AGO Youth Council Members in collaboration with Tessar Lo 24 Hours, 2019, paint, cardboard, paper and markers.
The exhibition is located in the Nook by the Weston Family Learning Centre.
Admission is always FREE for AGO Members, AGO Annual Pass Holders & Visitors 25 and under. Learn more.
During eight three-hour sessions on Wednesdays in May and June, Tessar led the youth council through a series of process-based exercises on the theme of communication, generating drawings, collages, and paintings. The workshops captured conversations about geographical and language barriers between family members, misunderstandings with friends, texting and everyday life experiences. The resulting installation speaks to the successes and shortcomings that are inherent in collaboration.
Born in Jakarta, Indonesia and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Tessar Lo approaches his work with a sense of playfulness and a love of chance. He is interested in producing non-linear narratives that touch on parallel realities, different experiences of time, the process of remembering, and the ways that cultural shifts and imaginative acts can transform individuals. He also enjoys linguistic creativity, humour and the preposterous. Since graduating with a BAA from the Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Lo has spent extended periods of time in Los Angeles and various parts of Indonesia. He has shown his work in solo and group exhibitions in Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Miami, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Amsterdam.
He currently lives and works in Toronto.
Representing a diverse group of youth in Toronto, the AGO Youth Council is run by youth ages 15-24 who are interested in art and the relationship between young people and art institutions. Through a lens of social practice, the program focuses on community building, experiential pedagogy, and contemporary art practices working collectively to initiate programming by youth for youth. Collaborations with artists result in exhibitions, public art projects, interventions, large-scale events, drop-in programs, field trips, walking tours and much more. Relationship building, eating together and sharing life experiences is also a large part of the program. The council accepts new members every fall, and applicants are selected after a group interview involving current members of the AGO Youth Council. Time commitment: one year.
