Our editor Richard Rhodes has written that “Art Toronto is homecoming week for the Canadian art scene.” Indeed, there are galleries on hand from coast to coast. Here, five dealers weigh in on their reasons for making the trip (sometimes quite lengthy) to the fair; tell us what they are presenting; and comment on how they might like to see the fair grow and change.
MARION SCOTT GALLERY/ROBERT KARDOSH PROJECTS, VANCOUVER (BOOTH 541)
ROBERT KARDOSH, DIRECTOR/CURATOR
Doing any art fair generally involves a large expense. Why did you choose to use your resources for a booth at Art Toronto?
Art Toronto is perhaps the highpoint in Canada’s art year. MSG and KP represent artists of the first importance nationally, including a range of Inuit artists from Northern Canada. Art Toronto offers us an opportunity to bring these extraordinary artists to a much broader national audience than we are able to do in our Vancouver Gallery alone.
In five words (or less) how would you describe your gallery’s interests or program?
Classic and contemporary Inuit art.
What artists or artworks are you planning on showing in your Art Toronto booth? Why?
We will be showing several new stone sculptures by Cape Dorset’s Jamasee Pitseolak, who practises a brilliant and original surrealism as a way to engage a range of contemporary themes and issues in Northern life. We are also bringing three large-format etchings by Pangnirtung’s Elisapee Ishulutaq, part of a series of prints produced by our publishing arm MSG Editions. And in association with Kardosh Projects, we are showing new and historical work by Michael Morris, one of Canada’s most significant contemporary conceptual artists.
What other art fairs do you show at?
None. We are focusing at the moment on the national rather than international scene.
Who would you say is your favourite artist that you do not represent?
We adore the artists we do represent!
As a returning dealer, how do you think Art Toronto could improve? Or how are
you hoping it has improved this year?
Collectors and visitors have found the venue considerably less interesting than the art being shown. It would be a good idea to include some more public venues for collaborative projects organized by the fair and involving two or more galleries.
PARISIAN LAUNDRY, MONTREAL (BOOTH 1002)
JEANIE RIDDLE, DIRECTOR/CURATOR
Doing any art fair generally involves a large expense. Why did you choose to use your resources for a booth at Art Toronto?
We are able to reach our network of important Canadian collectors and corporate curators as well as museum personnel and artists. It is a “see and be seen” opportunity. It is easy for us (and our budgets) to ship within North America and Canada specifically.
In five words (or less) how would you describe your gallery’s interests or program?
Critical international visibility.
What artists or artworks are you planning on showing in your Art Toronto booth? Why?
This year, we will be showing three new artists as well as one returning whose work feels fresh and practices are active: Paul Hardy, painting, Montreal; Fabienne Lasserre, sculpture, Brooklyn; and Celia Perrin Sidarous, photography, currently on exchange at the Oslo National Academy of Arts. We will also be showing important new work by senior gallery artist Janet Werner, in painting.
What other art fairs do you show at?
Untitled Miami, as well as collaborations in Istanbul, Berlin and NYC.
Who would you say is your favourite artist that you do not represent?
Rebecca Warren.
As a returning dealer, how do you think Art Toronto could improve? Or how are you hoping it has improved this year?
Art Toronto needs to cut back on excess. This is not a real-estate venture, this is about bringing quality artwork to an engaged and invested audience.
TRÉPANIER BAER, CALGARY (BOOTH 906)
YVES TRÉPANIER, CO-FOUNDER/DIRECTOR
Doing any art fair generally involves a large expense. Why did you choose to use your resources for a booth at Art Toronto?
It’s a big country—we are still regionalized—and Canadians need to know more about what’s going on nationally and internationally. An art fair located in our largest city can provide that platform.
In five words (or less) how would you describe your gallery’s interests or program?
Authentic, current, progressive, established, professional and diverse. (That’s six words.)
What artists or artworks are you planning on showing in your Art Toronto booth? Why?
Our booth is a little bigger this year, designed with two rooms, so we will present an exhibition titled “Portrait” that will bring together a group of diverse artists working both in and occasionally with the genre—Evan Penny, Harold Klunder, Luanne Martineau, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Wyn Geleynse, and Sonny Assu, to name a few. In the second room we will present new works in a group-exhibition context, works by Ron Moppett, DaveandJenn, Christian Eckart, Iain BAXTER&, Vikky Alexander and Ryan Sluggett. Why? Collectors are interested in these artists and we will feature new and recent works by them that in some cases have not seen before.
