These are people who aren’t satisfied with how things are. They want change and they’ll risk criticism for it. Their reward? Injecting Toronto’s art scene with a sense of much needed vitality. We should all thank our lucky stars for these people, without whom Toronto would be a much more boring place.
A work by Gilberto Zorio. Image: iiclosangeles.esteri.it
1. Fabrice Marcolini – Director, Artcore Gallery. While working for Artcore in 2000, I had the rare opportunity of showing work by Francesco Clemente, Gilberto Zorio and Enzo Cucchi, among others. How many other Toronto gallerists can say that?
2. David Liss – Director, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art. His affinity for expressionistic work at a time when everything seems overly conceptual makes him a true pioneer. MOCCA is the dark to the Power Plant’s light. It’s great to have such a hip, Idiosyncratic downtown gallery here. Not many cities do.
Jonathan Meese, Generalissimoz-Monte-Cristo, 2007. Image: greenerpasturesgallery.com
3. Kineko Ivic – Owner, Greener Pastures Contemporary Art. Apparently, Kineko got started by taking the bus down to New York on a regular basis, getting to know people there. A ten hour bus ride in the name of art! That’s commitment. And he brought in Berlin hot-shot Jonathan Meese. Incredible.
4. Ann Webb – Executive Director, Canadian Art Foundation. Working part-time at the Canadian Art Foundation, I see firsthand how hard Ann works in the name of Canadian art. She almost single-handedly made the annual Reel Artists Film Festival the much anticipated event that it is, showing and premiering films on art and bringing in speakers from all over the world. How does she do it?
AGYU curator Emelie Chhangur. Image: oaag.org
5. Emelie Chhangur and Philip Monk – Curators, Art Gallery of York University. For redefining the suburbs as a place for cutting edge art.
6. Ydessa Hendeles – Director, Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation. What can we say? Every city should be so lucky. The way Ms. Hendeles mixes antiquities with cutting edge contemporary is art in itself. When she puts Nazi-era porcelain in a vitrine you’d swear it was a piece by Elmgreen and Dragset.
Istvan Kantor, Bleeding to Death, performance and installation. Image: offthemapgallery.com
7. Istvan Kantor – Artist. For being a ‘Revolutionary’, when we could all use one.
8. Sara Diamond – President, Ontario College of Art and Design. For questioning, exploring and then acting upon what an art school can be. Her speaker series alone is amazing – she brought in Chinese artist Lu Jie, whose Long March project made this year’s Art Review Power 100 list.
9. David Miller – Mayor of Toronto. Two words: Nuit Blanche.
10. MaryAnn Camilleri – Founder, Magenta Foundation. Mad, bad and advantageous to know, MaryAnn is single-handedly igniting the Canadian art book publishing industry. Her annual Flash Forward compendium of emerging photographers and Carte Blanche, for painting, position Canadian art in an international context. So very important.
MaryAnn Camilleri with her book, Carte Blanche. Image: phsc.ca
Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...
21 comments ↓
Interesting list. I am not sure I agree with all the choices, but a good read non the less. Thanks.
MARYANN CAMILLERI RULES THE ART-PUB WORLD!
I agree,
There are lots of names we could add to this list, David Liss, Kenneth Montague, VOCA…..
I think a distinction should be made between rule breakers and influential people. Don’t think I would add Canadian Art or the Foundation as rule breakers but we are definitely glad to have their magazine and external programming. You should really take on a power list in Toronto, we know you’re thinking about it.
Mary Anne Camilleri is a tireless dynamo who deserves all the props she can get, and I agree with putting Kineko Ivic on this list, though I wish that Greener Pastures had more reliable business hours! Even though there are times listed on the door, you can still never be certain whether it’s going to be open or not.
I, too, would really enjoy reading a VoCA Toronto Power 100 List!
MARYANN CAMILLERI is a real pioneer, a change agent and a rule breaker. What’s she’s accomplished ‘against the grain’ is remarkable, welcome and absolutely needed and in the end the curmudgeons will in droves, thank her for it!
