Small Transgressions: September 3 – October 31, 2015 

Fourteen artists present new works that disturb the boundaries of their individual practices. Through critical reflection and collaborative exchange, unexpected themes and forms have emerged over a ten month mentorship program led by Linda Sormin, and programmed by FUSION: The Ontario Clay and Glass Association.

Barbara Banfield
Celia Brandao
Susan Card
Kimberly Davy
LeeAnn Janissen
Dianne Lee
Jen Leis
Marney McDiarmid
Mary McKenzie
Michelle Mendlowitz
Bernadette Pratt
Geordie Shepherd
Krystal Speck
Marlene Zagdanski

Close observations of nature collide with the forms and realities of urban life. Experimentation with raw materials unearths memories, reshaping personal metaphors and once-familiar landscapes. Through photography, video, pottery and sculpture, the exhibition offers work that has unsettled established ways of thinking and making. Are small transgressions the slippery slope to bad behaviour? These questions and conversations offer diverse interpretations of play, threat, beauty, gesture, sexuality, parenthood, family, community and environment. In sharing ideas and concerns, examining potential pitfalls and solutions, this group of makers has in many ways sped up their artistic research, yet slowed the impulse to cast judgment. Fearlessly, gently tending to bright wounds of doubt, these artists have created bodies of work that articulate distinct visions in the contemporary context.  

Materialize: July 9 – August 28, 2015

Materialize offers a sensational selection of work by up-and-coming emerging makers that includes everything from embroidered acrylic to baroque ceramic compositions. Visitors will find curious soft textile sculptures, a sensuous wood and leather bench, intricate self-referential jewellery, immaculately carved glass and much, much more.

Craft Ontario is committed to fostering the next generation of professional craft practice, and this year’s exhibition is the second annual juried collection of work that celebrates a diversity of creative, innovative and skilled incarnations of material culture.

Juried by Deborah Wang and Greg Sims, Craft Ontario is pleased to present the work of:

Anouk Desloges
Courtney Downman
Dani Ortman
Elycia Sarwer-Foner Androsoff
Hoda Zarbaf
Jake Whillans
Jay Joo
Jennifer Tsuchida
Jill Usher
Joon Hee Kim
K. Claire MacDonald
Marie-Eve G. Castonguay
Meghan Scott
Michael Kwan
Nadya Fedotova
Nathan Clarke
Patricia Wong
Ronald Chan
Shelly Dwyer
Shuang Feng
Silvia Taylor

LookListen: May 14 - July 4, 2015

LookListen was curated by Nathan Heuvingh, and examined the contributions of Michael Comeau, Anne Douris and Martin MacPherson to the material culture of Toronto’s music scene.

Canada’s alternative music community is marked and documented by a distinct material culture that exists as an essential component of local networks of musicians and makers. While recordings and live performances are a large part of the music experience, the music scene is also embodied by unique practices including DIY methods, experimentation and collaboration.

Where small flyers were employed in the past to promote local music shows and unknown bands, a more creative and labor-intensive print practice has developed over time. This culture of making within alternative music communities has evolved into a distinguished craft itself and relies on a unique skill-set in order to produce objects that effectively materialize and visualize ephemeral experiences. Bands and musicians work collaboratively with makers to create promotional work, resulting in inventive styles that push the boundaries of graphic design, animation and printmaking.

Overall, LookListen explores the making of objects in relation to a unique area of material culture. It allows for critical perspectives to emerge through unconventional strategies of making, and fosters an awareness of the exceptional work that is made within the context of the music scene in Toronto.

Sensorial Objects: March 6 – May 2, 2015, 2015

Artefacts carry the unique power of being repositories of sensory experience. Rather than just perceived visually, they engage a range of sensations, and invite intimate and affective interaction. As such, material objects broaden the aesthetic encounter, and open the door to investigations of sensuality, material, process, interactivity, and culture (Owen, 2011).

Sensory experience is a potent counterpoint to rampant hyperconsumption that characterizes present-day material culture. Sensorial objects request an attentive involvement from an audience, and encourage a reflective encounter. They shake us from the habitual impulse of insatiable consumption, and offer an experience of the world that is felt with the whole of the body (Pallasmaa, 2005). By experiencing an object through its tactile, olfactory, auditory, and/or visual properties, the work of the maker stands apart from that which is hastily produced, consumed and abandoned. Positioned as such, these objects draw attention to a renewed role for making, and hold clues to future pathways for human relationships with material culture.

Sensorial Objects is an exhibition of work by Faculty from the OCAD University Fibre Studios: Ana Galindo, Chung Im Kim, Dorie Millerson, Eva Ennist, Kathleen Morris, Laurie Wassink, Lynne Heller, Meghan Price, Monica Bodirsky, and Rachel MacHenry.

1/16: January 19 - February 28, 2015, 2015

1/16 showcases new work from the graduating class of Sheridan College's Furniture Craft and Design program, and is programmed as part of the Toronto Design Offsite Festival.

The exhibition highlights 16 individual furniture designers who have developed together over the course of a 3-year design program; and who are now diverging, 1 by 1, as emerging craftspeople. The exhibition positions their work as talented individuals within the context of the renowned craft and design tradition at Sheridan.

1/16 will contain work that reflects each individual's growth as maker and designer.  It embodies their unique aesthetic pursuits, channeling past experiences into current aspirations.  The diversity of work expresses the subtle boundaries between craft, art, and design.

This exhibition will offer insight into the following group of makers and designers who are eager to make a place for themselves in the larger craft and design community:

Tobias Cavan, Nathan Clarke, Josh Fawcett-Drummond, Chris Friedrich, Kyle Gibbons, Wooju Kim, Jared Lawee, Ashley MacDonald, Matt MacDonald, Young Jun Moon, Eric O'Hara, Cassic He, Tim Steadman, Stefan Tobolka, Leah Van Bergeyk, Jake Whillans