Call for Submissions - Hot Box project

November 10th, 2009 will be the 30th anniversary of the Mississauga train derailment and evacuation. I'm collaborating with groups and the people of the community to create exhibitions in memory of this event. The Hot Box project is inviting the people to submit their memories of the Train derailment and evacuation of 240,000 residents.
-Sonja Hidas


Call for Submissions:

The “Hot Box” project is a community art project currently accepting submissions for a 2009 exhibition. Please forward memories of the Mississauga train derailment and evacuation of November 1979. All media are accepted (letters, Photographs, objects…). Please included contact information.
Deliver or mail your entry to:
Heritage Mississauga c/o Hot Box
1921 Dundas Street West
Mississauga Ontario L5K 1R2

or email us at hotbox24@live.ca

Professionalize your artistic practice!

WORKSHOP
Developing an Artist’s Statement
In this two hour hands-on workshop you will learn how to develop, articulate and write an effective artist’s statement. Come prepared to share your ideas and write. You will leave with a completed and effective artist’s statement. Space is limited.

The workshop will be facilitated by Tara Marshall, writer, educator and Outreach Coordinator at the Art Gallery of Mississauga.

Registration:
$20 Public (MAC & VAM members receive a 20% discount)
$15 Students and Art Gallery of Mississauga members
To register call Tara Marshall: 905-896-5507
or email tara.marshall@mississauga.ca

Date: Monday March 9th, 7- 9 pm

Location:
Art Gallery of Mississauga,
Main Floor, Mississauga Civic Centre
300 City Centre Drive, Mississauga, ON

I Served the King of England

The series, an initiative supported by the Art Gallery of Mississauga, Blackwood Gallery at the University of Toronto at Mississauga and the Living Arts Centre showcases international and independent cinema. Held at the Living Arts Centre's Hammerson Hall, the screenings are take place the last Tuesday of every month. Download your film series guide here

Film Series Tickets: available at the Living Arts Centre Box Office in person or by calling 905 306 6000. To order tickets online, visit www.livingartscentre.ca
Admission: AGM Members/Students/Seniors: $10.00

General Admission: $12.00Series Pass: $30.00 (4 film package)

Screening Location: Living Arts Centre, Hammerson Hall, 4141 Living Arts Drive, Mississauga
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 8pm

I Served The King of England

Director: Jiri Menze, Czeck Republic, 2008

Language: Czech with English sub-titles

Running Time: 118 minutes

Rating: R for sexual content and nudity

Jan Dite is short in height, but high in ambition. To put it bluntly, the young provincial waiter wants to become a millionaire. And he knows just how to do it: by hearing everything, seeing everything, and creating opportunities at every turn. Armed with this knowledge and an irrepressible wish to please, he soon leaves his first place of employment, a pub, for a luxury brothel and finally moves onto an elegant Art Nouveau Prague restaurant. But by the late 1930s, things are changing. Hitler has taken the Sudetenland region and is breaking apart Czechoslovakia. Jan falls in love with Líza, a Sudeten German proud of her Aryan blood. They marry, and soon after Líza is sent to serve on the Polish front, while Jan remains behind to serve as a nurse in a Nazi SS Research Hospital, but when she returns,
she has a fortune in rare stamps that Jews had 'left behind.' After Lízaâ's less than heroic death, Jan sells the stamps and becomes a millionaire. But he only has three years to enjoy his fortune: the new Communist regime puts him behind bars for 15 years, one for each of his millions. Upon his release from jail, Jan is sent to live in a decrepit border town. Here Jan reflects on the events that have shaped his life--and to reflect on what might have happened if he had played a different role in these events.

Art's Birthday!

It's approaching Art's Birthday again! January 17th of each year.

What is Art's Birthday you ask? Read on...

In 1963, French artist, Robert Filliou declared "One million years ago, on January 17, Art was born...when someone dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water. Modest beginnings, but look at us now. Close the schools and the factories! Let them eat cake and make art! And the next year let it be two days of holiday, then three days, then four, five, six and so on, until everyday is art's birthday, at which point we can all get on with life".The point Filliou was making concerns the making of art as an everyday activity accessible to everyone, not a rarefied object.Since then, a loose network of artists and organizations has celebrated Art's Birthday honouring the Fluxus spirit of art being made not to be bought, sold or traded as a commodity, but given "freely" as a gift.














Robert Filliou (b. January 17, 1926, Sauve, France d. 1987, Les Eyzies) a member of Fluxus, the 1960's performance group that specialized in esthetic non-events, believed that art didn't have to express itself in the form of objects. He saw it as a form of play that could even occur as unrealized notions. His minimal-impact works are apt to be made of string, cardboard and wood, the vehicles for stray, vaguely poetic ideas and images. Filliou's ephemeral works undermine heavy notions of what art is or should be.


How Mississauga will be celebrating Art's Birthday?

