With more than 500 exhibitions presented, a total of 45 years in the art-dealing business, and representation of key Canadian artists like William Kurelek, Doris McCarthy, Gerald Ferguson and Greg Curnoe—as well as internationally renowned artists like Lawrence Weiner—dealers Lynne Wynick and David Tuck are getting ready to close the doors on their Toronto gallery space tomorrow, Saturday, October 13.
“We’ve been doing this since we were 19,” Wynick said in an interview at the gallery today. “We wanted to not become stale.”
Wynick, says that, in fact, the closure is being executed in part because the duo wants to put itself “out on a limb” in the future and experiment with doing books, multiples and editions—projects she says were not compatible with running monthly exhibitions.
“With books and multiples, we can work on a more international basis,” Wynick explained, noting that Wynick/Tuck held one of Toronto’s first multiples shows in the 1970s. She also recalls that one of her favourite exhibitions at the gallery, 1996’s “LIST,” focused on these types of artworks.
The duo will still operate a smaller, by-appointment-only space at the 401 Richmond building, where the current gallery is situated, as well.
While Wynick says it is not yet confirmed which artists from the gallery roster will continue to be represented in future ventures, the current exhibition at the space—”WTG_45 Years,” the gallery’s official 45th anniversary event and its last regular public show—features works by Lawrence Weiner, Gerald Ferguson, Cal Lane, Greg Curnoe, Ted Rettig and other artists Wynick/Tuck has represented or shown in the past.
Also featured in the current exhibition are installations that speak to the history of the gallery itself. These include a ceiling-high stack of documentation slides and a row of shipping crates, both aligned along the east wall of the space. A Kim Adams bicycle sculpture (from the dealers’ own collection) is hung from the rafters as it would be in storage, rather than being displayed on the floor, as is typical for the piece.
Wynick and Tuck, then Ontario College of Art students, opened their first exhibition in a Spadina Road house in 1967. It was group exhibition which, like several of the gallery’s early shows, featured works by Wynick and Tuck as well as other students and younger artists.
In 1968, the gallery moved to Jarvis Street, and, over the course of its existence, had six spaces in historic buildings in the St. Lawrence Market and Spadina/King areas of Toronto.
In future, Wynick says, she also looks forward to doing some pop-up projects and to blogging, which she sees as “a way to continue to curate.”
After the final exhibition closes tomorrow, much of the work that was being held on consignment will be shipped back to artists as the duo refocuses storage on their own collection.
The business’s new, by-appointment-only space is due to become functional in December.
