Contemporary Toronto Artists: Artists Q-T

Catalogue of an exhibition held at Concordia Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal from September 16 to October 24, 1987.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Power Plant--Contemporary Art Gallery at Harbourfront Centre, Jan. 17-Mar. 31, 1997.

"5 6 7: Economies of Good & Evil is a catalogue of work by Toronto-based artist Mitch Robertson, placing his most recent project in the context of his career by way of images, texts, and an interview with the artist. It is published for an exhibition of the same title, organized by the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art (Winnipeg) and Oakville Galleries (Oakville, ON)..." - From the publisher

"Stories for Grandchildren was originally conceived as an art installation in the form of engraved metal plaques tacked on a gallery wall in a large grid. The basis of the project was to ask people ranging from acquaintances to close friends to tel me their greatest "claim to fame". The claim had to be honest, however, just like stories told in everyday life, it is difficult to tell if someone has embellished their claim for greater effect. The structure of the claim is always the same, beginning with the person's name, followed by the event or accomplishment, then the date as accurately as they could remember." - Preface

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Oakville Galleries, Jun. 25-Oct. 17, 2004. "David Rokeby is an installation artist based in Toronto, Canada. He has been creating interactive installations since 1982. He has focussed on interactive pieces that directly engage the human body, or that involve artificial perception systems. His work has been performed /​ exhibited in shows across Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia."- From the publisher

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Jan. 22-Mar. 1, 1998.

Catalogue to the fourth annual Roundup exhibition, held at locations throughout Metro Toronto in June 1991.

Catalogue to the third annual open studio tour held throughout Metro Toronto in June 1990.
"Includes brief comments on the organization of the event and extensive visual documentation of the works exhibited by over 250 Toronto artists in 80 non-traditional exhibition sites." -eARTEXTE

Catalogue to the second annual open studio tour held throughout Metro Toronto in May 1989.
"Sylvestre describes Round Up as a participant and a viewer while Crowston and Ward examine the idea of presenting art in the studio context in relation to the goals and structure of the event." -eARTEXTE

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ont., June 3-Oct. 1, 2006 and then at the Esplanade Art Gallery, Medicine Hat, Alta., Feb. 17-Apr. 15, 2007.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Glendon Gallery, Glendon College, York University, North York, Ontario from September 21 to October 29, 1995.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery, Jan. 15-Feb. 20, 1998.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario from November 25, 1989 to January 7, 1990 and travelling to other galleries until Fall, 1990

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto from 26 Jun. to 26 Jul. 2008.

"Governor General's Award-winning visual artist John Scott is perhaps best known for his Trans Am of the Apocalypse , a car with the entire Book of Revelation scratched onto it, which is on display at the National Gallery of Canada. As Ann MacDonald discovered when she began working with him, Scott's personal life is no less compelling. So she sat down with Scott, a tape recorder and a stack of napkinsfor him to draw on - Shiva's Really Scary Gifts is the result." - From the publisher

Published on the occasion of the exhibition John Scott : engines of anxiety, held May 8 - June 22, 1997 at the Gallery of the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts, Montreal.

"This is a twelve year retrospective exhibition of Scott's work. For Scott, one of the best ways to create art was through dialogue; his art depends on context, on all kinds of unspoken information shared by the viewer and artist concerningf the world in general. He is devoted to the use of technical components in his work as well as the everyday forms of art-making such as black paint on paper. Included are John Scott journal articles, "Writing for Canadian Art (1988-1991)," and a number of journal and newspaper articles "About John Scott."" -49thshelf.com

A documentary portrait on the Canadian artist John Scott.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Southern Albert Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Alberta from November 3 to November 28, 1984.

Contains three video tracks by video artist Tom Sherman, including: After the I-Bomb, Talking to Nature, and Tweak #2.

Contains seven video tracks by video artist Tom Sherman, including: Sub/Extros, Half/Lives, After the I-Bomb, Talking to Nature, and Tweak #2.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at Art Metropole, Toronto in 1990.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver from April 15 to June 5, 1989.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Musee d'Art Contemporain, Montreal from March 4 to April 4, 1982.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at Art Metropole, Toronto in 1977.

In a series of 21 paintings Shilling re-creates the faces of his Ojibway people – unforgettable for the suffering under the quietness, the courage, and dignity in the pain. He accompanies the art with a poetic text as compelling as the paintings – and writes of sleep and dreams and death, and of his use of color to fight off fear and darkness.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Kinsman Robinson Galleries, Toronto from October 9 to October 25, 1986.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario from September 5 to September 30, 1986. Curator: Carol Podedworny.