ART'S BIRTHDAY
January 17, 2009
Noon to 8pm
Erin Meadows Community Centre & Library
2800 Erin Centre Blvd. Mississauga
Tel: 905-615-4750

The Art Gallery of Mississauga is participating in the Art's Birthday celebration presented by the Office of Arts and Culture, City of Mississauga. This year, Art's Birthday is an ecology-themed celebration. Activities include a Mississauga sound map, sound installation, underground garage sale, art trading-card craft, sound art listening gallery, art-on-air live, radio DJ demos, soundwalks, puppet musicians, underwater (pool) soundtrack, artist performances, open mic, children's workshops, happy birthday choral performance and birthday cake.

The Art Gallery of Mississauga will be presenting the work of Mississauga artists Alison S.M. Kobayashi and Gintas Tirilis who have both created dynamic site specific installations for the event.

Alison S. M. Kobayashi will be presenting two installations on the birthday theme. Her first installation can be viewed in an Erin Meadows Public Library book case beginning January 6th. The second, in the entrance of the Community Centre, is a playful multi-media installation inspired by the Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot music video Comic Strip. Kobayshi combines a retro future aesthetic, celebratory accoutrements and her own performance in a tribute to Art's Birthday.

Utilizing an unexpected combination of water and sound, Gintas Tirilis creates a site specific, participatory installation at the Erin Meadows Community Centre. Tirilis's Drip Machine allows visitors to the Centre to trigger and tune unique audio patterns and rhythms by adjusting the flow of water faucets. Each participant's faucet adjustment becomes an original "remix" which includes samples from varying radio stations and pre recorded audio.

View Art's Birthday flyer

Juried Exhibition

Art Gallery of Mississauga
December 18, 2008 to January 31, 2009

Visual Arts Mississauga 31st Annual Juried Exhibition of Fine Arts

Since 1987, the Art Gallery of Mississauga has hosted this popular annual event organized by Visual Arts Mississauga (VAM).


"Visual Arts Mississauga strives to enrich community life by fostering an appreciation in the arts through active involvement in a variety of creative experiences".

Visual Arts Mississauga is a community arts organization providing classes in printmaking, sculpture, watercolours, drawing and painting, children’s art camps and rental space for weekend art exhibitions and sales. The VAM call for entry is one of the region’s most anticipated events, bringing in hundreds of submissions from working artists across Ontario. It is an annual opportunity to survey a variety of practices by artists who range from graduating students to senior members of the visual arts community.

The exhibition serves to foster a sense of connection between the artists, Visual Arts Mississauga and the Art Gallery of Mississauga. In addition, honours are awarded to selected works in the exhibition. This year’s award sponsors are;
Bulova Watch Company – First Place
Visual Arts Mississauga – Second Place
Curry’s Art Store – Third Place
Desserres Art Store – Honourable Mention
Art Gallery of Mississauga – People’s Choice Award

Jurors for this competition are Stuart Reid, Didi Gadjanski and Greg Damery.

Opening Reception and Awards Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 6:00 pm at the Art Gallery of Mississauga.

For more information about Visual Arts Mississauga, visit http://www.visualartsmississauga.com/ or email marowe@visualartsmississauga.com or telephone 905-277-4313. VAM is located at 4170 Riverwood Park Lane, Mississauga L5C 2S7 corner of Credit Woodlands and Burnhamthorpe Road West.

Hours: Weekdays 9 am to 5 pm, weekends 12 to 4 pm

New Hours: Beginning January 2, Weekdays 10 am to 5 pm, weekends 12 to 4 pm Thursday 10 am to 8 pm

Holiday Hours:
December 23, open from 9 am to 3:30 pm
CLOSED December 24 to 31, 2008
OPEN January 1, 2009 2 to 4 pm

Art Gallery of Mississauga
300 City Centre Drive
Ground Floor
Mississauga, ON L5B 3C1

Tel: 905 896 5088

Film Series at Living Arts Centre

The Mississauga Film Series, presented by the Art Gallery of Mississauga, Blackwood Gallery and Living Arts Centre, is enjoying increasing popularity in our new home at the Living Arts Centre's Hammerson Hall. Join us there for international and independent cinema on the last Tuesday of each month.


Film Series Tickets: available at the Living Arts Centre Box Office in person or by calling 905 306 6000.

To order tickets online, visit www.livingartscentre.ca
Admission:AGM Members/Students/Seniors: $10.00General Admission: $12.00Series Pass: $30.00 (4 film package)
Screening Location:Living Arts Centre, Hammerson Hall, 4141 Living Arts Drive, Mississauga


Heaven on Earth

Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 8pm

Director: Deepa Mehta

Language: Punjabi with English subtitles


Running Time: 106 minutes

Rating:PG 14A


Heaven on Earth is the tale of a struggling young Indian woman trapped in a marriage with an abusive Indo-Canadian man. New to Canada, at the mercy of her husband, she retreats to the recesses of her thriving imagination. Critically acclaimed director Deepa Mehta adds a new level of profound and sad complexity to her body of work by suggesting that the interior world of fantasy maybe, for some, the only possibility of redemption.

