Happy 20th Birthday

In October, the Art Gallery of Mississauga will turn 20 years old! We will be celebrating with two parties. All are welcome to attend!



















A party for the grown-ups!
Thursday, October 4th 7pm - 10pm
Great Hall, Mississauga Civic Centre, 300 City Centre Drive
Please help us celebrate our 20th birthday at this FREE event!
Enjoy cake, karaoke, badge making and more...
Ask Puffy , the Guidance Clown: An artist's project by Ulysses Castellanos
Ask Puffy, the Guidance Clown is the latest in a series of explorations into what constitutes "Professionalism" and professional/client relations. Ulysses Castellanos, this time, dons the guise of a clown, as he gives free advice to party goers. As well as dispensing free advice, Castellanos gives balloon sculptures and provides a "manicure" service, whereby the artist applies and paints "customized", brightly-colored press-on nails.

Friendly Rich & The Lollipop People
Nine-member band, The Lollipop People, play avant-vaudeville music on instruments from bassoon to banjo. The show has been described as "a twisted carnival sideshow including puppetry, crank calls, costumes and homemade multicoloured stage props" with music that is expertly composed and borrows from a broad range of influences, from klezmer to Captain Beefheart.Friendly Rich is a composer from Brampton, Canada. Mr. Rich has composed background music for MTV's The Tom Green Show. Since 1994, he has recorded exclusively for his own eclectic record label, The Pumpkin Pie Corporation. Friendly Rich is also the founder and director of the Brampton Indie Arts Festival. Friendly always says, “one can either produce, or become produce”.

A party for the whole family!
Sunday, October 28th 1-4pm
Great Hall, Mississauga Civic Centre, 300 City Centre Drive
Please help us celebrate our 20th birthday at this FREE event!
Enjoy cake, karaoke, badge & party hat making and more...












Happy Birthday Project by Aritist Sandy Plotnikoff
Sandy Plotnikoff brings his hot-foil stamping workstation to our party printing "Happy Birthday" on whatever is offered by the public. He can print on paper, leather, plastic, and wood; the possibilities are pretty endless. Improvisation and creative collaboration are encouraged, and visitors keep the stamped results! Similar to ideas explored in Plotnikoff's postcard multiples (see image above), the artist is interested in testing the universality of a familiar greeting in contrast to unlikely, yet sometimes fitting contexts. Bring your greeting cards, wallet, belt, bag, t-shirt, whatever grabs your imagination to participate/collaborate with Sandy.











iNSiDEaMiND Performance & Turntable Workshop
With the definition of the word "DJ" continually expanding, InsideAmind (Prof. Fingers & Steptone) emerges from Toronto as a two man scratch band, further stretching artistic boundaries by performing live original compositions with vinyl. The "scratch musicians", as they call themselves, bring forth a unique angle to what a pair of DJs/Producers armed with instruments called turntables can create. Prof. Fingers & Steptone also teach through their Off Centre DJ School whose mandate is simple: have fun with records! Following their performance, the duo will teach creative expression through playing with sound.

Be adored at the Art Gallery of Mississauga

Mike Hansen: Hoi Polloi
September 13 to October 21, 2007
part of A Month of Photography

The Art Gallery of Mississauga welcomes you with the red carpet, the clamour of adoration and flash bulbs popping.

Mike Hansen's Hoi Polloi addresses photography in a figurative rather than literal sense. An encounter based installation, complete with red carpet, stanchions, flash bulbs and adoration, the work situates image and constructed circumstance, in relation to the phenomenon of fame. Photography is the spoon with which the frenzied cult of celebrity is fed. Paparazzi churn out images of red carpet deities and fallen celebutants by which we measure and lose ourselves. Mike Hansen addresses the contrivance of celebrity through its devices.
A Month of Photography is a photographic arts festival in Mississauga and Brampton. The festival is sponsored by Nikon Canada and aims to expand the understanding and appreciation of photography as an artistic medium - developing new and emerging artists, promoting established artists, uniting the arts with the public, and promoting the awareness of curated shows within the community. For the month of September, artists will exhibit their photographic works in assigned locations such as galleries, community centres, hospitals, and restaurants. Now in its 3rd year, the festival has gained support from notable galleries such as the Art Gallery of Mississauga, Art Gallery of Peel, the Living Arts Centre, UTM Mississauga Campus, Gallery Streetsville and The Village Gallery - all of which will provide exhibition space. Get your free artists' catalogue available at the Art Gallery of Mississauga as well as local art galleries, libraries and community centres. Or download the catalogue here.

