The 21st annual Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival kicks off on Monday, May 1, 2017. This year places a special focus on Canada in conjunction with its 150 anniversary. The city will be transformed with work from over 1500 artists in 200 exhibitions throughout the month of May.
Here are 11 exhibits you can explore at this year's festival.
Primary Exhibits
Suzy Lake
Ryerson Image Gallery
April 29 - August 13, 2017
Canadian-American artist Suzy Lake was the recipient of last year's Scotiabank Photography Award (the largest peer-reviewed photographic art award in Canada) and as the winner receives a solo featured primary exhibition in this year's festival. The exhibit surveys over 50 works by Lake, spanning from 1976 to 2014, all of which bring focus to Lake's artistic process and her unwavering dedication to pushing the boundaries of the photographic medium. Her work has been internationally renowned for its focus on self-identification, female identity and the aging body.
Unknown Photographer
Art Gallery of Ontario
April 29 - August 20, 2017
Free Black North features photographs of women, men, and children, living in Ontario in the mid to late 1800s, all of whom were descendants of Black refugees who escaped enslavement in the southern United States.
The exhibit aims to highlight how historic Black Canadian communities utilized the photographic medium as a tool to reflect and lay claim to every individual's complex and unique history.
Petra Collins
CONTACT Gallery
April 29 - June 24, 2017
Pacifier is Petra Collins first solo exhibition in Canada, reveals an intimate turn inward. Her works focus on her family in Toronto and Budapest, Hungary throughout 2016, forming a visual repository that captures the artist journey from her beginnings in a Toronto suburb, the place where she first explored the expressive potential of photography.
Jules Elder, Eddie Grant, Diane Liverpool, Al Peabody, Jim Russell
BAND Gallery
April 27–May 27, 2017
Ears, Eyes, Voice displays a comprehensive visual record - the images feature politicians, community members, activists and protesters, entertainers and athletes - telling a range of stories and histories about Black lives. It is an exhibit that situates Toronto's multidimensional Black experience through the power of photography.
Michael Snow
Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art
May 5–July 22, 2017
Michael Snow is one of the nation's most renowned contemporary artists. His exhibit, Newfoundlandings features four of Snow’s recent video installations. Each work was produced on Newfoundland’s west coast, where Snow and his partner spend their summers, and feature the wind as the protagonist.
Public Installations
Lori Blondeau
Ryerson University - Devonian Square
April 28–August 13, 2017
Lori Blondeau is a Cree/Saulteaux/Métis artist from Saskatchewan, whose constructed personas portray provocative, tough, and powerful women. Asiniy Iskwew (translate to "Rock Woman" in Cree) continues Lori Blondeau’s interest in rocks and its connection to Indigenous tradition. The photograph depicts the artist standing on the remnants of a sacred Buffalo Child Stone, located in the Qu’Appelle Valley, that was blown up to make way for a man-made lake. The photographs seamlessly adhere to two-billion-year-old boulders imported from the Canadian Shield.
Jalani Morgan
Metro Hall
April 30–May 31, 2017
Jalani Morgan, a photographer who has made a name for himself through his commitment to capturing the social and cultural landscape of Toronto as it evolves through time, has his first solo installation at The Sum of All Parts. Morgan's expansive archive of Black Toronto presents a collection of monuments-in-the-making, documenting significant moments in history that include the Black Lives Matter Toronto protests and portraits of Toronto-based activists.
Naomi Harris
North York Centre
April 25–June 4, 2017
An environmental portrait photographer, Naomi Harris seeks to capture curious and thought-provoking cultural perspectives through her work. OH CANADA! is her ongoing project which came to life after a four-month journey in 2011, where she photographed Canadians from the west to east coasts.
Featured Exhibits
SoTeeOh
Project Gallery
April 27–May 14, 2017
ICON will focus on photography of visual identifiers that residents can place at first glance and that out-of-towners recognize as distinctly Toronto. Drawing off personal experience, historical research, anecdotal experiences, commercial products and pop culture references such as movies and music videos, SoTeeOh has created a set of images that represent the visual identity of the city.
Debra Friedman
Art Square Gallery
May 1–22, 2017
Coming of Age in Wonderland captures young people in Bermuda schools, clubs, army recruit camps, fast food joints, sports fields, and parishes. Friedman's portraits are awkward and brave, shy and bold, depicting the complicatedness of adolescence.
Saty + Pratha
Only One Gallery
April 28–May 12, 2017
Image-makers Saty + Pratha examine the notion of femininity through the distinctly unoriginal lens of cliché in Currents and Clichés. The exhibit comprises of images taken in multiple cities over a span of two years, and displays more than 30 works that explore cultural conceits, symbols, and feminine archetypes and reimagines them in a modern photographic context.
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free).
To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.
Sign in or register for free to join the Conversation