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AGW’s Border Cultures: Part One (homes, land) Exhibition Wins OAAG Award

OAAG awardad

Earlier this year, we were part of an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Windsor called Border Cultures: Part One (homes, land). This exhibition, curated by Srimoyee Mitra (Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Windsor) and featuring works from an international roster of artists, also featured a project we made called Together Forever / Never Apart. The project used the icon of childhood friendship lockets to comment on the complex and often disconnected relationship Windsor and Detroit have with one another. One half of the laser cut and etched acrylic locket was installed on Pelissier Street in Windsor, Ontario, while the second half was installed on Gratiot Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. For the exhibition, we mounted another copy of the broken heart along with documentation from the install in Windsor and Detroit.

We just recently found out that the exhibition received an Exhibition of the Year Award from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG)! Huge thanks to all the artists involved, the Art Gallery of Windsor, and Srimoyee Mitra for curating the exhibition.

Participating artists: Broken City Lab (Canada), Campus in Camps (Palestine), Iftikhar and Elizabeth Dadi (USA), Willie Doherty (Ireland), Marcos Ramirez Erre (Mexico/USA), Sanaz Mazinani (Canada), Christopher McNamara (Canada/USA), Dylan Miner (USA/Canada), Ed Pien (Canada), Leila Sujir/Maria Lantin (Canada)

Together Forever, Never Apart (2013)

Together Forever / Never Apart (2013) – mounted on Pelissier Street in Windsor, Ontario.

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More Great News: We’re the Recipient of a Windsor Endowment for the Arts Grant!

We’re thrilled to announce this, and very flattered to be in such great local company!!!

Honouring leaders in Windsor’s arts community, the Windsor Endowment for the Arts (WEA) will officially present the WEAs, winners of the WEA Arts Leadership Awards and WEA Arts Grants on Saturday, May 5 at Windsor Music Theatre.  Ten recipients will be honoured including the recipient of the first Elizabeth Havelock Grant in the Arts.

Windsor Endowment for the Arts offers four Emerging Artist Grants to support the professional and creative development of emerging artists. Grants are awarded every second year to successful applicants. Artists who meet the eligibility requirements are invited to apply.

Outstanding nominations, from the public and recognized leaders in the arts culture community identified the seven winners of the WEA Arts Grants. Three arts organizations and four emerging artists will be recognized.

Arts Infrastructure Grants

Community Arts Nancy Johns Gallery & Framing
Performing Arts Chris Rabideau
Visual Arts Media City Film Festival

Emerging Artists Grants

Community Arts Broken City Lab Artist Collective
Literary Arts Kate Hargreaves
Performing Arts Crissi Cochrane
Visual Arts Amy Friend

Elizabeth Havelock Grant in the Arts

Visual Artist Shirley Williams

Huge thanks to Windsor Endowment for the Arts, and to Jennifer Willet and Rod Strickland for the nomination. We’re looking forward to celebrating on Saturday! See you there!

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Ephemeral Situations (fireworks & doves), Awarded

It’s always a bit strange to get so many random emails about great work, and so often there’s not enough time to really explore. Today, though, I’m glad I took a couple minutes to look this over.

The Szpilman Award is awarded to works that exist only for a moment or a short period of time. The purpose of the award is to promote such works whose forms consist of ephemeral situations.

Above, Péter Szabó lit fireworks and fired confetti-canons and smoke-machines for the workers who arrived early in the morning at factories and a bus-station in Romania and Hungary. As some of these factories were to be shut down soon, his labor of love towards the stressed and worried workers appears almost like an alien artistic ritual in the midst of a hopeless daily routine.

The winner of the award, Jaroslav Kyša uses doves as living barriers in the city of London by secretly scattering their favourite fodder in front of shops or across busy streets.