Opening reception + free shuttle bus + Curator's tour

ART GALLERY OF MISSISSAUGA
October 30 to December 5, 2008
Modular Nature
Guest Curated by Gordon Hatt

Sandor Ajzenstat
David Armstrong-Six
Eric Glavin
Ernest Harris Jr.
Gunilla Josephson
Kristiina Lahde
Gareth Licthy
Andreas Rutkauskas


David Armstrong Six
Table and Tunnel
watercolour and gouache
11 x 14 inches
Image courtesy of Goodwater Gallery




Opening reception: Thurday, October 30th at 6pm

A free shuttle bus, to the Art Gallery of Mississauga, departs from the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street W., Toronto) at 7 pm, returning to the Gladstone by 9pm.Call 905 896 5508 or email gail.farndon@mississauga.ca to reserve seating.

Gordon Hatt will conduct a tour at 8pm.

Modular Nature is an exhibition that responds to the suburban paradigm. The organizing principle of suburban development is the provision of maximum space for the cultivation of nature within the economics of an affordable built environment. Homes and residential buildings are buffered from each other and from roadways with lawns, gardens and trees and are zoned apart from business and industry. The value of cultivated nature in the suburb thus creates the characteristically low population density of the suburb.

The Band's Visit

MISSISSAUGA FILM SERIES

The series, an initiative supported by the Art Gallery of Mississauga and Blackwood Gallery at the University of Toronto, Mississauga is now in partnership with the Living
Arts Centre to showcase international and independent cinema in Mississauga.
Download your film series guide here.

*NEW LOCATION & TIME, BEGINNING IN SEPTEMBER

Film Series Tickets: available at the Living Arts Centre Box Office in person or by calling 905 306 6000.
To order tickets online, visit www.livingartscentre.ca
Admission:AGM Members/Students/Seniors: $10.00
General Admission: $12.00Series
Pass: $30.00 (4 film package)
Screening Location:Living Arts Centre, Hammerson Hall, 4141 Living Arts Drive, Mississauga

The Band's Visit
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 at 8pm
Director: Eran Kolirin
Language: Arabic, English & Hebrew with English subtitles
Running Time: 1 hour, 29 minutes

The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, consisting of eight men, arrive in Israel from Egypt. They have been booked by an Arab cultural center in Petah Tiqva, but through a miscommunication, the band takes a bus to Bet Hatikva, a fictional town in the middle of the Negev Desert.

There is no transportation out of the city that day, and there are no hotels for them to spend the night in. The band members dine at a small restaurant where the owner, Dina (Ronit Elkabetz) invites them to stay the night at her apartment, at her friends' apartment, and in the restaurant. That night challenges all of the characters.

Get on the (Mississauga, Oakville) Art Bus

Toronto/Mississauga Contemporary Art Bus
Sunday, October 26, 2008
$10 registration fee includes lunch provided by Whole Foods Market

Bus 1 Departing from the Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto at 11:30 am

Bus 2 Departing from the Art Gallery of Mississauga, 300 City Centre Drive, Mississauga at 11:30 am

Buses return to both pick up locations at 5 pm

Two buses will be shuttling participants to visit the Art Gallery of Mississaga, Oakville Galleries and Blackwood Gallery highlighting the fall exhibitions with tours and talks.

On view:
Art Gallery of Mississauga: Emblems of the Enigma: Vessna Perunovich

Blackwood Gallery, UTM: Etienne Zack: Loitering Shadows
Jesse Jones: The Spectre and the Sphere (E Gallery)

Oakville Galleries: Beyond Her Usual Limits (Gairloch Gardens)
Burning Cold (Centennial Square)

To reserve seating email elizabeth@oakvillegalleries.com or call Su-Ying at 905 895 5506
*Please specifiy whether you are reserving for Bus 1 or Bus 2.

Film Series finds a new home!

The popular Mississauga Film Series has found a new home. The Art Gallery of Mississauga has teamed up with the Living Arts Centre to give Mississauga residents the opportunity to view films selected from the Toronto International Film Festival's Film Circuit, in a central location, at Hammerson Hall at the Living Arts Centre at 4141 Living Arts Drive.

NEW LOCATION & TIME, BEGINNING IN SEPTEMBER

Film Series Tickets: available at the Living Arts Centre Box Office in person or by calling 905 306 6000. To order tickets online, visit www.livingartscentre.ca
Admission:AGM Members/Students/Seniors: $10.00General Admission: $12.00Series Pass: $30.00 (4 film package)
Screening Location:Living Arts Centre, Hammerson Hall, 4141 Living Arts Drive, Mississauga

The Visitor

Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 8pm

Director: Thomas McCarthy, 2008, USA

Language: English

Walter Vale, a lonely widower, reluctantly goes to New York City for a conference to find an undocumented couple living in his long-vacant Manhattan home. He ends up befriending them, especially Tarek, a Syrian street musician. But, Tarek is profiled by the police and incarcerated, becoming subject to imminent deportation. With the appearance of Tarek's widowed mother, Mouna, Walter's connection to this family in distress deepens. A film of unadorened precision, The Visitor points the way for us to a place where tolerance becomes active engagement.

October 28th film: The Band's Visit

Summer photo album

Summer in Mississauga was packed full of fun thanks to the Art Gallery of Mississauga. I've got the photos to prove it!

Craftification on Canada Day
The Toronto Church of Craft and the Spinners and Weavers Guild work with participants to transform the street into a work of craft.

