Tania Kitchell This and That 2013 Various materials, 20.3 cm x 76.2 cm x 114.3 cm Courtesy the artist and James Harris Gallery, Seattle (Image 1/30)
Anyone with questions about the vitality of the Toronto art scene need look no further than the Power Plant this fall and the exhibition “One, and Two, and More Than Two.” Curated by and featuring the work of hometown artist, curator and all-around art polymath Micah Lexier, the show offers both a snapshot look at Lexier’s critically acclaimed solo practice and a collective overview of the variable forces at work in contemporary art across the city.
Lexier—who has always had a clever touch with numbers in his practice—divides the exhibition into three parts: “One” and “Two” review his own conceptually measured take on personal existence in a selection of sculptural works, an archival installation, a new video and collaborative installations with writers Christian Bök, Derek McCormack and Colm Tóibín. For the third section, “More Than Two (Let It Make Itself),” Lexier turns his critical lens outward, filling 30 custom-made vitrines with more than 200 artworks and objects by 101 up-and-coming and established local artists.
To view a selection of works in the exhibition, and glimpse its take on art production in Canada’s largest city, click on the Photos icon above.
The overall critical impact of “More than Two” promises to be deftly balanced not on only on Lexier’s singular, driving presence, but also on the unexpected sums of its many parts.
As writer and curator Christina Ritchie speculates in our Fall issue, which hits newsstands September 15, Lexier’s exhibition has been created against the backdrop of a long wait for a definitive portrait of the Toronto art scene.
“‘More Than Two’ will certainly help engender a sense of form and place within Toronto’s immensely diverse practices, but will it lead to a definition?” Ritchie asks in her in-depth look at the process leading up to the show. “Looking for a definition may be like pushing the proverbial boulder up the hill, doomed to failure. But it could be a great game.”
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