{"id":39012,"date":"2017-09-20T14:14:51","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T18:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=39012"},"modified":"2017-09-28T09:57:30","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28T13:57:30","slug":"larry-towell-at-the-new-stephen-bulger-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=39012","title":{"rendered":"Larry Towell at the new Stephen Bulger Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

More is More at the new Stephen Bulger Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n

A crowd of friends, family, artists, curators, and photography enthusiasts filed into the opening of Stephen Bulger\u2019s new gallery at 1356 Dundas West on September 9th. Bulger, himself, has been a torch bearer for photography in Toronto and abroad for the past 25 years, co-founding CONTACT, which recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2016, and and opening the first version of his gallery some 23 years earlier in a\u00a0Toronto that would have been unrecognizable\u00a0from today’s condo-filled, cosmopol<\/wbr>itan counterpart.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Installation view of Larry Towell, Union Station, Stephen Bulger Gallery, September 2017. Photo: Robyn Zolnai and Sarah Burtscher. Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery<\/p>\n

So as I made my way past the raucous mingling in the gallery\u2019s foyer cum library, I descended upon Larry Towell\u2019s exhibition Union Station<\/em>, a project that began for the artist in 2013. He relays his fortuitous meeting with an investor in the goliath construction project, asking quite indifferently \u201cwho’s documenting this incredible thing?\u201d. Towell recounts that the reply \u201cwell nobody is, do you wanna do it?\u201d lead to him taking on the project, very much on his own terms, specifying that \u201cI can go on a whim when I want to and shoot it editorially\u201d, emphasizing that this was \u201cnot a corporate job.\u201d And so began Towell\u2019s documentation of Canada\u2019s busiest transportation hub, returning every two or three months to record the phases of construction and reconstruction of, as the photographer asserts, an \u201cincredibly important historical building for the city of Toronto and country of Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Larry Towell,\u00a0Union Station, Toronto, Canada, [Commuters and construction workers],<\/i>\u00a02013\u00a0<\/i>\u00a9 Larry Towell Magnum Photos<\/p>\n

Entering into the exhibition space, which has been clearly divided from the more practical areas of the gallery with a partitioned wall, provides a liminal reverie to the exhibition more in line with a public museum than commercial gallery, the phone and assistant are not to be heard or seen. Littering the walls of the first room, Towell\u2019s photographs, both black-and- white and colour, demonstrate his ability to seamlessly meld photojournalism with art. The most striking example, is his coloured photograph of two construction workers standing in the wreckage of an underground site somewhere within the labyrinthine expanse of Union station. The layered depths of machinery, refuse, cement columns and fluorescent lights in the image draw both eye and imagination into the reality and complexity of Towell\u2019s practice and the physical construction process itself.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Larry Towell,\u00a0Union Station, Toronto, Canada, [Underground construction site (Dig Down) bracing earth],\u00a0<\/i>2013 \u00a9 Larry Towell Magnum Photos<\/p>\n

Meandering further, the second, much more intimate room, opens with a decidedly different perspective; Towell\u2019s years of experience as a photojournalist are palpable in his images of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. According to Towell, he arrived in Kiev \u201cjust days before President Yanukovych fled, the photos were taken at a very tense period, the next day 30 protesters were shot.\u201d Among his images, a young girl holds her hand against the impenetrable metal shields of the armed forces, she along with the invisible lens of the photographer have personified courage. When asked why these two projects were put together for this exhibition, Towell responded, \u201cin terms of the Ukraine, it is just a few images to remind people that this is also what I do, a working photojournalist at home and internationally.\u201d The choice of Union station was also deliberate, honouring the rebuilding and opening of Stephen Bulger\u2019s new gallery and the owner himself, whom Towell referred to as his \u201cdealer and a very dear friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Larry Towell, Kiev, Ukraine, February 2014 \u00a9 Larry Towell Magnum Photos<\/p>\n

The previous Queen street location of the Stephen Bulger Gallery, was a beacon for photographers, aficionados and everything in between for over two decades. So when pressed on the reason for the move, Bulger fittingly responded: \u201cin most instances I live by the Miesian axiom ‘Less is More’; for my new gallery I thought \u201cMore is More\u201d. For the past few years, I have been looking to replicate my gallery to a larger location in order to better serve our clients. We work with a large number of talented artists, and a diverse group of clients, so as our program expanded, we needed to expand the gallery accordingly. This location gives us the flexibility to show large and intimate exhibitions, as well as better integrate moving image works. We will also be able to better house our growing inventory of photographs and books. Currently, people seem to have less time for visiting commercial art galleries, so our design of this space is intended to offer a more fulsome experience for people who have been able to devote some time for a gallery visit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Installation view of Larry Towell, Union Station<\/em>, Stephen Bulger Gallery, September 2017. Photo: Robyn Zolnai and Sarah Burtscher. Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery<\/p>\n

It would seem that Miesian axiom has proved wrong, as the opening proved more is most certainly more at the Stephen Bulger Gallery.<\/p>\n

Meghan O’Callaghan<\/p>\n

*Exhibition information: September 9 –\u00a0October 14, 2017<\/span><\/span>, Stephen Bulger Gallery, 1356 Dundas Street West, Toronto. Gallery hours: Tues\u2013Sat\u00a011 am \u2013 6 pm.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Meghan O’Callaghan<\/strong><\/p>\n

This location gives the flexibility to show large and intimate exhibitions, as well as better integrate moving image works. More is most certainly more at the new Stephen Bulger Gallery.<\/p>\n

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