Grace N Style + Jessica Thompson + LAL

Kareem from Grace N Style works with the audience to demonstrate Jessica Thompson's wearable art, the Freestyle SoundKit.

Toronto collective LAL perform, delivering futuristic rhythms melting into warm basslines with hints of South Asian roots and hip hop formations.

Clothing Swap
Mississauga welcomed Syracuse, New York artist, Christina Kolizsavary with a clothing swap. Particpants got to clean out their closets and take home great new wardrobe pieces!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Lunch, a tour and discussion with curators and artists on Sunday, July 27. Here participants are enjoying coversation inside Adrian Blackwell's Model for a Public Space.

Inside the Coil

Visitors to the Gallery, during Adrian Blackwell's Models for Public Spaces exhibition, interacted with Monster Coil. Radiant City was screened during the exhibition with the Coil as a comfy seating arrangment.

Artist's Talk

Please join us for the artist talk of Sharmila Samant this Thursday August 14th at 7PM
Art Gallery of Mississauga, 300 City Centre Drive, Mississauga, tel: 905 896 5088

Sharmila Samant, Against the Grain, 2008

FREE shuttle bus from Toronto

A bus will leave the front of 401 Richmond Street West at 6:30 PM and return at the same place for 9:00 PM.

Executive Director, Hank Bull and Curator Makiko Hara from Centre A as well as Executive Director, Haema Sivanesan from SAVAC will also be present to introduce the project and discuss their organizations.

Sharmila Samant (b. 1967) is a major contemporary Indian artist living and working in Mumbai. Her work deals with issues of local identity within the context of globalization. Samant examines the homogenizing effect of commodification and consumer culture in relation to developing economies. Visiting Canada for the first time, Samant will undertake research with the Goan community in Toronto, Mississauga and Vancouver and develop an installation and artist book project titled “Kathajaal: A Web of Stories”.

Kathajaal: A Web of Stories will examine factors informing the return immigration of Indo-Canadians to India. Samant uses a multi-disciplinary approach, working in photography, installation and video.

Samant states, “The projects I undertake involve eclectic collecting, documenting and recycling of urban debris, looking at the mundane and the profane. The works critique the market forces that define the cultural and art practices of the peripheral nations and question how our identities, within the global set up, can be sustained via a hybridization of our culture.”

Haema Sivanesan, Executive Director of SAVAC states, “Sharmila Samant is a significant international artist, whose work is rigorous, politically engaged and socially informed. It is a privilege to host her visit to Toronto, and to have her develop a project with the South Asian community here”

Samant’s work has been included in major international exhibitions and biennales including ”The Biennale of Sydney: Revolution – Forms that Turn” (2008); “Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India”, The Asia Society, New York, (touring, 2004 -2007); “Century City – Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis”, The Tate Modern, London, (2001).

Radiant City in the Gallery

Come cozy up at the Art Gallery of Mississauga inside Adrian Blackwell's Monster Coil. We'll provide the popcorn and entertainment! FREE










Tuesday August 12
Tuesday Night at the Movies: Radiant City
7 pm to 8:30 pm
Art Gallery of Mississauga

Whether you call it sprawl or growth, the suburbs have been the dominant form of community planning in North America for fifty years. In this incisive study, Gary Burns and Jim Brown peer into the windows and lives of those who call suburbia home. Canada, 2007. English.

Exhibitions July 17 to September 7

Art Gallery of Mississauga, two exhibitions + New Projection Access space
July 17 – September 7, 2008
Opening receptions; Thursday, July 17th 6 pm – 9pm


A FREE SHUTTLE BUS will depart at 7 pm, Thursday, July 17th, from the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West, Toronto) returning at 9 pm. To reserve seats please call Suzanne Carte-Blanchenot at (905) 896-5507 or email
suzanne.carte-blanchenot@mississauga.ca

Projection Access launch with a work by Heather Keung. Heather Keung is the inaugural artist exhibiting work on the AGM’s new Projection Access space, situated in the corridor outside the Gallery, the media projection space brings art to visitors of the Mississauga Civic centre.

Inspired by repetitive daily actions and physical labour, Heather Keung's current media work investigates involuntary responses, habitual social behaviours, and the training of the mind and body.


Explorers and Dandies in an open letter to Canada Post: Frederick Hagan & Kent Monkman
Curated by Su-Ying Lee

Through Canada Post’s process of approving postage stamp imagery, and the works of artists Frederick Hagan and Kent Monkman, this exhibition asks “who has the authority to officiate over our history?” Critical examination and cheeky humour reveal the history-of-our-history, that is, how institutions determine and prescribe the standard version of history.

In tandem with the exhibition, a formal proposal has been presented to the Canada Post Stamp Advisory Committee. In the institution’s tradition of commissioning Canadian artists, Kent Monkman’s name has been put forward for consideration to design a stamp. If you wish to join the appeal, pick up a petition card at the Art Gallery of Mississauga.

