new approaches to producing artworks whose meaning and essence are revealed through the materials from which they are made. Working primarily in recognizable media such as painting, sculpture and installation, they combine found, vernacular and traditional materials with lo-tech, industrial and handcrafted processes. Astutely resourceful, informed by various conceptual strategies and working with an open attitude of experimentation, their inventive processes are meant to animate the latent expressive potential of matter, transforming materials into a coherent, poetic language of form. For these artists materiality is the core subject of their work. trans/FORM presents new perspectives on form, meaning and material that are essential to the -very definition of art.
trans/FORM is the most recent installment of MOCCA’s ongoing PLATFORM TORONTO series of exhibitions, initiated in 2002, showcasing the histories and practices of the Toronto contemporary art scene. Previous exhibitions in the series include Synthetic Psychosis, (2002), examining new approaches to painting; Impulse Archaeology, (2005), celebrating the seminal 1980s art magazine Impulse; Love/Hate: New Crowned Glory in the G.T.A., (2007), a broad survey of divergent practices and trends; Empire of Dreams, (2010), a thematic exhibition exploring our relationships to the built environment; and This Is Paradise, (2011), a retrospective survey of the art scene in Toronto during the 1980s. In addition to the exhibition’s focus on materiality, trans/FORM features work by an emerging generation of artists living and working in Toronto. The exhibition is organized by MOCCA and is curated by Artistic Director and Curator, David Liss.
Jaime Angelopoulos received her MFA from York University, and BFA from NSCAD University. She has participated in group exhibitions and artist residencies internationally and recently presented solo exhibitions at Parisian Laundry, Stride Gallery, and YYZ Artist Outlet. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ALDO Group, York University, and the Bank of Montreal have acquired her works.
Georgia Dickie graduated with a BFA from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 2011. She currently lives and works in Toronto. Her work addresses the complexities of contemporary object-based practice, and is characterized by a deep interest in found materials and their inherent limitations. She has shown in a number of group shows in Toronto including at Thrush Holmes Empire, MKG127, and Erin Stump Projects.
Aleksander Hardashnakov lives in Toronto. Along with Hugh Scott-Douglas and Tara Downs, he is the founder of Tomorrow Gallery.
Niall McClelland grew up in Toronto, attended school in Vancouver and returned to Toronto where he now lives. His work has been published in Modern Painters, Canadian Art, Hunter and Cook, and Adbusters. McClelland was included along with Ellsworth Kelly and Richard Serra in the show Black To Back And Light at Clint Roenisch Gallery in 2009.
Derrick Piens is a Toronto based sculptor who works primarily with plaster, wood, and found objects, creating large-scale hybrid constructions. Derrick received his MFA from Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX) in 2007, and BFA from NSCAD University (Halifax, NS) in 2005. In 2009 Derrick was a resident artist at the Toronto School of Art.
Sasha Pierce holds an MFA from the University of Waterloo. She has exhibited at ACME, Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, Susan Hobbs Gallery, Cambridge Galleries, and The Macdonald Stewart Art Centre. Pierce was awarded Honourable Mention in the 2009 RBC Canadian Painting Competition.
Jennifer Rose Sciarrino received a BFA in photography at Ryerson University in 2006. Sciarrino works in various mediums including sculpture, installation, and photography. Engaging materiality and mimicry, she utilizes many techniques in sculpture and drawing to attain forms and surfaces in unsuspecting materials. She has exhibited at Red Bull 381 Projects, Narwhal Art Projects, and The Power Plant.
Hugh Scott-Douglas studied at Pratt (2005) and OCAD (2010). Scott-Douglas makes work that refers to production itself, to its consumption and to its container, using visual cues gleaned from minimalism and op art. The central dialectic of the work springs from the tension between the need for a rigid authority figure, on the one hand, and the very possibility of establishing such an authority, given that it is so easily subverted by its own parts.