{"id":30158,"date":"2015-09-29T19:17:06","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T23:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=30158"},"modified":"2015-10-09T19:09:59","modified_gmt":"2015-10-09T23:09:59","slug":"surface-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=30158","title":{"rendered":"Surface"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Guests\u00a0at the Opening Night Party. Photo: Andrew Williamson<\/p>\n

September 19 & 20, 2015<\/strong>
\nOpening Night Party<\/strong>: September 19, 2015 \/ 7 p.m.
\n99 Sudbury, Toronto<\/p>\n

Five independent art galleries came together this past weekend for the launch of the new art fair SURFACE. As I moved through the participating galleries during my visit it was obvious each gallery was very clear and passionate about the point of the fair: to work together and see how powerful that outcome of teamwork could be. It was a great vibe for the emerging art fair. As Johnny Hollick from #Hashtag Gallery said to me about one of his expectations, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be fun to throw a little party, put up our cool stuff, listen to music, and invite all our friends. That\u2019s how it should be.\u201d And that\u2019s how it was.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Johnny Hollick, Co-director of #Hashtag Gallery. Photo: Carter Brown<\/p>\n

It was lovely to talk to each gallery owner and hear the stories of all their different relationships with one another for their coming together in collaboration. Such journeys as one owner who knew this person from another gallery at SURFACE numerous years ago, lost touch, then later reconnected and came together for this project. I learned another connection between galleries is completely new as a result of SURFACE but the combination of each separate gallery resulted in the provision of new knowledge as well as a whole new network of connections.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Guests at the Opening Night Party. Photo: Carter Brown<\/p>\n

The harmonious fellowship seems to have been favorable for all galleries and their artists that ought to inspire others to do the same. Creative Blueprint\u2019s Ashley Proctor stresses that the determination of SURFACE is collaboration rather than competition. She says, \u201cWe all have different networks and when you put people together in a room really magical stuff happens.\u201d I found this shared positivity, that was the soul of the fair, infectious. Ashley also discussed her idea that SURFACE is meant to be an experiment, which she hopes will turn into example of what can be achieved when you reach out to other galleries in your community to see what happens.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0Ashley Proctor,\u00a0Director of\u00a0Creative Blueprint, in front of their space. Photo: Carter Brown<\/p>\n

From my experience, SURFACE\u2019s d\u00e9but weekend was a great success. The opening party was energetic with good company, music, and a fun surprise dance act. The notion of focusing on converging gallery and artist interests was strongly communicated by this tightknit community. Devan Patel, from Project Gallery, expressed to attendees in a small thank you speech, \u201cAll of these galleries, we are trying to do the same thing, which is usher in the new era of contemporary art and emerging art so thank you for being here and supporting that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Devan Patel,\u00a0Co-director of Project Gallery. Photo: Carter Brown<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0Johnny Hollick (left) and Andrew Williamson, Director of \u00a0The Black Cat Artspace\u00a0(right) speaking to crowd. Photo: Carter Brown<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Guests at the Opening Night Party. Photo: Andrew Williamson<\/p>\n

Carter Brown<\/p>\n

September 19 & 20, 2015<\/strong>
\nOpening Night Party<\/strong>: September 19, 2015 \/ 7 p.m.
\nExhibition<\/strong>: Sunday September 20, 2015 \/ 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
\n99 Sudbury, Toronto<\/p>\n

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

On the weekend of September 19th, 99 Sudbury, a renovated warehouse and event space in the West Queen West neighbourhood, served as the venue for SURFACE: a self-proclaimed \u201calternative art fair and party\u201d intended to showcase five emerging local galleries. This two-day event ran only until the 2oth, and included an opening party and reception that allowed visitors to acquaint themselves with Toronto based independent galleries, artists, and their supporters. Presented by The Black Cat Artspace, featured galleries included: Graven Feather, Project Gallery, Creative Blueprint, and #Hashtag Gallery. Curatorial decisions were left up to the exhibitors, and works on display ran the gamut from sculpture, to installation, to photography, mixed media, and paintings.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>The Black Cat Artspace<\/p>\n

The atmosphere at the opening reception was relatively relaxed, and as the night wore on visitors continued to stream steadily in to the venue. Participating galleries were allocated individual installation spaces and were spread out along the walls of the venue, utilizing temporary partitions to hang work and to divide the room evenly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>#Hashtag Gallery<\/p>\n

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

Although the focus of the fair was largely on getting to know the faces behind some of Toronto\u2019s most promising emerging contemporary art galleries, much of the work on display came also from emerging local artists, including pieces by: Stella Cade, Erin Loree, Sang-Jin Lee, Callen Schuab, Eugene Paunil, and Andrew Patterson, among many others.<\/p>\n

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

Erin Candela, co-owner and director of Graven Feather (a gallery and exhibition venue with an in-house print shop located on Queen St. West) was understandably excited about the evening\u2019s events and suggested that the fair itself was a great way to showcase local artistic talent as well as an opportunity to reach out to the general public. Co-director of Project Gallery Devan Patel had similar sentiments, and stated that SURFACE was not only a chance to reach out to the public, but also for the featured gallerists to get to know each other and to build community in a positive and friendly atmosphere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Text: Madeleine Till. Photo: Andrew Williamson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 19 & 20, 2015<\/p>\n

by Carter Brown and Madeleine Till<\/strong><\/p>\n

SURFACE was not only a chance to reach out to the public, but also for the featured gallerists to get to know each other and to build community in a positive and friendly atmosphere. <\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,41,156,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carter-brown","category-events","category-madeleine-till","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30158","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=30158"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30513,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30158\/revisions\/30513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}