A catalogue has been produced for the exhibition which includes essays by Annemarie Hagan, Mark Kingwell and Su-Ying Lee. An attempt to produce a multiple for inclusion in the publication, through Canada Post’s paid Picture Postage service was twice rejected citing Kent Monkman’s images as “inappropriate”.
Frederick Hagan
Exploration-Lithograph Portfolio, 1989
lithograph
48 x 56 cm

Frederick Hagan’s (b. 1918, d. 2003) works have had the honour of being sanctioned to represent Canadian history. Issued from 1986-89, the Explorations of Canada postage stamp series was commissioned by Canada Post to honour select explorers. Although bestowed the honour of the commission, under the direction of Canada Post, Hagan’s original designs did not wholly emerge. Unable to satisfactorily realize his conceptual ambitions through the commission, Hagan was compelled to continue production on the theme of exploration. Amending the Explorations of Canada title from the stamp series to simply Exploration, the artist encompassed broader connotations through this ambitious series of lithographs.

Analogously, the current practice of artist Kent Monkman regards history. However, it is an unsanctioned history which the artist constructs from the mined personal accounts of George Catlin, the traditions of 19th century landscape painting and the experiences of indigenous and two-spirited people. Central to Monkman’s current body of work are the dandies –“glamorously garbed aboriginal men” with little tribal status, as referred to in Catlin’s accounts. Monkman reconstructs the dandies’ images to consider authorship and authenticity, bringing attention to the exclusiveness of popularly prescribed history.
Highly visible and widely disseminated, Canadian postage stamps function as communal reinforcement, enmeshing selected representations with the principle annals of Canadian history. This exhibition is furthermore an appeal to Canada Post to evolve its accounts toward inclusiveness.

Faint Heart 9,273, Kent Monkman, 2008, watercolour on paper, 12” x 9”. Collection of the artist.

Models for Public Spaces
Adrian Blackwell
Curated by Suzanne Carte-Blanchenot

Blackwell’s sculptures will sit in and outside of the gallery as infrastructures for both action and contemplation. These physical constructions act as diagrams for the strategic relations between different people in social space, opening up questions about the boundaries of the "public" in a city like Mississauga.

Models for Public Spaces presents an archive of experiments in the relation between urban space and social practices. The exhibition will survey Blackwell’s investigations, public works and collaborative structures built to produce new locations for collective action and public discourse including, How to open a car like a book, Public Water Closet, Car Pool, light net and Monster.

Previously unseen proposals dedicated for the City of Toronto such as Unofficial Entry to the Dundas Square Competition and Two-way mirror travel with Marcin Kedzior, for a sculpture on the Union Station Subway Platform further reflect the ongoing exploration into the alteration of existing spaces to encourage new ways of seeing and interacting.

Constructed to facilitate conversation between large numbers of people, Blackwell’s Model for a Public Space (speaker) will be erected in the Civic Square to open discourse around the question of what constitutes a healthy city the week of July 23rd. This circular, ramping seating structure, initially built for Toronto’s first Nuit Blanche, looks like a crater or a speaker facing upwards. Through this simple shape it is possible to sit looking inward towards one another or outward to the surrounding city.
EVENTS:
Forum - Heritage Complex Sunday July 27, 3:00 pm
The conversational forum will be reflecting on the Art Gallery of Peel's exhibition, Heritage Complex, curated by Atanas Bozdarov and Tejpal Ajji. Speakers include,
Artist Eric Glavin and Architect Alan Tregebov.

Heritage Complex examines the built environments of cities that have recently developed adjacent to more traditionally understood urban centres.

Screening - Radiant City Tuesday August 12, 7:00 pm
Directors: Gary Burns and Jim Brown, Canada, 2007
Whether you call it sprawl or growth, the suburbs have been the dominant form of community planning in North America for fifty years. In this incisive study, Burns and Brown peer into the windows and lives of those who call suburbia home.
Adrian Blackwell is an artist and urban and architectural designer, whose work focuses on the spaces and forces of uneven development produced through processes of Post-fordist urbanization.

Blackwell has exhibited across Canada at artist run centers and public institutions including Mercer Union, The New Gallery, The Hamilton Art Gallery, The Power Plant and the Mackenzie Art Gallery, at the University of Michigan, LACE Gallery in Los Angeles, and at the 2005 Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture. Most recent exhibitions include Heritage Complex at the Art Gallery of Peel and Site Visits at Cambridge Galleries.

In 2005 Blackwell co-edited Unboxed: Engagements in Social Space, with Jen Budney and co-curated the exhibition Detours: Tactical Approaches to Urbanization in China with Pei Zhao. Since 1997 he has taught architecture and urban design at the University of Toronto, initiating the school’s China Global Architecture program in 2004. He has been a visiting professor at Chongqing University and at the University of Michigan’s College of Architecture and Urban Planning. In 2007 Blackwell won the competition to revitalize Nathan Phillips Square in collaboration with PLANT Architect Inc, Shore Tilbe Irwin and Partners, and Peter Lindsay Schaudt Landscape Architecture.

