We’re celebrating, and you’re invited!
Meryl McMaster. Edge of a Moment, 2017. Inkjet print, 152.4 × 239.7 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Katzman Contemporary. © Meryl McMaster
Consider yourself, dear reader, cordially invited to public opening of three of the AGO’s most captivating exhibitions of the year. On Wednesday, June 28, from 6 to 9 pm, members of the public are invited to the AGO for a sneak peek at Every. Now. Then: Reframing Nationhood and Rita Letendre: Fire & Light during the AGO’s Summer Public Opening event which includes a celebration in Walker Court. The party also celebrates Mark Lewis: Canada, which has been open since April.
Timed to take place just before Canada Day on July 1, the public opening of these three summer shows offers an ideal opportunity to reflect on the state of art in Canada—and the state of Canada represented in art—amid the many discussions taking place around the country’s sesquicentennial.
Every. Now. Then: Reframing Nationhood is the AGO’s response to the Canada 150 anniversary, filling Level 4 of the Contemporary Tower with over 35 projects by emerging and established artists who offer their own commentary on Canada’s past, present, and future. Starting from the position that Canada is a work in progress, Every. Now. Then. aims to include voices, stories and perspectives that have historically been silenced or ignored in the grand narrative of what Canada is. It runs until December 10.
Rita Letendre: Fire & Light, running until September 17, is the first major retrospective of Letendre’s work to originate outside of Quebec. Letendre was born of Abenaki and Quebecois parents in Drummondville in 1928, and began her painting career in Montreal in the 1950s, alongside prominent abstract artist groups Les Automatistes and Les Plasticiens. Now based in Toronto, Letendre is renowned for her large-scale works of oils, pastels, and acrylics, undeniable in their bold use of colour and line and impossible to look away from.
Mark Lewis: Canada consists of three new video works by Canadian-born, London-based artist Mark Lewis. Each one depicts a new meaning for the word “Canada,” from being inspired by Richard Ford’s novel Canada to staging a cinematic encounter between camera and human on the beaches of Scarborough. Mark Lewis: Canada runs until December 10.
For more details on the Summer Public Opening click here.
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