A good start…but come on Istvan Kantor as revolutionary? Been there done that how many decades ago? Vienna in the 60s to start. He’s entertainment.
As for real “rule breakers” who are they in this city? Maybe anyone who buys art in this R-economy is. The Power Plant and MOCCA should be. In 2008 is it possible to break rules, to be avantgarde?
Nice one. But as the song goes: “these are the people in your neighbourhoods” How about ARCs? Zeilders? & the margins?
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ARCs (tireless work and survival of the fittest - get ur marketing on - now or never)
The Zeidlers (’Old buildings, new ideas’ Jane Jacobs, RIP)
The margins - we’re here still, hello? (We’re more neo-colonialist than ever - marginal factors still exist - equity & diversity; not really reflected in our contemporary art scene - at least what’s being programmed over covered in publishing, minus the tokenism being shown or done.)
Marshall Webb is so handsome. He should be on VoCA’s list of 10 most handsome men in Toronto’s art scene.
Oooo! I agree with B-N-R! A list of Toronto’s top art hotties might be even MORE fun for you to compile and us to read than a Power list!
Oooo! I agree with B-N-R! A list of Toronto top art hotties might be even more fun for you to compile and us to read than a Power list!
Sara Diamond? The person who’s gutting the Material Arts program?
Artists and designers still need the connection to materiality, technical skill, cultural history and philosophy that craft provides. Otherwise, digitally-based art runs the risk of being “just wires and lights in a box.” http://advancingthestory.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/wires-and-lights-in-a-box/
Ahem Bill, can’t leave you off that list either…and let’s not forget the other Bill, as in TAC darling & Tdot bon vivant William Huffman
Sadly, most of these good people seem very, very much removed from, I would venture to say, most artists —unless inwith a given ‘magic’ circle. So, agree with the previous comments.
As curators, David Liss, Emilie and Philip are all very much in touch with artists both local and international.
As is Ann Webb at the CAF whose programming involves Canadian and international artists and art world figures, and of course Sara Diamond works in the name of young artists every day.
Kineko and Fabrice are art dealers, who represent artists.
So, I would disagree that they are ‘removed from most artists’.
I didn’t know all the folks I’ve met and liked in Toronto were rule-breakers. I thought rule-breakers could be clearly identified by mini-trucks with stickers of Calvin peeing on Hobbes….or maybe I’m just showing my roots.
Seems I have a skewed view of your city, but what a fortunate entry point. Some kind of freaky friday thing that I’d rather not see go back to normal on Saturday if it just gets stodgier from here….
Nice list!
Oh, Pamila…just what a guy who recently turned 40 needs to hear! Ha, ha, ha! Thanks!
Had not noticed specific reference to specific people before I agreed with ‘the above’ comments, and in view of that fact, and a closer reading, I have to withdraw my comment. I have, in fact, met at least one of the folks mentioned, and was most impressed with the degree of interest in the ‘artist’ and ‘art’ … So, although ‘the listed’ people seem far removed ‘from me’ which may well be because I am not in ‘the swirl/whirl/hub of things, for whatever reasons, the negative reference to ‘others’ omitted, is I feel uncalled for.
Andrea, I believe you misunderstood my comment which means I should have qualified my point. There is not doubt that they are ‘in touch’ with a lot of fine artists, but they are most assuredly not aware of a lot of other ones. We, as in the royal WE always seem to hear and see news about the emerging and/or the established, and very, very little about all those in betweens.
Note: I also feel that the comment made about a specific person (not on your list) by another poster to be totally out of line, in fact, so much so, that I must retract my previous blanket statement.
Good point Andrea on #14.
The Performance Bus is all about artist-engagement. As well, both CAF and agYU are contributing to experiential learning experiences for our future generation of artists and patrons alike. Art-education pedagogy by the way of artist-lead initiatives, for the general public and students alike. The best kind of engagement and intervention; far from being ‘removed from artists.’
Sara Diamond? She has been a destructive force at OCAD not a creative one.
Cheryl Sourkes is someone who should be on that list. She does an amazing job of curating Akau.
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