For more information on publications, programming and activities at the Art Gallery of Mississauga, please call (905) 896‑5088 or view the Gallery’s website at www.artgalleryofmississauga.com

300 CITY CENTRE DRIVE, MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, CANADA L5B3C1
TELEPHONE (905) 896-5088 FAX (905) 615-4167
WEBSITE: http://www.artgalleryofmississauga.com/

A public art gallery sponsored by the City of Mississauga, the Ontario Arts Council, The Canada Council, Ontario Trillium Foundation, The Pendle Fund at the Community Foundations of Mississauga, Corporations, Private Citizens and its Membership

Clothing Swap-Free Wardrobe!!

Clothing Swap at the Gallery
Tuesday, July 8th at 6:30pm
Call 905 896 5506 or email suying.lee@mississauga.ca to RSVP

In honour of our first ever Artist-in-Residence, Christina Kolozsvary, from Syracuse, New York, the Gallery will be hosting our first ever Clothing Swap!

What’s a Clothing Swap? A Clothing Swap is an event where the participants trade their pre-loved clothes, shoes and accessories. It’s a chance to clean out your closet, get a new wardrobe and meet the artist.

Christina Kolozsavary is taking up a short residency in Mississauga this summer in anticipation of an exhibition Couch surfing in Mississauga/Couch surfing in Syracuse. The exhibition will feature work created by Kolzsavary in response to her stay in Mississauga. Likewise, Mississauga artist, Alison Kobayashi will create work for the exhibition during a residency in Syracuse. Couch surfing in Mississauga/Couch surfing in Syracuse will be on exhibit February 5 to March 22, 2009 and will also be exhibited in Syracuse.

How do artists in the formative stages of their careers assimilate location and residential identity into their work? This exchange has been created to consider Mississauga and its identity as a city-suburb and cultural producer. A highly diverse, densely populated city, Mississauga’s identity is often overshadowed by its closest urban neighbour, Toronto. Syracuse shares some of Mississauga’s identity struggles and each of us, a few uniquely our own.

The Art Gallery of Mississauga wishes to thank Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby, Couch surfing Residency co-curators and Séamus Kealy, Curator, Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga for provision of residence space.

FREESTYLIE

Thursday, July 3, 2008, Civic Square Stage, 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm
FREESTYLIE featuring:
LAL - CD Debut Deportation
Jessica Thompson - Freestyle SoundKit
Grace N' Style - Urban Hip Hop Dance

FREE shuttle bus departs from the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West, Toronto) at 7:00 pm to the Art Gallery of Mississauga, returning by 9:30 pm.

Opening the event the GNS dance crew wil be performing in wearable sound pieces that generate and broadcast electronic beats as their bodies move. When the Freestyle SoundKit is engaged, each step the dancer takes a single electronic beat is broadcast.

Toronto collective Lal's sound from the outset was one of contrasts: icy, futuristic rhythms melting into warm basslines and soothing soul melodies, with reverberating atmospherics whirling about the spacious groove. Hints of Rosina's South Asian roots and Murr's hip hop formation season their productions with a taste of tradition, while the overall sound suggests something far more progressive.

The project's creativity extends into a new media show with new media incorporating video images into and interactive stage set-up that pushes the audience to engage of the deep social messages that ripple through every song.

Visit http://www.myspace.com/lalforest

Crafting for Canada

At the Art Gallery of Mississauga on Canada Day, Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Gallery open for viewing from 11am to 4pm
Office Space/Public Space: Dean Baldwin and
J.C. Heywood: A Life in Layers

Craftification from 10am - 2 pm, City Centre Drive, between the Civc Centre and Central Library.

Taking part in the City of Mississauga's Canada Day Celebrations, the Art Gallery of Mississauga will bring the Church of Craft to City Centre Drive. The street will be closed to traffic allowing the Church of Craft to guide children in a re-imagining of the city street. Turning the asphalt into a green garden and the electrical poles into soft, colourful structures the artist collective will guide the ambitious project teaching fundamental craft skills such as stitching, knitting, and embroidery and to all ages. City Centre Drive will be transformed into a masterpiece by taking those uninhabited concrete spaces and renovating them into bright active areas.

Art & science meet at the Art Gallery of Mississauga

nichola feldman-kiss:\mean body
Art Gallery of Mississauga
March 27 to May 11, 2008
Opening reception Thursday, March 27, 2008


















nichola feldman-kiss
the chimaera set (2005-2006)
digital transparency, light box
105 x 105 x 20 cm

Nichola Feldman-Kiss refers to this mean body project as an "expanded performance of self-portraiture". It is a melding of traditional explorations of the figure with scientific research on the human shape…in this case her own toned physique.

After training to obtain her desired body image Feldman-Kiss posed for a three-dimensional whole body scan. The resulting database consists of eighty-two three-dimensional data sets.

These data sets were used to create representations of her body in a variety of media. The mean body project includes a video animation, a large grid of ink-jet prints, a group of plastic rapid-prototype sculptures, four back-lit transparencies, a very large professionally bound book of data, several small bronze sculptures and a contract licensing research rights to the data.

Also included in this exhibition are large scale contour drawings generated from this same data.

This exhibition, although routed in the technology used to generate the various components, draws reference to past traditions of self portraiture and previous scientific efforts to determine standardized body-shapes through more rudimentary body measurement data.

