July 18, 2012 – March 17, 2013
ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO
317 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON M5T 1G4
T: 416.979.6648
www.ago.net
Hours: Tue & Thurs–Sun 10–5:30, Wed 10–8:30
Michael Snow is a Toronto born artist known internationally as a painter, sculptor, filmmaker, musician and author. This exhibition celebrates his achievement as the 2011 winner of the Gershon Iskowitz Prize.
Snow has always been a sculptor. “A pure sculptor,” he explains, “an artist who makes objects.” He makes things to look through, look around, look along, look at, up, down and behind, to look at yourself looking at things. By making vision the subject of the object, the looking activates the object. Looking that sometimes require touch, sometimes invites sitting and sometimes necessitates caution.
“All these works are Directors of Attention in the sense that their forms suggest the paths a spectator’s eyes should take,” he writes. In the most literal sense, Snow makes visual art: objects for you to see.
The sculptures in Objects of Vision are abstract-form sculptures from three distinct yet essentially connected moments in the artist’s career: the late 1950s, the late 1960s and 1982. The sculptures are instruments in the artist’s orchestration of thinking about looking. While each work has a rich exhibition and publication history in varied contexts, they are presented here for the first time as one cohesive and focused investigation of sight and materiality.
Meet the Artist – Michael Snow
Wednesday, October 3, 7 – 8 pm
Signy Eaton Gallery
Free Admission