A comics collection by Canadian cartoonist, painter, and illustrator Fiona Smyth. Over thirty years of comics that feature Fiona's world of sexy ladies, precocious girls, and vindictive goddesses is revealed in all its feminist glory. This is recommended reading for sleepwalkers on a female planet.

A comic book for kids that includes children and families of all makeups, orientations, and gender identities; an essential resource about bodies, gender, and sexuality for children ages 8 to 10 as well as their parents and caregivers. Much more than the facts of life' or 'the birds and the bees,' Sex is a Funny Word opens up conversations between young people and their caregivers in a way that allows adults to convey their values and beliefs while providing information about boundaries, safety, and joy.

Late in the next century, the human race is on the verge of extinction. A mysterious virus has resulted in no births in almost a generation. Despite the impending doom, three urban teenagers try to live their lives with hope. Mia strives to preserve humanity’s compassion through her art and her volunteer work with the “oldies.” Tech-savvy Xian spends her time tinkering with the robots she’s sure will inherit the Earth. Jesse, the son of geneticists, is convinced the future lies with cloning, but society is reeling from the grotesque failures of previous attempts. When the friends stumble upon the 60-year-old mystery of a missing girl, it leads them to the world’s only successful clone—and the key to saving our species. Artist Fiona Smyth’s gripping graphic novel depicts a future as visually detailed as it is emotionally rich. The Never Weres will keep readers breathless to the final page.

Catalog of an exhibition held at La Virreina, Centre de la Image, Barcelona, Spain, July 9-Nov. 1, 2015.

Canadian Michael Snow is considered one of the most influential experimental filmmakers. His areas of expertise include painting, sculpture, video, films, photography, books and music.

"Besides being one of Canada's most celebrated visual artists, Michael Snow is one of the premier experimental filmmakers of his time. Working within the realm of the "avant-garde", his cinematic work has influenced filmmakers as diverse as Wim Wenders, Derek Jarman, Peter Greenaway, Atom Egoyan and Martin Scorcese. Snow's "Wavelength" is one of the seminal works of cinema's avant-garde. Presence and Absence is certain to become the standard work on the films of Michael Snow. With contributions by film scholars, artists and curators, this generously illustrated volume is the most comprehensive study of Snow's films to date, and includes enlightening essays, anecdotal pieces, an annotated bibliography and filmography." -- From the publisher

"The extensive retrospective of Michael Snow's work, on exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario from March to June 1994 and touring Ontario galleries through 1995, will be a major Canadian cultural event. Published in conjunction with the exhibition, The Michael Snow Project celebrates the work of Snow's astonishing career as a painter, filmmaker, and sculptor. With contributions by Canada's leading art critics, this lavishly illustrated book covers all aspects of Snow's extraordinary diverse artistic expression and is the first comprehensive and accessible look at one of Canada's most important and internationally recognized artists. The second volume, Music/Sound, explores the many-faceted use of sound by Michael Snow--as a musician, on film soundtracks and in sound installations. The book includes a complete discography and is generously illustrated." -- From the publisher

Catalogue of an exhibition held concurrently at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Power Plant, Mar. 11-June 5, 1994. (Includes 3 distinct parts, each by a different author.)
Cover title: Visual art, 1951-1993.

The works included here, ranging from essays and interviews and record album cover notes to filmscripts and speeches (which, in Snow’s hands, often fall into the category of performance art), are not only “built for browsing,” they offer insights into both the professional and the private Snow. Together, they expand the context of Snow’s work and show the evolution of a great Canadian artist, beginning with his early attempts at defining art, to his emergence and recognition on the international art scene. This book is one of four books that are part of the Michael Snow Project. Initiated by the Art Gallery of Ontario and The Power Plant Gallery, the project also includes four exhibitions of his visual art and music." -- From the publisher

"Dompierre situates Snow's Walking Women series within the context of Structuralism and Pop Art. Morris looks at the artist's early films. Snow's text (1962-63) discusses repetition, mass production and woman as "the other". Includes a chronology of the Walking Women series and biographical notes." -eARTEXTE

"This book explores how the visual art practice of Michael Snow asks the question Who? of the viewers as they interpret what lies before them. Much criticism of Snow objectively analyzes the material interrelationships in his work, ignoring viewer participation, and implicitly giving the artist control of the view. However, what if the “who” is addressed from the perspective of the viewer, who is looking across a gap created by concrete representation, time, place, experience and, perhaps, gender? How then can it remain objective?" -- From the publisher

"In this first major study of Snow as filmmaker and photographer, the author places his work within the formalist tradition articulated by such theorists as Malevich, Shklovsky, Leger and Robbe-Grillet, shedding new and fascinating light on the artist's recent work." -- From the publisher

"A facsimile of a high school notebook containing drawings and short texts mimicing, in a short cartoonish doodling, examination formats, multi-choice questions, and the like--conceptual infantilism." -Art Metropole

Exhibition catalogue to accompany 1978 show of Michael Snow's work at the Centre Georges Pompidou, 1978-79.

