Here’s your mid-week pick up! This week’s newsletter features exhibit listings from across Southern Ontario, and highlights from our visual arts newsletters.
Thank you to everyone who filled out our last poll, where we got a chance to see the geographical distribution of our readers across Southern Ontario. These polls will help us tailor this newsletter to meet your dynamic needs and make it easier to connect with the visual arts around you. Looking for similar content in the performing arts? Please check out our TORPA newsletter! With this week’s poll, CANNOPY wants to learn more about your preferred day for receiving this newsletter in your inbox:
While our coverage of the visual arts in TORVA will be localized to Ontario, you can subscribe to our Visual Arts Package for a more global perspective. Subscription to our Visual Arts Package gets you three newsletter series — Spaces, Materials, and Studio Sessions — along with exclusive perks in print and digital content.
Welcome to the Museum of Bad Art
BOSTON | Getting rejected by this gallery just might be a good thing.
Fowl play is encouraged here
KERNS | Between Pheasants Contemporary hosts a unique gallery experience
METAL: Jeffrey Pang's Adult Toys
OSAKA | “A lot of my customers, like 70%, are actually adults, like working professional adults.”
INK: A black river runs through
LEIPZIG | Kira Petrasch - the Leipzig-based artist behind Nein Tattoo - is pushing inkwork to new depths
CLOISTRAL: Marija Tiurina
HAARLEM | Illustrating the fascinating tension between the familiar and the fantastic
CLOISTRAL with Iryna Maksymova
The Ukrainian artist contrasting the hyper-masculine imagery of the war with harmonious female figures
CLOISTRAL with Kelcy Timmons Chan
Balancing communality and isolation within the pop art vernacular
Power | Jan 24 – May 18 | TORONTO — Power offers artworks that challenge dominant capitalist and state capitalist worldviews. These Toronto-based artists use their eloquent sculpture, drawing, painting, installation, and video practices to inspire and reflect ways of being that reposition the meaning of power to be grounded in respect, cooperation, and emotional intelligence.
Lovers' Wind | Jan 20 – Mar 23 | TORONTO — The collaborative filmmaking practice of Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour, and Ryan Ferko explores tensions and uncertainties within images to surface critical perspectives on collective memory and the historical trace. Working between speculation, historical fiction, and documentation, the artists’ projects often excavate existing narratives to uncover the power relations and subjectivities shaped by them.
Alex Jacobs-Blum | Feb 10 – May 20 | HAMILTON – In her first museum solo exhibition, Hamilton-based artist Alex Jacobs-Blum uses self-portrait photography and videography to explore her connections to her ancestors and the land, as a Gayogo̱hó.
Tarik Kiswanson: Prelude | Feb 3 - June 3 | OAKVILLE – The 2023 winner of the Marcel Duchamp Prize, Tarik Kiswanson produces sculpture, writing, performance, drawing, sound, and video works. Notions of rootlessness, regeneration, and renewal are central themes in his oeuvre.
Canvas for Change: Black Youth Art Celebration | Feb 1 – Feb 29 | BARRIE — This group exhibition will feature artwork created by regional Black youth ages 13 to 18, under the guidance of Toronto-based artist and influencer, Ashante Blackwood. Organized by Making Change, in partnership with the MacLaren Art Centre, Shak’s World Community Centre and Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library.
Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch | Feb 10 - May 26 | HAMILTON — Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch is the first major retrospective exhibition of the multi-media work of Mohawk artist Shelley Niro, who is based in Brantford, ON. Spanning four decades of her photography, film, painting, installation, sculpture and mixed media practice, the exhibition highlights themes she constantly returns to: Matriarchy, Past is Present, Actors, and Family Relations.
For a broader view of the performing arts, check out highlights from three of our newly launched newsletters, and consider becoming a member. Our Hubs & Huddles series brings you insights from global performing arts organizations, while Ensemble delivers one-on-one conversations with international classical artists, and Ellington presents fresh perspectives on everything jazz. Subscribers to our Performing Arts Package get access to exclusive perks including up to 10 monthly newsletters, video podcast episodes, free newsprint issues, and more!