January 21 – April 1, 2012
Opening: January 20, 2012, 7–9 p.m.
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
Relocated from the street, local Toronto artists Sean Martindale and Pascal Paquette come together in the gallery for a collaborative installation in the Toronto Now series. Using convergent forms of street art, graffiti writing and activist interventions, combined with contemporary painting, sculpture and design, these artists eradicate traditional art classifications and work to expand the understanding of what artistic creativity can be. Taking inspiration from their daily environment, the gallery and the current socio-political and cultural climate of Toronto, this installation invites audiences to reconsider Toronto Now.
The NOW service bureau kicks off 2012 inside the Young Gallery. This Do It Yourself (DIY) agency offers visitors the opportunity to use the gallery as a forum for pressing Toronto issues. Pushing the idea of Toronto Now to its edge, the artists appropriate the AGO logo and the NOW name to provide a place of artistic creativity that encourages mindful action on local issues. This project reflects the artists’ interest in the tension between the rush and impatience of our current lifestyle and the benefit of slowing down, being mindful and aware of environmental, political and cultural subjects. This tension is supported by the DIY mentality that privileges the experience of the here and now in order to provoke change through self-consciousness, self-transformation and social interactions or exchanges.
GIFT SHOP GIFT SHOP
Gift Shop Gift Shop, a store within a store, features souvenirs of the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) gift shop itself, rather than the expected gallery mementos, as well as other related open-edition art multiples. Gift Shop Gift Shop works by artists Sean Martindale and Pascal Paquette will be available alongside both collaborative and independent multiples by other local Toronto-based artists, designers and illustrators. The products for sale develop out of self-reflective art making, and many of the works transform raw street and everyday materials and images into privileged, valuable objects. This project builds off the artists’ affinity for collaboration and the practice of using reclaimed materials. Taking inspiration from existing gift shop souvenirs or using gift shop overstock, these items will be examined and reworked to deconstruct how consumable objects are given value.
Martindale and Paquette run Gift Shop Gift Shop with shopAGO as a parallel project during the course of the NOW exhibition in the Toronto Now series. Located in the Young Gallery, the Toronto Now series promotes Toronto’s local arts community, in addition to providing visitors free access to contemporary art. Situated on in the eastern corner of the AGO, the Young Gallery is accessed through the museum’s FRANK Restaurant. Developed from an exploration and recognition of the Young Gallery’s position within the larger institution and through meetings with the museum’s gift shop and FRANK Restaurant, the artists extend their project beyond the gallery into other areas of the museum.
Martindale and Paquette join forces for the first time to create a collaborative installation for the Toronto Now series. Curated by Katherine Dennis, an MFA candidate in Criticism & Curatorial Practice at OCAD University, this exhibition is the focus of her thesis. Over the course of five months, the artists and curator have worked closely with the AGO, including the FRANK restaurant, the AGO gift shop and the Weston Family Learning Centre, to construct an integrated project that playfully works with and responds to established museum systems.
Participating Gift Shop Gift Shop Artists:
- Xenia Benivolski
- Cindy Blazevic
- Keith Cole
- Jessie Curell
- Janis Demkiw
- Sameer Farooq and Mirjam Linschooten
- Maggie Flynn and Kassem
- Globe
- Adam Krawesky
- CN Tower Liquidation
- Sean Martindale
- Hazel Meyer
- Olia Mishchenko
- Sarah Nasby
- Pascal Paquette
- Sandy Plotnikoff
- Seth Scriver
- Spud
- Tongue & Groove
- Jessica Vallentin
- VSVSVS
- Deborah Wan
The Toronto Now series is generously supported by The Contemporary Circle.