-Fausta Faccipointe, Festival Co ordinator

Endagered species at the Art Gallery of Mississauga

Flora: Fragile Habitats
Julie Aubin & Darlene Benner
September 13 to October 21, 2007

The ambitious undertaking of artists Julie Aubin & Darlene Benner interprets fifty indigenous Canadian vascular plants. Each work is meticulously rendered in clay with surfaces created through a variety of primitive firing methods, glazes and a non silver photographic printing technique.

Summer, in the not so distant past

The Best of Film Fort

Tuesday, August 28, 2007 on the grounds of the Mississauga Central Library.


Many turned out for the final Art Gallery of Mississauga summer 2007 event. A lovely night under the Film Fort lit by the silver screen, the stars and our city centre's condo lights.

Summer 2007 has come to a close but, be sure to visit the Gallery for an exciting season of exhibitions and events including two exciting birthday parties....details to come.

Art Gallery of Mississauga would like to acknowledge the generous support of the Pendle Fund at the Community Foundation of Mississauga.

Special thanks to Yasmeen Abubakar, Eleni Alpous, Dominique Asselin, Bryan Belanger, Nika Belianina, Katie Bethune-Leamen, Chris Blanchenot, Sherrese Bleary, Patrick Borjal, Christopher Bowes, Deanna Catania, Calvin Chan, Kimberley England, Iris Fraser, Alexandra Fronckiewicz, Jeff Garcia, Eric Glavin, Jesjit Gill, Nilsson Gonsalves, Liisa Graham, Winston Hacking, Andrea Jagodzinski, Steve Khan, Jelani Lee, Brett Long, Lindsay MacDonald, Nicole Mara, Airin McGuinty, Marissa Neave, Hri Neil, Marc de Pape, Mariya Prokopenko, Geoffrey Pugen, Jon Sasaki, Anna Shen, Sheida Sims, Kristina Smiltnieks, Anita Solomon, Nick Wallace, Alice Xian, Yelin Yang, and Andrew Zukerman

Paying taxes does not equal absolute ownership

Not uncommon to the ears of those who are employed by public galleries is a disgruntled visitor commenting "that's what my tax dollars goes to".

Well, don't be disheartened gallery goer. Exhibitions not to your liking are not staged as a personal attack on your wallet, I promise you. When I began working in a gallery, I said "I pay taxes and I even work at a public gallery". Why then, can I not curate exhibitions of black velvet paintings exclusively? They are classical, big eyed children, Elvis and the Bullfighter (who doesn't love Elvis?), soft (as velvet) and black (goes with everything!).











I was helped to understand that after the health care and education I have received, the roads, streets and walkways I travelled in on, the relative safety I enjoy through emergency services, the pick up of the trash I produce and on and on there is little chance that I have personally bankrolled the exhibitions at a public gallery.

No one (that I know) enjoys paying taxes but, it is a collective and cumulative effort that does afford us a Canadian standard of living not the catering to of my personal whims (as much as I want that).

I have simply come to accept that the act of paying taxes does not allow me the exclusive right to dictate that a public gallery should produce exhibitions that are especially pleasing to me. Yes, public, meaning for all, not just my rarefied desire to have exhibitions of velvet paintings exclusively. Nor is it safe to assume that what I enjoy is enjoyed by all other tax payers. Believe it or not, while I may grumble about a particular exhibition, others have been heard praising the exact same art!

However public does mean that the gallery likely wants to offer you, as a member of the public, something which is meaningful and enriching. So, rather than grumbling sideways in an indirect effort to make your disappointment heard, speak directly to the gallery staff. You may not own the gallery but, you can take ownership of your needs and how you would like to see that reflected.

Perhaps you will not find an exhibition pleasing to your sensibilities today, but there are many, many more exhibitions and more public galleries to be visited. Often galleries have art in several forms such as, music, performances, film series and talks. Why not try one of those?

The 905er asks, if you were channelling the tax payers' art dollars, what would you fund?
Bateman or Altmejd? Neither? Both?

(Below) Work by Robert Bateman, Canadian artist and environmental advocate.













(Left) Work by David Altmejd, Canada’s official representative at the 2007 Venice Biennale of Visual Art.