EXHIBITION OVERVIEW
“We are all UGLY: Unified Geniuses Living Young”
The AGO Youth Council and guest artists Mary Tremonte & Echo Railton are using this space to explore storytelling, growth and progression. Featuring an interactive series of cumulative projects, the space will be constantly transformed over the course of four months. Think 1980s rave parties and watching moss grow!
The AGO Youth Council works collaboratively with local and international artists to create new projects themed around social issues relevant to their demographic. Made up of youth ages 14 to 25, the Council works together for one year, going behind the scenes at the AGO through hands-on activities.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Mary Tremonte
Mary Tremonte is an artist-educator-DJ based in Pittsburgh, PA, currently living in Toronto, ON where she is an MFA candidate in OCAD University's interdisciplinary master's program. She is a member of Justseeds Artists' Cooperative, a decentralized group of artists making print work on themes of social and environmental justice. Her silkscreen prints explore queer animal sexualities, amplified potentialities, and signifiers. Recent projects include silkscreen printed animal bandanas and queer scout badges. As a DJ and party organizer she strives to create temporary safe spaces for expression, as well as to raise funds and awareness for grassroots causes. She has exhibited, given lectures, and DJed in diverse venues and locales including Niteroi; Ljubljana; Berlin; Copenhagen; Providence; Washington, DC; San Diego; and of course Pittsburgh. She is consumed with printmaking, totally teens, collaboration, communication and the politics of social space, particularly the danceparty.
Echo Railton
Born and raised in the Niagara peninsula of southern Ontario Echo's art adventures have led her to France, the United States and back to Toronto. She received a BFA from NSCAD and an MFA from Florida State University. She teaches at OCAD now and works with Analog Analogue, an artist collective who make temporary viewer interactive installation work. Through large-scale drawings, minuscule paintings, playful performance and collaborative installation work she deals with the issues unique to our super-industrial age. Her work encourages viewers to mind the alien world seen through a microscope, and the macro interconnectedness of all things affected by our seemingly insignificant daily choices.
ABOUT THE COMMUNITY GALLERY
The Community Gallery in the Weston Family Learning Centre is a project space which provides a platform for artistic experimentation and dissemination. Focused specifically on the processes of making art, and those ideas that feed into contemporary artistic practice, the gallery seeks to showcase the creativity of our museum visitors.