YYZ Artists’ Outlet is turning 40 this year!
Join us for an art-filled evening at our Anniversary Party & Exhibition Fundraiser
Closing reception Friday, May 3rd, 2019 from 6-9 pm.
Our closing reception will feature a reading by Andrew Medland of his 2017 essay “Bureaucratic Tendencies, Embryos” on artist run centres/culture.
Admission to our Party and Fundraiser is FREE and everyone is welcomed. Come by and celebrate 40 years of programming with us!
YYZ has been a site for experimental programming since 1979. We have supported the critical artistic practices of 1450 artists to date through exhibitions, publishing projects, educational programs, and the commissioning of new works.
Continue to GROW with us
Tickets are being sold in advance to receive 1 of 35 special edition artist designed planter vessels!
Price: $40
There are a few left, so come down to the closing party to pick up yours!
Art from our anniversary exhibit “Bending Towards the Sun” curated by Veronika Ivanova will also be available for purchase and on view until May 4th.
Stay for a series of performances curated by Louise Liliefeldt starting at 8pm. Catch a projected series of music videos from Josh Thorpe’s “Scrappy Art Rock You Can Dance To” created in collaboration with Geoffrey Farmer, Sandra Meigs, Lily Ross-Millard, Renée Lear, and Trevor Shimizu.
Enjoy a Special artist cocktail by Ryan Ringer from Grey Tiger.
See below for participating artists:
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PERFORMANCES start at 8 pm.
Curated by Louise Liliefeldt.
Erika DeFreitas, James Knott, Zahra Komeylian, and Robert Lee.
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BENDING TOWARDS THE SUN | on view fromMarch 30 – to May 4, 2019.
Works available for purchase. Please inquire at the gallery.
Curated by Veronika Ivanova
Frances Adair, Grayson Alabiso-Cahill, JD Banke, Liam Crockard, Patrick Cruz, Stan Douglas Alex Fisher, Hanna Hur, Aaron Jones, Laurie Kang, Garrett Lockhart, Trevor Mahovsky & Rhonda Weppler, Jenine Marsh, Darby Milbrath, Susy Oliveira, Walter Scott, Shannon Garden Smith, Jana Sterbak, and Sean Stewart.
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40th ANNIVERSARY ARTIST EDITIONED VESSELS BY:
Mark Crofton Bell, Miles Collyer, CCC, Derek Coulombe & Sidney Masuga, Alexandre David, Annie Dunning, Heather Goodchild, Maggie Groat, Libby Hague, Kathleen Hearn, Dil Hildebrand, Daniel Hutchinson & Kristal Stevenot, Luis Jacob & Chris Curreri, Laura KiKauka, Eva Kolcze, Micah Lexier, Eunice Luk, Jimmy Limit, John Marriot, Lisa Myers, Wendy Nichol, Heather Nicol, Louise Noguchi, Abdi Osman, Roula Partheniou, Jade Rude, Jon Sasaki, Shattered Moon Alliance, Skawennati, Jennifer Stillwell, Amanda White, Kendra Yee,Daniel Young & Christian Giroux, David Yu, and Z’otz* Collective.
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MUSIC VIDEOS for the songs of Josh Thorpe
Change (2018) video by Geoffrey Farmer, 5:11
The Light (2018) video by Sandra Meigs, 3:37
Summer (2018) video by Renée Lear, 5:50
The Park (2018) video by Lily Ross-Millard, 4:35
High (2018) video by Trevor Shimizu, 3:18
Time (2017) video by Josh Thorpe, 4:36
All songs by Josh Thorpe, performed by Josh Thorpe, Mike Overton, and Jay Anderson, and recorded by Christopher Sandes. Videos available at www.joshthorpe.com and the album can be streamed on all the usual platforms.
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PERFORMANCE ARTISTS’ BIOS:
Erika DeFreitas is a Scarborough-based artist whose practice includes the use of performance, photography, video, installation, textiles, works on paper, and writing. Placing an emphasis on process, gesture, the body, documentation, and paranormal phenomena, she works through attempts to understand concepts of loss, post-memory, inheritance, and objecthood. DeFreitas’ work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including at Project Row Houses and the Museum of African American Culture, Houston; Fort Worth Contemporary Arts; Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita; Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery; Platform Centre for Photographic and Digital Arts, Winnipeg; and Gallery 44, Toronto. A recipient of the Toronto Friends of Visual Artist’ 2016 Finalist Artist Prize, the 2016 John Hartman Award, and longlisted for the 2017 Sobey Art Award, she has also been awarded several grants from the Canada Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council. DeFreitas holds a Master of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto.
James Knott is an emerging, Toronto based artist, graduating from OCAD University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Integrated Media (and Drawing/Painting). Their practice combines video, animation, performance, audio art, and theatre to create immersive experiences for the viewer. Common themes and motifs include paradoxical and queer identity, inner dialogue, anxiety and mental illness, and camp theatrics. They’ve exhibited/performed at Xpace Cultural Centre, OCAD’s Festival of the Body, Feminist Art Conference, The Artist Project Contemporary Art Fair, the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, and the AGO’s First Thursdays.
Zahra Komeylian’s interdisciplinary practice encompasses process-based engagement with ceramic sculpture, installation, video, and performance art. Her current interests include critical inquiry surrounding the themes of silence, trauma performativity, and intergenerational pain. Zahra holds an MA in Psychology in Education (2016) from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York. She is the recipient of the Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Fellowship for emerging artists and recently completed a 6-month research fellowship in Iran. She will hold her first solo show at Xpace Cultural Centre in April 2019.
Robert Lee is a translator based in Toronto.
Louise Liliefeldt, Curator
Louise Liliefeldt is a Toronto-based performance artist. Since the early 1990s, my performance work has been concerned with a deep investigation of personal identity as it relates to political and social representations of race and class. In form, my work is often exemplified by long duration and action-based meditations on a particular–and potent–combination of topic and site. She is a co-founder of 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art. #louiseethelart
