August 23 – September 10, 2023
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 24, 5 – 8 pm
Curator & Artist Talks: Sunday, September 10, 3 pm
Urban Futurities – Essay by Ilene Sova
Walk around the city and look very closely at your surroundings. Notice the noises. Hear the messages. Feel the feelings. Cold metal construction cranes loom over neighbourhoods by the dozens. Gentrification rubs up against inter-generational communities pushing people to downsize. Artists are packing up their studios in the urban centres towards affordability in outlying regions. Tent cities crop up in the underpasses on the edges of the parks. Urban populations are experiencing precarity on all levels. Politicians wring their hands and spew broken promises from glass towers. Inflation, the housing crisis, and gentrification are calling into question the future of our global cities. Affordability, rising food costs, skyrocketing rents and real estate development are pushing people to the literal margins. As citizens, we watch as this significant transformation takes place all around us, and we can see the inevitable death of our cities on the horizon but somehow feel powerless to stop it. In this exhibit on Urban Futurities, we pause and take stock. The exhibition will show viewers this crisis point through art and as we use our creative capacity to imagine new solutions and new ways of living together in our communities.
Guest Curator, Ilene Sova
Guest Curator, Ilene Sova is an artist and activist whose art practice focuses on equity and diversity with a feminist focus on creating a dialogue around anti-oppression. She is also heavily involved in arts advocacy, community activation, and curatorial projects that promote pluralism in the arts.
Sova is the founder of the Feminist Art Conference and Blank Canvases, an in-school creative arts programme for elementary school students. She holds an Honours BFA from the University of Ottawa in Painting and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Windsor. Sova holds the position of Associate Professor in Drawing and Painting at OCADU.
With extensive solo and group exhibitions in Canada and abroad, Sova’s work has most notably been shown at the Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and Mutuo Centro de Arte in Barcelona. Additionally. Sova’s work has been featured on television, the internet, and in print media with highlights in Canadian Art, the Toronto Star, CBC Radio, CBC TV, CTV Canada AM and the Globe and Mail.
Exhibiting Artists:
- Kezleigh
- ARTIFACTS
- Bret Culp
- Beverly Daniels
- Douglas Gammage
- Carly Friesen
- Thomas Hlavacek
- Ruth Maude
- Joseph Muscat
- Frances Patella
- Dan Philips
- Hye Yeon Shin
- Patrick Stieber
- Genevieve Singer
- Jonathan Stern
- Helena Wehrstein
- Maddy Young
Kezleigh .
Are we there yet?
Digital painting on acrylic glass
Artwork: 30 in. x 20 in.Price: $2300
Artist Statement-
ARTIFACTS
Tiny Homes: Everyone is Downsizing
Installation
Artwork: 66 in. x 20 in.Price: $2200
Artist Statement -
Bret Culp
Jack’s Video Sports Bar, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Metal Print Photograph with Float Mount
Artwork: 36 in. x 24 in.
Frame: 36 in. x 24 in.
Price: $725
Artist Statement -
Beverley Daniels
Blue Sky
Collage
Artwork: 24 in. x 18 in.
Frame: 25 in. x 19 in.
Price: $900
Artist Statement -
Carly Friesen
Nonprofit Housing Now
Mixed Media on Wood
Artwork: 12 in. x 12 in.Price: $145
Artist Statement -
Carly Friesen
Coop Housing Now
Mixed Media on Wood
Artwork: 8 in. x 8 in.Price: $160
Artist Statement -
Douglas Gammage
Sidewalk Closed
Two-Plate Aquatint
Artwork: 8.5 in. x 7 in.Price: $260
Artist Statement -
View Video
Thomas Hlavacek
The Castle
Single-channel HD video, 08:07, 2012 (https://youtu.be/kolcdWz2T4w)
Artwork: . in. x . in.Price: NFS
Artist Statement -
Ruth Maude
Waste Not, Want Not
Encaustic on scraps of fabric
Artwork: 20 in. x 13 in.Price: $400
Artist Statement -
Joseph Muscat
Damn!
Beaver hewn wood, Metal,Paint,Wire
Artwork: 12 in. x 11 in.Price: $1100
Artist Statement -
Frances Patella
Now Under Construction
Digital chromogenic print on Hahnemuhle paper, 1/5
Artwork: 9 in. x 13.75 in.
Frame: 16.50 in. x 19 in.
Price: $450
Artist Statement -
Dan Philips
Cartoon#9 in the Daring Adventures Series
Print of digital montage and drawn ink and digital tones
Artwork: 14 in. x 11 in.Price: $250
Artist Statement -
Dan Philips
COLOSSUS 0F ROADS – Cartoon#8 in the Daring Adventures Series
Print of digital montage and drawn ink and digital tones
Artwork: 14 in. x 11 in.Price: $250
Artist Statement -
Hye Yeon Shin
Regenicide
Collage on aluminum
Artwork: 22 in. x 46 in.Price: $20,000
Artist Statement -
Genevieve Singer
Reminiscing on Queen St. West
Acrylic on canvas
Artwork: 24 in. x 36 in.Price: $450
Artist Statement -
Jonathan Stern
I OWN THE CITY AND THE RIVER
6 5X7 photographs with accompanying poem
Artwork: 5 in. x 7 in.
Frame: 8 in. x 10 in.
Price: $500
Artist Statement -
Patrick Stieber
Facade
Photography
Artwork: 24 in. x 48 in.Price: $450
Artist Statement -
Patrick Stieber
Pickup
Photography
Artwork: 36″ in. x 36″ in.Price: $300
Artist Statement -
Helena Wehrstein
Searching For Sanity
Circuit boards and other bits from dismantled discarded electronic devices, discontinued fabric sample scraps, found wooden box, discarded metal antennas.
Artwork: 20 in. x 14 in.Price: $590
Artist Statement -
Maddy Young
YESTERDAY/TOMORROW
Sticker lettering on sheet vinyl, metal frame
Artwork: 6.5 in. x 24 in.Price: $400
Artist Statement
Photos from the August 24th Opening Reception
