Production/Theories: Galleries

Gallery 6: PUBLICity

The PUBLICity exhibit at the Toronto Free Gallery was one of my favorites.

It is also the only gallery listed here that was in no way related to school.

The exhibit is a collection of works from photobloggers -- bloggers that write using images, more specifically photographs. I happen to reguarly read the posts of two of them. Rannie Turingan and Sam Javanrouh. So to my suprise and delight, they happened to be doing a collaborate exhibition which just started last week (and therefore fell within the timeframe of this assignment). A total of seven artists participated in the exhibit, but it was the work of these two that drew me in.



The gallery is two floors, and was entirely empty when I visited - which gave me the freedom to move and see whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and not have to worry about disturbing other people.

While a number of the photographs felt mundane and uninspired (the theme of the exhibit was "Urban Spaces") I quite liked the work of Rannie. Sam only had 3 pictures on display, of which only one I thoroughly enjoyed.

The above and below images are both Rannie's work.



All of the artists showing at this exhibit are from Toronto, which made me feel an immediate connection to their work - moreso than just knowing the locations that the photos were taken in. Knowing that everything in the gallery was shot in Toronto, by Torontonians was a nice experience.

The subject matter of the work varied widely - some were portraits, some were landscapes, some were happy, some were sad, some were big, some were small - all were presented framed and on the wall. Only two pieces from the exhibit were not framed photographs - the picture of the above work by Rannie (it appeared to be printed on a canvased frame), and an old television which had the screen replaced with a grid of tiny images.

posted by Brian