Aaron Jones wins the 2020 Gattuso Prize

$5,000 prize for his Featured Exhibition at Zalucky Contemporary

Announcing Highlights of our 25th Edition

Celebrating CONTACT’s 25th anniversary in tandem with Toronto’s Year of Public Art

130 Commissioners Street

Demolishing the Cooper's Iron & Metal building – a study by Vid Ingelevics and Ryan Walker.

2020 Burtynsky Grant

Pamila Matharu wins $5,000 towards the publication of their photobook "Index: Some of All Parts"

2020 Online Programs and Exhibitions

New initiatives that adapt and activate this year's Festival including profiles, conversations, screenings and readings.

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Jan 15

Aaron Jones awarded The Gattuso Prize for his ex

Aaron Jones awarded The Gattuso Prize for his exhibition "Closed Fist, Open Palm" at Zalucky Contemporary!

@ehrohn @zaluckycontemporary

The Gattuso Prize of $5,000 acknowledges an outstanding Featured Exhibition in the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Featured Exhibitions, selected to be part of the Festival through a juried submission process, are independently organized by artists, venues, and organizations across the city.

Due to COVID-19, the 2020 Festival was adapted to reflect the changing reality of experiencing art. The criteria for The Gattuso Prize was also adapted to reflect the fact that many exhibitions were postponed, cancelled, or presented online. The jury this year, Liz Ikiriko (Assistant Curator, Art Gallery of York University) and Sabrina Maltese (independent curator), based their decision soley on the conceptual and technical excellence of the artist’s body of work.

Aaron Jones is a multi-disciplinary visual artist based in Toronto. His practice surrounds ideas of self-reflection and character-building, as a way of finding peace. Often using found images, videos and lens-based media, he works with different forms of collage to build characters and spaces that reflect upon the nuances of his own upbringing, current life and the environment. He is represented by Zalucky Contemporary.

This is the second time a Featured Exhibition at Zalucky Contemporary has received The Gattuso Prize. The first time was in 2016 for Lee Henderson's solo exhibition "Never Letting Us Take Breath."

CONTACT acknowledges the generous support and contributions of La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso. The Foundation demonstrates strong leadership and influences innovation across all charitable sectors in Canada including health care, culture and the arts.

📷 Aaron Jones, "Untitled," 2019, from the exhibition "Closed Fist, Open Palm" at Zalucky Contemporary, 2020. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid, all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Zalucky Contemporary.

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Dec 15

Announcing highlights of our 25th edition! Celeb

Announcing highlights of our 25th edition!

Celebrating CONTACT’s 25th anniversary in tandem with Toronto’s Year of Public Art, the 2021 Festival will expand our activation of public spaces throughout the city. The preliminary list of artists presenting Public Installations in the 2021 Festival’s Core Program includes:

Sara Angelucci
Alberto Giuliani
Kim Hoeckele
Vid Ingelevics & Ryan Walker
Erik Kessels & Thomas Mailaender
Esmaa Mohamoud
Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs
Frida Orupabo
Thirza Schaap
Greg Staats
Malgorzata Stankiewicz

Artist and educator Logan MacDonald is curating a multi-artist public project including Dayna Danger, Peter Morin, and Fallon Simard.

More on these artists and projects at our website - link in bio!

📷

1. Esmaa Mohamoud, The Brotherhood FUBU (For Us By Us) (production detail, mural), 2020. Courtesy of Georgia Scherman Projects.

2. Sara Angelucci, July 24 (Wild grape, Queen Anne’s Lace, Daisy Fleabane) (detail), from the series Nocturnal Botanical Ontario, 2020. Courtesy of the artist, Stephen Bulger Gallery, and Patrick Mikhail Gallery.

3. Greg Staats, dark string (two of eight images), 2020. Courtesy of the artist.

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Nov 21

As Toronto begins a 28-day lockdown to curb the ri

As Toronto begins a 28-day lockdown to curb the rise of COVID-19 cases, CONTACT’s 2020 exhibitions in museums and galleries are closed until further notice.

Several outdoor Public Installations projects are ongoing, and can be safely viewed while venturing out for essential travel and exercise, and our online Programs continue to activate this year's Festival through a range of timely new initiatives.

Please keep yourself and others safe during this challenging time! Visit @topublichealth for more guidelines and information.

Photo: Installation view, Vid Ingelevics & Ryan Walker, "Framework," 2020. Public Installation at 312 Cherry St & Villiers St Median, Toronto. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

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Nov 16

Lyla Rye "Mirage" #CONTACT2020 Core Exhibition

Lyla Rye
"Mirage"
#CONTACT2020 Core Exhibition

Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art
On view through Nov 28
Wed–Sat 12–5pm or by appt

"Prefix ICA presents 'Mirage,' a solo exhibition of the work of Toronto-based artist Lyla Rye. Throughout the gallery, Rye uses still and moving images to offer a nuanced vision that allows viewers to contemplate the influence of architecture and how it impacts living in the world. The exhibition actively engages viewers optically, physically, and conceptually, while aiming to complicate their perceptions of space and time.

'Mirage' features the Canadian premiere of 'A Meditation' (2019), a video installation that expands upon the artist’s use of strategies referencing architectural scale, along with her focus on slowness, intricacy, and material shifts in producing embodied encounters with space that unfold over time."

📷 Installation views of Lyla Rye, Mirage at Prefix ICA. Photos by Toni Hafkenscheid.

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Nov 11

Michelle Forsyth "Our relationship is beautiful du

Michelle Forsyth
"Our relationship is beautiful due to the distance"

#CONTACT2020 Featured Exhibition
Corkin Gallery

On view through Nov 21

"Michelle Forsyth’s multidisciplinary practice opens up new conversations between sculpture and photography. Her first solo exhibition with Corkin Gallery presents work made over the last five years.