What other art fairs do you show at?
Up to and including 2010 we participated in fairs in the US, Europe and as far away as Australia. We stopped because of the economic slowdown and to redeploy our resources toward things like catalogues. We’ve published three beautiful books since, one each on Doug Coupland, Ron Moppett and Ryan Sluggett, and we’re working on several others at the moment. We also bought works for our inventory and focused our attention on the post-war period, organizing several major exhibitions featuring works by Riopelle and the Montréal school.
Who would you say is your favourite artist that you do not represent?
Cy Twombly.
As a returning dealer, how do you think Art Toronto could improve? Or how are you hoping it has improved this year?
The organizers have to continue to be diligent in their focus on quality: the best dealers and gallerists showing the most interesting works from the modern and contemporary periods. More rigour; less dumbing down.
DANIEL FARIA GALLERY, TORONTO (BOOTH 902)
DANIEL FARIA, OWNER/DIRECTOR
Doing any art fair generally involves a large expense. Why did you choose to use your resources for a booth at Art Toronto?
I do Art Toronto because it’s my hometown and it’s good to support the initiative. I also always meet new collectors who live in my city that I have not yet met. There is also an energy at opening night that encourages the acquisition of works by many collectors.
In five words (or less) how would you describe your gallery’s interests or program?
Contemporary, fresh, critical.
What artists or artworks are you planning on showing in your Art Toronto booth? Why?
I will have new works by most of the artists I work with including new works by Chris Curreri (purchased by the AGO at Art Toronto’s opening-night preview two years ago), new Iris Häussler and a new Kristine Moran. I am also showing a slightly earlier work by Shannon Bool that is, in my opinion, one of her strongest pieces.
What other art fairs do you show at?
I recently did abc Berlin, NADA New York and will be doing Los Angeles Contemporary.
Who would you say is your favourite artist that you do not represent?
Pierre Huyghe.
CHRISTINA PARKER GALLERY, ST. JOHN’S (BOOTH 436)
CHRISTINA PARKER, DIRECTOR
Doing any art fair generally involves a large expense. Why did you choose to use your resources for a booth at Art Toronto?
Well, it’s important. If you want to be part of the bigger community you can’t just sit in your little gallery and do nothing! I’ve been doing it since 2001. I had to miss one year when we moved the gallery, but that’s it.
It [Art Toronto] been incredibly important to do considering our geographical location. It is really important to have the gallery artists show with their peers across the country. How else could I do it, really, other than having curators coming and choosing artists for exhibition that they are curating? In terms of getting out into the market where people are looking at art and want to collect on a larger scale than where I live, this is an amazing vehicle to do it.
What are you presenting at Art Toronto?
I have works from St. John’s-based artists like Will Gill, Kym Greeley and Ned Pratt, among others. The gallery doesn’t just show work from St. John’s; we show John Hartman’s work and Ron Bolt’s, and Tom Hammick’s—he’s a British artist. I like having a really solid variety of artists. Whether they are in Newfoundland, across Canada or in Europe, there is a connection though, too. I don’t just want to be a local gallery—I never did—so I want what is in the gallery to be part of the bigger conversation.
One thing I find interesting at the fair is that people walk in and they don’t make the connection that I’m a St. John’s gallery. They’ll think that I’m from Toronto. And certainly there is more exchange between St. John’s and elsewhere now, whether it’s with artists doing residencies at Gros Morne or going over to Fogo Island. Work from Newfoundland is getting out around the world in that way, too. I also love that a lot of the younger artists I am showing have graduated from universities in our region, but they also go out internationally to do their master’s degrees.
As a returning dealer, how do you think Art Toronto could improve? Or how are you hoping it has improved this year?
Well, I don’t have others to compare to; I don’t go to any other art fairs. I have to say I’m very happy. I think the organizers do a great job and it gets better and better every year. It only started in 2000, and think it is growing up as an art fair.
For daily updates on Art Toronto, visit canadianart.ca/arttoronto and join us at Booth 940 at the fair for talks daily at 2 p.m.