Documentation of a lecture by internationally-acclaimed filmmaker and multi-disciplinary artist Michael Snow, given at the Ontario College of Art & Design on January 25, 2007, as part of the "Art Creates Change: Performing Time" speaker series presented by the Faculty of Art.

Fade to black / Paul Wong -- "If I should die..." : necrological meditations in ...before I wake / Jennifer Fisher and Jim Drobnick -- On becoming... / Michael Turner -- ...bump in the night (Vancouver) -- The Miniatures -- An interview with Steel + Tomczak / Paul Wong -- Entranced: a transcript

"This exhibition catalogue THE BLOOD RECORDS gives us the opportunity to closely examine and celebrate the collaboative work of Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak. Steele and Tomczak are two of Canada's most distinguished artists and their artistic accomplishments have been recognized by numerous awards and acknowledged in many exhibitions and publications. While this work develops from a central narrative about Marie, a young woman receiving treatment for tuberculosis in a sanitarium in rural Saskatchewan in 1944, the larger social landscape of the time is deftly woven in a dreamlike tale that escavates the historical position and cultural impact of the disease." -- From the publisher

Set in a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1944, one of the patients, a young girl, reminisces about her family.

Documentation of a lecture presented by internationally-known video artist and educator Lisa Steele at the Ontario College of Art in 1995. In addition to exhibiting throughout Europe and North America, as well as in Tokyo, Lisa Steele was the founding director of V-Tape, a distribution center for independent video; was a founding publisher of FUSE magazine and also chaired the New Media Program at the Ontario College of Art for a period of time.

"Discussing collaborative video works by Steele and Tomczak, Tuer looks at the concept of utopia in relation to the artists' narrative and deconstructive strategies. Monk examines the artists' critique of dominant media representation. Descriptions of 23 videotapes (1974-1988) by the artists." - e-ARTEXTE

This video was produced at the height of the Free Trade debate. It addresses cultural imperialism and its effect on individuals: what happens to that most personal aspect of personality - the dream - when you lose your sense of yourself, when you are not reflected in the culture that surrounds you? In an unusual twist, Steele and Tomczak have constructed an American who dreams his culture has been taken over by Canada.

"This tape presents a visual depiction of the fact that the mass media do not reflect most people's lives. We produced imagery within our own home that directly conflicts with mass-media "home-life" imagery. We also took images that originated within the mass media and totally changed their value system."

"On the occasion of my 27th birthday I decided to do a tape that chronicled my passage through time. I have always been clumsy, tripping, dropping, falling with alarming regularity. This tape accepts the extent of the consequences."

"When I was 15, I came home from school to find my mother dead. This tape describes the day of her death. Until I did this tape, I had never completely recounted this experience. The tape is an attempt to remember as accurately as possible one day in my life - to let memory become the present tense."

Co-produced in partnership with Museum London.
Curators, Mary Reid and Melanie Townsend.

"Catalogue to accompany Streicher’s “Sleeping Giants” exhibition at the Cambridge Galleries. Hatt provides detailed descriptions of Streicher’s works that explore “the inflatable as kinetic and interactive artwork.” The author suggests that these installations/interventions from 1988 through 1998 – incorporating inflated human figures based on images from literature, mythology and Biblical sources – underline the need for spiritual values in an instrumental/materialistic world. Relations between abstraction and the figurative are also discussed." -eARTEXTE

Exhibition catalogue. Lethbridge, Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Jan. 26-Mar. 2, 2008.

Based on the exhibition, Passengers & Tour Guides, held at Artspeak, Oct. 20-Nov. 24, 2001. Illustrations in postcard style on folder. Director/curator: Lorna Brown.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Garnet Press Gallery, Toronto.

Indoor Voice collects pen, brush, ink, watercolor, and collage experiments that show how Tamaki arrives at her illustration work, as well as more polished and personal comics work.

The cartoonist of This One Summer and SuperMutant Magic Academy explores the virtual and IRL world of contemporary women via a lens both surreal and wry Jenny becomes obsessed with a strange "mirror Facebook," which presents an alternate, possibly better, version of herself. Helen finds her clothes growing baggy, her shoes looser, and as she shrinks away to nothingness, the world around her recedes as well.

Rose and Windy are summer friends whose families have visited Awago Beach for as long as they can remember. But this year is different, and they soon find themselves tangled in teen love and family crisis. From the creators of Skim comes an investigation into the mysterious world of adults.