Forsyth works closely with textiles, using clothing and patterns found in her own closet, referencing personal memories. The artist’s earlier sculptural works took the form of wrapped fabric bundles, sewn or woven together and presented on plinths painted to reference the textiles used. These sculptures were then photographed, resulting in two-dimensional images that flatten and accentuate the planes of colour and pattern.

Forsyth’s new body of work, Improvisations, continues her engagement with documenting her life through textiles.It features garments made to accommodate her body and her gestures as she navigates the effects of Parkinson’s disease. The finished garments are displayed on custom-built hangers alongside performative self-portraits, set against painted backdrops."

Installation views courtesy of Corkin Gallery and the artist @corkingallery @mmforsyth

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Nov 6

In May 2021, the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Fe

In May 2021, the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival will celebrate its 25th anniversary. To mark this occasion, CONTACT is offering free registration for lens-based artists to participate in the Featured and Open Call exhibition programs.

While CONTACT enthusiastically plans for the Festival in May 2021, preparations are in place to adjust appropriately to evolving COVID-19 health and safety regulations.

Deadlines: Featured submissions are due Dec. 4.
Open Call registration closes on Dec. 18.

Visit our website for full submission details for both exhibition programs.

📷 Installation view of "Three-Thirty" at Malvern Public Library. Artwork by Aaron Jones, photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.

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Nov 5

Final days to see "Diane Arbus: Photographs, 1956-

Final days to see "Diane Arbus: Photographs, 1956-1971" at the Art Gallery of Ontario! This #CONTACT2020 Core Exhibition closes Sun, Nov 8.

📷 Diane Arbus, Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. on her front lawn, Atlanta, Ga. 1968. Gelatin silver print, sheet: 50.8 x 40.6 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Phil Lind, 2016. Copyright © The Estate of Diane Arbus.

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Nov 4

Spreads from the three Honourable Mentions for the

Spreads from the three Honourable Mentions for the 2020 Burtynsky Grant:

1. Leyla Godfrey, "Four Walls With No Entrance"

2. Esmond Lee, "Below the City"

3. Laurence Philomene, "Puberty"

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Nov 4

CONTACT is pleased to announce Toronto-based artis

CONTACT is pleased to announce Toronto-based artist Pamila Matharu as the 2020 Burtynsky Grant winner for their book project "Index: Some of All Parts." @pamila_matharu

In 2016, photographer Edward Burtynsky and CONTACT established the Burtynsky Grant to foster the creation of photobooks by Canadians. The $5,000 annual grant supports artists and photographers who are at the advanced stages of developing a cohesive, rigorous body of work presented in book form.

“Through a combination of photography, collage, and archival material, 'Index: Some of All Parts' by Pamila Matharu responds to the questions of what voices survive in the narrative of Canadian art history, and what voices are erased. Exploding with ideas and presented with little compromise between concept and images, Matharu’s striking photobook addresses crucial gaps in representation during this time of ongoing reckoning with the photographic canon.” – the jury

The jury members—Edward Burtynsky, Kotama Bouabane, Letticia Cosbert Miller, Cat Lachowskyj, Brian Paul Lamotte, and Marcus Schubert—had the pleasure of reviewing a wide range of compelling photobook proposals from across the country.

The jury would like to acknowledge the following Honourable Mentions:

Leyla Godfrey, "Four Walls With No Entrance" @leylagodfrey

Esmond Lee, "Below the City" @esmondcklee

Laurence Philomene, "Puberty" @laurencephilomene

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Nov 3

Documents, 1960s – 1970s #CONTACT2020 Core Exhi

Documents, 1960s – 1970s
#CONTACT2020 Core Exhibition
Art Gallery of Ontario

On view through April 18, 2021

"In the 1960s and 1970s, documentary photography took on new power and meanings. In the aftermath of the Second World War, interactions between citizens and their governments, between colonizers and the newly independent, and other sociocultural relationships shifted. Documents, 1960s –1970s, on view in the Art Gallery of Ontario’s (AGO) Edmond G. Odette Family Gallery, looks at how photographers around the world—from Bamako to Mumbai, Pretoria to Toronto—used their medium to witness, celebrate, and critique their worlds in new ways."

📷 1. David Goldblatt, "Women at 39 Soper Road, Berea, Johannesburg," May 1972. Gelatin silver print, Image: 26.7 × 26.7 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Stephen Bulger and Catherine Lash, 2016. © The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust, courtesy Goodman Gallery, 2016/1060.

2. Paul Kodjo, "Untitled," 1970s. Gelatin silver print, 50 x 40 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario, Purchase, with funds from the Photography Curatorial Committee, 2020. © Paul Kodjo, courtesy Les Rencontres du Sud 2019/2330.

3. Ming Smith, "Sun Ra space II," New York, NY, 1978. Gelatin silver print, 40.6 x 50.8 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario, Purchase, with funds generously donated by Cindy and Shon Barnett, 2018. © Ming Smith 2018/35.

4. Ian Wallace, "Pan Am Scan," (detail), 1970. Gelatin silver print, 40 x 60.1 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario, Gift of Sandra Simpson, 2017. © Ian Wallace, courtesy Catriona Jeffries 2017/236.1–.5.

5. Charles Gagnon, "Cabines téléphonique," 1965. Gelatin silver print, 27.8 x 35.3 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario, Gift of Michiko Yajima Gagnon, 2010. © The Estate of Charles Gagnon 2010/270.

6. Garry Winogrand, "Los Angeles, California," 1969. Gelatin silver print, 21.6 × 32.8 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario, Purchase, with funds generously donated by Martha LA McCain, 2015. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco 2014/1569.11.

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