Derek Liddington: the body will always bend before it breaks, the tower will always break before it bends; the tower will always break before it bends, the body will always bend before it breaks

Book Launch and Reception
Saturday, June 15, 3 to 5 pm
@ Daniel Faria Gallery (188 St Helens Ave, Toronto)

We’d love you to come join us to celebrate the occasion of the launch of the book with perhaps the longest title in our history.

It documents two 2017 exhibitions of the work of Derek Liddington staged back-to-back across two sites: the Art Gallery of York University and the Southern Alberta Art Gallery. These exhibitions were, in turn, a performance of two photographic stills taken from two 1928 Ballet Russes productions—Ode and Apollon Musagete. Pivoting across time and space, Liddington animates the space in-between performance and image as a point of departure for his ongoing investigation into the relations between narrative and abstraction. Like the revolutionary practice of the Ballet Russes itself, these exhibitions operate at the intersection of dance, theatre, and the visual arts.

Essays by Emelie Chhangur and Fabien Maltais-Bayda are accompanied by an interview with Liddington by Ryan Doherty as well as full documentation of the two exhibitions. Designed by Zab Design & Typography. Co-published with the Southern Alberta Art Gallery.

http://agyu.art/project/liddingtonbook/

The MORE!:

Migrating the Margins publication is out!
This Glissantian tour of the future of Toronto art is also back from the printer. Coming out of our fall 2017 exhibition of the same name, Emelie Chhangur and Philip Monk sketch out some of the developing characteristics of an aesthetics of amalgamation. Artists discussed include Erika DeFreitas, Anique Jordan, Tau Lewis, Rajni Perera, and Nep Sidhu, as well as Farrah-Marie Miranda, Otherness (Pamila Matharu and Marilyn Fernandes), and Sister Co-Resister. Generous support for this publication came from the RBC Foundation as well as a Project Support Award from the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts.

We’re planning a big splash for this book in the fall, but it’s already available for purchase on our website: http://agyu.art/project/migrating-the-margins/

Curating For The Future
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
7 pm: Public Presentation and Conversation
Small World Music Centre (180 Shaw Street, Suite 101)

AGYU and Critical Distance Centre For Curators are pleased to co-present a curatorial talk by AGYU Visiting Curator Tian Zhang. A presentation of Tian’s work in conversation with Shani K Parsons (Critical Distance Founding Director), Emelie Chhangur (AGYU Interim Director/Curator) and Myung-Sun Kim (Associate Curator, Public Programming and Learning, Toronto Biennial of Art). Tian Zhang is a curator and cultural producer interested in socially-engaged, alternative and activist curatorial methodologies. Tian Zhang would like to acknowledge the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body for support for this project. For more information, please visit http://agyu.art/project/tianzhang/

Art on my Mind 2019 Performance Showcase and Open Mic
Friday, July 12, 6 – 8:30 pm
Edgeley Park, 4401 Jane Street
(rain date Saturday, July 20, 6:00 – 8:30 pm)

Art on My Mind 2019 is an Art Gallery of York University event in the Jane-Finch community that showcases and celebrates emerging and established Toronto rappers, singers and spoken word poets. This event is free and features not-to-be-missed performances by: Zakisha Brown, Denise De’ion, Jameel3dn, Kibra, NamedTobias., Abdulkadir “Moose” Nur, Terence Penny, UTG Ruby, and Veshone. The showcase is organized in conjunction with an arts education program that takes place throughout the month of July, in Edgelely Park, engaging Jane-Finch youth in writing, recording and producing rap songs and music videos.

The Art Gallery of York University would like to thank the Toronto Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Foundation for generously supporting Art on my Mind.

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For more information or to request images or interviews, please contact Emelie Chhangur, Interim Director/Curator at Emelie@yorku.ca or 416.736.5169.

The Art Gallery of York University is a university-affiliated public non-profit contemporary art gallery supported by York University, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, an Ontario government agency, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, and through our membership.

Art on my Mind image credit: Gustavo Gonzalez