"SuperMutant Magic Academy is a prep-school for mutants and witches but their paranormal abilities take a back seat to everyday teen concerns. Science experiments go awry, bake sales are upstaged, and the new kid at school is a cat who will determine the course of human destiny. In one strip, lizard-headed Trixie frets about her nonexistent modeling career; in another, the immortal Everlasting Boy tries to escape this mortal coil to no avail. Throughout it all, closeted Marsha obsesses about her unrequited crush, the cat-eared Wendy" -- provided by publisher.

Gilded Lilies is artist Jillian Tamaki's first book of illustrations, drawings, and comic stories. It reprints her first mini-comic City of Champions, a stream-of-consciousness ode to the city of post-Gretzky Edmonton. Tamaki paints a portrait of a city populated by cautious optimists' and 'resigned cynics' and filled with accidental street theatre.

The time is the early 1990s, the setting a girls' academy in Toronto. Enter "Skim," aka Kimberly Keiko Cameron, a not-slim, would-be Wiccan goth. When her classmate Katie Matthews is dumped by her boyfriend, who then kills himself, the entire school goes into mourning overdrive. It's a weird time to fall in love, but Skim does just that after secret meetings with her neo-hippie English teacher, Ms. Archer. When Ms. Archer abruptly leaves the school, Skim has to cope with her confusion and isolation, as her best friend, Lisa, tries to pull her into "real" life by setting up a hilarious double date for the school's semi-formal. Skim finds an unexpected ally in Katie. Suicide, depression, love, being gay or not, crushes, cliques of popular, manipulative peers -- the whole gamut of tortured teen life is explored in this masterful graphic novel by cousins Mariko and Jillian Tamaki.

Comprised of Nicholas Aoki, Stephen Appleby-Barr, Christopher Buchan, Lauchie Reid and Jacob Whibley, the Canadian collective Team Macho spans the worlds of both fine art and illustration, producing work for both audiences. Team Macho's surreal, colorful and cartoonish drawings, paintings and installations playfully juxtapose styles and motifs with a strongly DIY flavor. The group's idiosyncratic approach to collaboration cultivates both competitiveness and cooperation, as they celebrate, thwart and subvert each other's contributions. Needless to say, this approach results in often humorous, jarring conjunctions: two aliens dancing over an otherwise Hopperesque scene of houses in twilight; nuns mutilating monsters; a painting of some unspecified, hairy psychedelic lump with the caption "and thus life became awesome." The Art of Team Macho: The Merlin Years compiles the group's output of the past five years, and includes texts and interviews.

"With a penchant for humble, unconventional materials like dollar-store watercolours and thrift-shop frames, Team Macho’s work conveys a decidedly unorthodox and individual approach. Comprised of members Nicholas Aoki, Stephen Appleby Barr, Christopher Buchan, Lauchie Reid, and Jacob Whibley, Team Macho occupy a large studio in Toronto, where their collective efforts are focused on developing an artmaking practice that spans the worlds of both fine art and illustration." -- From the publisher

Catalogue of an exhibition held April 11-June 15, 2003 at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, and to be held June 24-Aug. 22, 2004 at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Nov. 12, 2004-Jan. 9, 2005 at the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery and at the Art Gallery of Hamilton.

"Appropriating forms and images from the decorative arts, Jeannie Thib reshapes the past in light of the present. Focusing on the history of ornamental design, she reworks floral motifs from period textiles to create large patterned installations. These visual imprints persist as memories of a past splendour held by popular culture. Yet, the artist’s use of industrial materials — rubber, felt, landscaping cloth — undermines the notions of taste, comfort, wealth and privilege linked with the pattern source." - From the publisher

"Dault’s interpretation of Thib’s work focuses on notions of fragmentation and the souvenir. Fleming’s previously published text provides detailed descriptions of the artist’s pieces incorporating gloves and handkerchiefs. Both authors suggest Thib’s work places emphasis on the body as site of social inscription." -eARTEXTE

"Baert discussses Thib's linocuts as fragments pregnant with signification and the power of metaphor, while Reid describes and interprets each print." - From the publisher

"[The artist] interprets the museum's diverse collections by hand painting on ceramic blanks made of vitreous china ... Presented alongside ... are the original sources from the collection of the Gardiner Museum." -- P. 17.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Greater Gallery of Victoria from March 13 - April 27, 1986.

Material originally published in v. I-IX of Scott Treleaven's 'zine, This is the Salivation Army, 1996-1999.

The story of how a small gang operating a counter-culture magazine transforms into a dangerous cult network.