It further explores how minor changes in the data can result in unfamiliar and almost eerie images barely recognizable as the human form. Kim Sawchuk, author of the text for the accompanying catalogue, refers to these components as uncanny. Her in-depth analysis of this mean body project touches on social and cultural issues associated with body type and the stereo typical images of the female form, of gender and power.

As Feldman-Kiss herself notes, "I am interested in how the body has been measured historically, creatively, scientifically, anthropologically and how value has been attributed because of differences."

Mississauga Film Series

In February, Director and Mississauga native Richie Mehta joined us at the AMC Courtney Park to screen and discuss his award winning film Amal.

Those in attendance were treated to a Q & A with the Director, Producers and members of the cast.

Come out and be a part of the Mississauga Film Series which gives everyone a chance to view films specially selected from the Toronto International Film Festival's Film Circut.

Wednesday, March 26th, 7pm

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Director: Julian Schnabel, France, 2007

Language: French with English subtitles

Winner of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, this beautiful adaptation of Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir is an affecting, revelatory tribute.

Once a successful fashion editor and carefree womanizer, Bauby awoke one day to find himself a prisoner of his own body. Paralysed by a massive stroke his muscles were rendered powerless other than the movement of his left eyelid. His nurses develop an ingenious, if exhausting, method of communication to assist him in painstakingly completing a record of his life.

For more information or to reserve seating please contact Suzanne Carte-Blanchenot at

905-896-5507 or suzanne.carte-blanchenot@mississauga.ca

Film Series Tickets: available in advance at the Galleries, UTM Student Union or the evening of the screening from 6:30pm at the AMC Courtney Park

Admission: AGM Members/Students/Seniors: $10.00General Admission: $12.00Series Pass: $30.00 (4 film package)

Screening Location: AMC Courtney Park, 110 Courtney Park Dr. Mississauga, ON L5T 2Y3, Hwy 10 and the 401

What's the difference?

Often people who visit or call the Art Gallery of Mississauga are confused about who we are and how the arts organizations in Mississauga are distinguished.

The organizations listed below are all in Mississauga but are separate and distinct. Here is a handy little guide for your reference. For more information visit their websites or call.

Visual Arts Mississauga (aka VAM)
Location: Visual Arts Mississauga is located at Riverwood, 1475 Burnhamthorpe Road West, corner of Credit Woodlands and Burnhamthorpe.

Contact Info:
Tel: 905 277 4313
info@visualartsmississauga.com
www.visualartsmississauga.com

Purpose:
"Visual Arts Mississauga is committed to enriching the lives of the citizens of the City of Mississauga by encouraging the appreciation in the visual arts through the provision of affordable educational programs, exhibitions, sales, meetings and workshop facilities"
What does that really mean? Traditional arts and craft classes for all ages, summer craft type camps and rental gallery space. Think of it as a place to go if you wish to try your hand at painting or develop a hobby, find programmes to keep kids occupied, try selling and exhibiting some of your work locally without the professional rigour which is demanded in other more formal settings. The context is local rather than reflective of the larger art world.
Why it gets confusing... People confuse Visual Arts Mississauga and the Art Gallery of Mississauga because VAM provides an annual opportunity for local artists to show through a juried exhibition. The exhibition is housed/hosted by the Art Gallery of Mississauga not at Riverwood/Visual Arts Mississauga. This means that these two distinctly separate organizations partner to deliver this one event. Also VAM's location is slightly hidden on the grounds of Riverwood park. This lovely property is well worth the visit.

Mississauga Arts Council (aka MAC)
Location: Mississauga Civic Centre, 300 City Centre Drive, Suite 1055
Contact info:
Tel: 905 615 4278
info@mississaugaartscouncil.com
http://www.mississaugaartscouncil.com/

Purpose: MAC is a non-profit registered charity governed by a Board of Directors. Our mission is “to foster and develop, support and champion a vibrant, dynamic arts community in the city of Mississauga through services, to enrich the lives of its citizens.”
What does that really mean? Working on a smaller scale, the Mississauga Arts Council does not provide funding opportunities like the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council For the Arts do. The primary funding or recognition opportunity provided through MAC is via the Mississauga Arts Awards. Nominations are accepted in performing, literary, media and visual arts annually. Recipients receive a cash award and trophy at a gala diner with entertainment. MAC also publishes information about local activities in weekly listing in The Mississauga News, 'Arts Scene' column; MACtivities – weekly e-mail newsletter; It's Here in Arts and Entertainment Calendar – a quarterly publication of members’ events, exhibitions, sales, performances, workshops, meetings and festivals. There are also various other networking and development opportunities through MAC, consult their website or call to find out the schedule of events.
Why it gets confusing...The Mississauga Arts Council and the Art Gallery of Mississauga are separate organizations. Both are located in the same building, the Mississauga Civic Centre, but, they do not share the same space.

