{"id":24862,"date":"2014-08-05T15:49:53","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T19:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=24862"},"modified":"2014-09-17T09:08:24","modified_gmt":"2014-09-17T13:08:24","slug":"3rd-anniversary-of-robert-kananaj-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=24862","title":{"rendered":"3rd Anniversary of Robert Kananaj Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Installation view. Courtesy of Robert Kananaj Gallery<\/p>\n

\n

Located in a strip of land between an abandoned factory property and the Bloor-Lansdowne residential neighbourhood with tidily maintained front yards, Robert Kananaj\u2019s new gallery venue boasts high ceilings, ramps and bright lights. When confronted with the question, why move, he responded with a smile that the choice was easy. Indeed it must be since the the new gallery is simply perfect and beautiful. However it needed a lot of imagination to design it in details and hard work to physically do it. It used to be a textile factory where workers needed strong light, that’s why the place is blessed with huge windows at the front. The light coming in gives the place a temple-like feeling. The high ceiling is painted in a silver-metal color and that again, gives the\u00a0gallery a somewhat elevated athmosphere. Kananaj moved walls, built in some others, devided the right wall into two levels, videos could be projected from a hidden place on the left – creating a modern Kunsthalle both in size and perfection.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Gallery owner, artist Robert Kananaj in front of his installation<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Susan Valyi’s sculpted blue bull watching over umbilical cord<\/em> installation by Robert Kananaj<\/p>\n

Robert is in the process of transforming that pristine space with his monumental installation, to which he enthusiastically refers as \u201cthe umbilical cord,\u201d assembled from hundreds of empty medication boxes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Work\u00a0by Italian artist Andrea Fiorino<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Paintings by Italian artist Silvia Mei<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photographs by Albanian artist \u00cbndri Dani<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Artist, Istvan Kantor is enjoying the show<\/p>\n

The shoes with concrete have a story: once, a person in orange prison dress came to the gallery. He was just released, but had nowhere to go, no money, and so he came to the gallery. Robert helped him, bought him new clothes and gave some money, in exchange for the uniform.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mirror installation by Robert Kananaj<\/p>\n

Robert Kananaj Gallery is one of a kind, where\u00a0shows merge into one another, artworks have no cards beside them so you have to talk to Robert to learn more about the pieces on display. The gallery celebrates its three year’s anniversary featuring five Albanian and five Italian artists, among overall thirty artists.<\/p>\n

The area in St. Helens Avenue is becoming a new art centre with Daniel Faria Gallery and\u00a0Clint Roenish Gallery, TPW moving into the\u00a0place beside Kananaj and the galleries on Morrow Avenue\u00a0 just over the bridge.<\/p>\n

Text and photo: Elena Iourtaeva<\/p>\n

*Exhibition information: July 17 – September 6,\u00a02014, Robert Kananaj Gallery,172 St Helens Avenue, Toronto. Gallery hours: Tue – Sat, 11 – 6 p.m.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Elena Iourtaeva<\/strong><\/p>\n

Located in a strip of land between an abandoned factory property and the Bloor-Lansdowne residential neighbourhood with tidily maintained front yards, Robert Kananaj\u2019s new gallery venue boasts high ceilings, ramps and bright lights.<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[144,41,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elena-iourtaeva","category-events","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24862"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24873,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24862\/revisions\/24873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}