Summer 2023 Exhibitions at the Art Museum

Featuring new exhibitions and works by the MVS Curatorial Studies and MVS Studio program graduating students from the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto

Charlie Engman, Halo, 2023. AI generated image. Image courtesy of the artist.

MVS Curatorial Studies Program Graduating Exhibitions

Opening May 3, 2023

acts of preservation / acts of decay
Curated by Erin Storus
May 3–31, 2023
Clark Quadrangle, University College

Artists Marli Davis, Shannon Garden-Smith, and Sara Maston invoke the tension between the human desire to preserve and archive and the natural process of decay by creating three site-specific sculptural installations that will be transformed by exposure to the elements over the course of the exhibition.

my final prayer
Curated by atif mikhail khan
May 3–July 22, 2023
University of Toronto Art Centre

Through mediums of paper, clay, and moving image, my final prayer weaves a collective story across shifting borders, geographies, and histories illuminating the presences of embodied spirits. Such presences are activated in response to Martinique-born political philosopher Frantz Fanon’s closing lines in Black Skins, White Masks (1952) of the urgency of embodied transformations. Against the wheel of catastrophic political violence, this exhibition stages prayer through different kinds of materials, bodies, and spirit, from the granular and non-human to the wider living landscapes in which the artwork is placed.

Where have I arrived?
Curated by Sherry Chunqing Liu
May 3–July 22, 2023
University of Toronto Art Centre

Where have I arrived? explores the themes of food/kitchen, translation, and body through the conceptual lens of “diaspora space,” defined by sociologist Avtar Brah as a conceptual category that “includes the entanglement, the intertwining of the genealogies of dispersion with those of ‘staying put.’” Artists Lotus Laurie Kang, Brubey Hu, and Patrick Cruz echo one another as they render palpable the personal and untranslatable feelings in moments of longing and disorientation that emerge from their inhabitation of conceptual diaspora spaces and their literal lived environments.

Tumbling in Harness
Curated by Erin Reznick
May 3–July 22, 2023
Justina M. Barnicke Gallery

As death is increasingly ritualized through social media platforms, where the posthumous online self persists, the promise of digital afterlife becomes a sought-after commodity. Tumbling in Harness inquires into the sociopolitical, practical, and emotional implications of online death in the age of platform capitalism—a phenomenon that has only recently emerged and, for the moment, the consequences of which are yet to be fully understood.

This exhibition is presented in partnership with Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

The MVS Curatorial Studies Program Graduating Exhibitions are produced as part of the requirements for the MVS degree in Curatorial Studies at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto. The Art Museum gratefully acknowledges project support from the Reesa Greenberg Curatorial Studies Award and International Fund and The Graduate Architecture, Landscape, and Design Student Union (GALDSU).

Sarah Zanchetta, I drew us a lukewarm bath, 2023. Chiffon, organza, and embroidery thread, dimensions vary per piece. Photo: Vibeke Silverthorne.

MVS Studio Program Graduating Exhibition

May 3–July 22, 2023
University of Toronto Art Centre

The Art Museum, in partnership with the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto, is pleased to exhibit the graduating projects of the 2023 Master of Visual Studies students Durga Rajah, Nimisha Bhanot, Omolola Ajao, and Sarah Zanchetta.

This exhibition is produced as part of the requirements for the MVS Studio degree in Visual Studies at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto. The Art Museum gratefully acknowledges project support from The Valerie Jean Griffiths Student Exhibitions Fund in Memory of William, Elva, and Elizabeth.

Public Programs

Opening Reception: MVS Curatorial Studies Program and MVS Studio Program Graduating Exhibitions
Wednesday, May 3, 6pm–8pm
University of Toronto Art Centre

Curatorial Tour: Where have I arrived? with Sherry Chunqing Liu
Friday, June 23, 2pm–3pm
University of Toronto Art Centre

All programs are free and open to the public.
For more information, visit artmuseum.utoronto.ca/programs/

About the Art Museum at the University of Toronto

The Art Museum is an internationally renowned centre for contemporary art and interdisciplinary inquiry located on the University of Toronto’s downtown campus, in Canada’s largest and most diverse city. With its two distinct gallery spaces (the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at Hart House and the University of Toronto Art Centre at University College), the Art Museum offers intensive cycles of programming dedicated to artistic and curatorial experimentation. Featuring works in a wide array of traditional and contemporary media, the Art Museum’s exhibitions are complemented by energetic offsite projects, widely accessible digital programs, and research engaging with the University of Toronto’s extensive contemporary and historical collections.

Justina M. Barnicke Gallery
Hart House
7 Hart House Circle
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H3

University of Toronto Art Centre
University College
15 King’s College Circle
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H7

Museum Hours
Tuesday to Saturday, 12 noon–5pm
Wednesday, 12 noon–8pm
Sunday and Monday, closed

Admission is free. All are welcome.

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The Art Museum at the University of Toronto gratefully acknowledges operating support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council.

Media Contact: Marianne Rellin, marianne.rellin@utoronto.ca