Steven Beckly: Love S.O.S.

Centre[3] for Artistic + Social Practice presents:

Love S.O.S.
Steven Beckly

Curated by Sally Frater

February 23 – April 6, 2019
Opening reception: Friday, March 8 (7:00 pm to 10:00 pm) during Hamilton Artcrawl

Steven Beckly. Courtesy of Daniel Faria Gallery

Centre3 is pleased to present Love S.O.S., a new installation by Toronto-based artist and photographer Steven Beckly. Over the past 8 years, Beckly has produced hundreds of images. Cultivating moments of closeness and intimacy, he approaches photography as both a personal and a social practice, an act that connects rather than distances, feels rather than explains.

In Love S.O.S., Beckly’s images are assembled in a slideshow of almost 400 photographs. A multiplicity of encounters, they form a spectrum of interactions shaped by the artist’s desire for connection with his surrounding world. Accompanying Beckly’s slideshow is an evocative soundtrack of love songs, featuring tracks by Leonard Cohen, Daft Punk and Tina Turner. Selected for their varied perspectives on love, these voices reflect on matters of the heart against Beckly’s shifting imagery. In one corner of the gallery, visitors are invited to leave their suggestions for love songs, adding to the project’s growing playlist. Continuous and mutable, Beckly’s project frames intimacy as an endless and interrelated process of transformation. Set against a contemporary world undergoing dramatic change, Love S.O.S. operates as an emergency call to reconsider the poetic and political dimensions of intimacy.

Presented with generous support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Steven Beckly received his MFA from the University of Guelph. Recent solo exhibitions include Meirenyu at Daniel Faria Gallery (Toronto) and A tender touch can bend the straightest of things at Eastern Edge Gallery (St. John’s). Beckly has also produced public art installations for CONTACT Photography Festival and the City of Toronto’s Jack Layton Ferry Terminal. He is represented by Daniel Faria Gallery in Toronto.

Sally Frater is an independent curator who holds a BA in Studio Art from the University of Guelph and an MA in Contemporary Art from The University of Manchester/Sotheby’s Institute of Art. In her practice she is interested in exploring issues of spatial theory, memory, the archive, and photography.

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Centre[3] for Artistic + Social Practice
www.centre3.com
173 James St. N,
Hamilton, ON
L8R 2K0
905.524.5084

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Saturday: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.