Opening Receptions – the second week of Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, 2013:
The Girl Document by Edith Maybin
Opening Reception: May 10, 2013, 6 – 9 p.m.
May 11 – June 8, 2013
O’Born Contemporary
131 Ossington Ave
From left to right: Artist Edith Maybin, O’Born Contemporary founder Donald E. O’Born and Assistant Director of the O’Born Gallery Rachel Anne Farquharson.
O’Born Contemporary created a magical escape on a cold and rainy Friday evening. The large, and diverse, crowd hovered around the photographs with enthusiasm. Departing from her previous series, The Garden Document, The Girl Document displays an abstract space between girl/woman, mother/daughter.
Installation view with Edith Maybin, The Girl Document, Untitled #4, 2013
With vibrant eye-catching colors, and a variety of textures (hair, glass, cake, skin, flowers, rocks/minerals, etc) the photographs are undeniably captivating. Maybin’s work leaves her vulnerable to her audience because she is giving us a window into her life/family; however, she gives her audience room to gain an understanding of themselves as a result of experiencing her work.
Edith Maybin, The Girl Document: Untitled #2, 2013, C-Print, 27 x 36 inches.
Personally, I had several visceral reactions to Maybin’s work and it conjured up memories I had of my growth from a girl into a woman. I could relate to the themes of fear, pain, excitement, and wonder. Each time I looked at the photographs I discovered (and sometimes startled by) new elements I had initially missed.
Edith Maybin, The Girl Document: Untitled #1, 2013, C-Print, 60 x 90 inches.
She leaves her audience with not only visually stunning photographs, but a space for exploration and inquiry.
Text and photo: Leanne Semaan
I Was Already Lost by Botto + Bruno
Opening Reception: May 8, 6 – 9, 2013
May 8 – June 29, 2012
Pari Nadimi Gallery
254 Niagara Street
Installation view. Photo: Fox Martindale
For their exhibition at Pari Nadimi Gallery, internationally acclaimed Italian duo artists Botto+ Bruno present an installation of a large wallpaper, as the center piece of the exhibition, made out of A3 sized photocopies.
Photo: Veronica Scarpati
The photocopies start with a text (a text cut up from Ballard’s Kingdom Come) and then develop into drawings and finally in black and white photography. A number of small works with grey background and white framed, made of a drawing and a photo collage, are placed over the wallpaper.
Botto + Bruno, Lost Time I., 2013, graphite, white pencil, photographic collage on cardboard collage, 12 x 13 inches. Photo: Fox Martindale
The installation also includes 3 large photographs. Every A3 and large photographs contains Botto + Bruno’s investigations of marginal places that are photographed, selected, archived, assembled, photocopied by the artists to make the final collage.
Pari Nadimi Gallery owner Pari Nadimi (right) with a visitor in front of the larger images. Photo: Veronica Scarpati
Unfottunately the artists didn’t attend the opening reception but many photography lover attended it, Bonnie Rubenstein, Artistic Director of Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, among them.
Phot0: Fox Martindale
I Shop / David Hlynsky
Opening Reception: May 4, 2013, 3 – 7 p.m.
May 4 – June 1, 2013
De Luca Fine Art Gallery
217 Avenue Rd N
Between 1986 and 1990, Canadian-American artist David Hlynsky made four photography trips to regions still within the Soviet sphere of influence. During these final years of the Cold War, he sought to document the similarities between people living under powerful yet opposing political ideologies.
De Luca Fine Art Gallery owner Corrado De Luca, artists David Hlynsky, gallery assistant Laura Keeler-Lavin and gallery co-director Walter Willems
If we believe only the propaganda produced by Washington, Hollywood, and Moscow, the Cold War was a battle over fundamental freedoms and the rational distribution of wealth. In Hlynsky’s view, the battle was also about differing versions of our human connection to the material world.
David Hlynsky, Three loaves of bread, Krakow, Poland 1988
David Hlynky, Military Shirts, Moscow, 1990
This exhibition illustrates a lost alternative to the unfettered marketplace. Depicting stripped-down window displays and simple graphics, the advertising photographed by Hlynsky uses a visual language reduced to its most bare function: the labelling of merchandise for its utility.
Photo: Alice Tallman
SCHATZBERG by Jerry Schatzberg
Opening Reception: May 4, 12 – 6 p.m. Artist present 2 – 4 p.m.
April 29 –June 2, 2013
Nikola Rukaj Gallery
384 Eglinton Ave W. Hours: Mon – Sat, 10 – 6, Sun, 12 – 6 p.m.
Installation view. Photo: Veronica Scarpati
This exhibition highlights the photographic work of Jerry Schatzberg from the 1950s – 70s. Schatzberg’s early career began in the 1950’s. His rise as a iconic portrait photographer was marked by his intimate and emblematic images of emerging talents and thinkers of the 1960’s, including Bob Dylan, Fidel Castro, The Rolling Stones, Andy Warhol, Faye Dunaway, Catherine Deneuve and many others.
Opening remarks by Nikola Rukaj, owner of Nikola Rukaj Gallery (left) with Jerry Schatzberg (right). Photo: Veronica Scarpati
Jerry Schatzberg reinvented the conventions of his time. Influenced by New Wave films from Europe, this body of work conveys a cinematic atmosphere with an emphasis on location, wide shots and odd angles to convey action, scale and mood.
Jerry Schatzberg, Wall Street (Betsy Pickering), 1958, 40 x 40 inches. Photo: Claudette Abrams
Through engagement with his notable subjects, he builds character and story through gesture and presence.
Jerry Schatzberg, Rolling Stones, 1966, 40 x 40 inches. Photo: Claudette Abrams
Jerry Schatzberg is signing his catalogue. Photo: Veronica Scarpati