The Living Arts Centre (aka LAC)
Location: 4141 Living Arts Drive, Mississauga ON L5B 4B8
Contact info:
General Information/Reception 905 306 6100
info.lac@mississauga.ca
Box Office & Registrations 905 306 6000
toll-free 1 888 805 8888
Purpose: The Living Arts Centre is a 225,000 square foot multi-use facility. The facility houses performance theatres, an exhibition gallery, eight professional art studios, corporate meeting facilities and a restaurant. The Centre is a registered not-for-profit organization, governed by an active 18-person community based Board of Directors, and managed by a team of arts and hospitality industry professionals. Each year the Centre programs a range of performing arts events, multi-disciplinary workshops, camps and courses offering hands-on arts experiences, and fine art & craft exhibitions. The Living Arts Centre also serves as home to dozens of community and professional arts organizations; and as a venue where numerous grassroots community theatre, dance, music and ethno-cultural organizations can showcase their work. What does that really mean? LAC offers residency opportunities for artists working in wood, sculpture, textiles, photography, ceramics, painting, drawing and flamework. There are school workshops, camps, youth and adult classes in a range of mediums which include dance and photography. Laidlaw Hall is the Gallery at LAC. Opportunities to exhibit are offered to community groups, resident artists and on a rental basis. Artist's fees are not paid. The Living Arts Centre is a place where you can go to see live entertainment without the hassle of going to Toronto and the parking is free.

Why it gets confusing...The Living Arts Centre is across the street from the Mississauga Civic Centre where the Art Gallery of Mississauga is housed. LAC does have a gallery but, is differentiated from the Art Gallery of Mississauga by both exhibitions and purpose

Blackwood Gallery
Location: On the grounds of the University of Toronto at Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Rd. North, Mississauga ON L5L 1C6

Purpose: The Blackwood Gallery started in 1969 as the Erindale College Art Gallery which was the first public art gallery in Peel. On May 15, 1992, it was reopened as the Blackwood Gallery in the present gallery space in the Kaneff Centre. It was named in honour of Canadian artist, David Blackwood, who was an artist in residence at Erindale College from 1967-71.
What does that really mean? The Blackwood Gallery is a not for profit, University Gallery. When curator of contemporary art, Barbara Fischer took over she brought with her curatorial rigour, critical theory and exhibitions which reflected the practices of contemporary artists. Since then, the Gallery has grown to include an E-gallery and video wall. To see exhibitions of work from a larger context which address contemporary issues, visit the Blackwood Gallery. The current curator is Seamus Kealy.

Artists exhibited at the Blackwood likely have nationally or internationally recognized practices in contemporary art. Artists who are exhibited at the Blackwood have likely been sought out through curatorial research and investigations rather than culled from general submissions. However, submissions are accepted. To have your work considered, submit a professional quality proposal with images in digital or slide format with image list, proposal, artist statement and cv. The Gallery does not sell work or provide rental space.

The Blackwood Gallery does offer day summer camps for children. The camp engages children through a fun programme of activities that stimulate creative and critical thinking and relate to art creation through concept. Offering a valuable experience beyond craft and child care, this approach inspires creative thinking and problem solving skills which are useful in all facets of life.

Why it gets confusing...With so few not for profit art galleries/institutions in Mississauga, the Blackwood Gallery is confused with the Art Gallery of Mississauga. In addition, the two galleries have partnered to present outreach programming including the Mississauga Film Series. The Blackwood Gallery is on the campus of the University of Toronto at Mississauga which may be difficult for the general public to find.

Art Gallery of Mississauga (aka AGM)
Location: Mississauga Civic Centre, 300 City Centre Drive, Ground Floor, South East Corner, Mississauga, Ontario L5B 3C1

Purpose:
"The Mission of the Art Gallery of Mississauga is to promote awareness and the appreciation of the visual arts through the operation, development and growth of a public, not-for-profit art gallery."

Mandate: Through the efforts of its volunteers and staff, the Gallery will achieve this mission by providing leadership and expertise in matters related to the visual arts; and by exhibiting historical and contemporary works of art from local to international sources; and by encouraging the development of artists with special emphasis on those residing in the city of Mississauga;
and by organizing educational programmes to stimulate knowledge and interest in the visual arts; and by acquiring, managing and caring for a Permanent Collection.The Gallery will carry out its mandate in accordance with professional museum standards and practice. What does that really mean? As a public, not for profit gallery, the AGM's primary purpose is to exhibit art and educate the public by bringing exhibitions of work that reflect important issues and practices both contemporary and historic. Regional galleries generally exist to bring culture to a region and to serve the cultural and educational needs of that region rather than represent, soley, the artists of the region. However, most regional galleries wish to develop a relationship with the community which will foster understanding of visual art and encourage the growth and development of a local audience and artists. The AGM strives to be the community's window to art practices nationally and internationally. The Gallery serves the community by providing access to art in a number of ways including the Mississauga Film Series, exhibitions performances and events both in and outside the gallery, tours, artists' talks, panel discussions, professional development workshops and publications. The AGM does not have rental gallery space and with a few exceptions, does not sell work. To have your work considered for exhibition at the Art Gallery of Mississauga artists must submit professional quality proposals with digital or slide images, image list, proposal, artist's statement and cv.


Stay tuned for a blog entry on the difference between public galleries, artist run centres, art foundations and commercial galleries.