Contact Photography Festival 2011: Figure & Ground

The month of May, May 1 – 31, is Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival. This annual festival of photography in Toronto, Ontario, Canada has over 1000 local, national and international artists exhibiting at more than 200 venues.

Contact started 15 years ago as a non-profit organization that celebrated, and fostered the art and profession of photography, and has grown to become the largest photography event in the world, and a premiere cultural event in Canada.

Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival is about advancing knowledge, creativity and innovation in photography.

The theme of this year’s Contact is:

“Focusing on our relationship to the environment, CONTACT 2011: Figure & Ground looks at how photographic images alter perception, inform knowledge, and uncover meaning. From classical portraits of the figure in the landscape to critical views of a ground transformed by human intervention, the works in this year’s festival explore the shifting tensions between humanity and nature.”

The highlights of this incredible Contact Photography Festival include:

•open call for exhibitions, enabling emerging artists to show their work across the city,
•concurrent with exhibitions of works by leading professionals.
•CONTACT’s curated programming–including primary and featured exhibitions, public installations and special events–is the central focus of Contact’s activities.
Special Events
April 29th is the Festival Launch Party and Exhibition Openings at MOCCA
You are invited to “a night of reveling to celebrate the launch of the 2011 festival and opening of the exhibitions” at:

Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art: Main Space
April 29, 7:00 pm

952 Queen St W
Toronto, M6J 1G8

(416) 395 0067

Primary Exhibitions:
Highlighting the festival theme, six exhibitions focus on the relationship between figure and ground.

•All six Primary Exhibitions invite you to their Opening Receptions.
•Please click on each photo to obtain the date and time of the Opening Reception as well as the address of the venue location and its venue website.
•Also, please note that only five exhibitions and their Opening receptions are FREE.
•The exhibition of Guy Tillim: Avenue Patrice Lumumba at the Design Exchange requires an admission fee.
Guy Tillim: Avenue Patrice Lumumba
Location: Design Exchange
April 20–June 14
OPENING Reception: May 1, 2:00–5:00 pm

234 Bay St
Toronto, M5K 1B2
Mon – Fri 10am – 5pm
Sat & Sun 12 – 5pm

Edward Burtynsky: Oil
Location: Institute for Contemporary Culture, Royal Ontario Museum

Roloff Beny Gallery, Level 4
April 9–July 3

Please note that you can receive half price general admission on Fridays starting at 4:30 pm. and general admission to the Museum is FREE on Wednesdays after 3:30 pm.

FREE OPENING Reception: April 30, 7:00–9:00 pm (enter the front entrance of Royal Ontario Museum)

100 Queen’s Park
Toronto, M5S 2C6
Mon – Thu 10am – 5:30pm
Fri 10am – 8:30pm
Sat & Sun 10am – 5:30pm

Robert Bean: Illuminated Manuscripts
Location: McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology (The Coach House), University of Toronto
April 27–June 25

OPENING Reception: May 3, 7:00–9:00 pm

39A Queen’s Park Crescent E (located behind the Faculty of Law)
Toronto, M5S 2C3
Tues – Fri 12 – 5pm
Sat 12 – 4pm

(416) 978 7026

Dynamic Landscape
Olga Chagaoutdinova, Scarlett Hooft Graafland, Viviane Sassen, Dayanita Singh

Location: Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art: Main Space
April 30–June 5

OPENING Reception: April 29, 7:00–10:00 pm

952 Queen St W
Toronto, M6J 1G8
Tue – Sun 11am – 6pm

(416) 395 0067

Fred Herzog: Vancouver
National Gallery of Canada at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art
April 30–June 5

OPENING Reception: April 29, 7:00–10:00 pm

952 Queen St W
Toronto, M6J 1G8
Tue – Sun 11am – 6pm

(416) 395 0067

Suzy Lake: Political Poetics
University of Toronto Art Centre
May 3–June 25

OPENING Reception: May 3, 7:00–9:00 pm

15 King’s College Circle
Toronto, M5S 3H7
Tues – Fri 12 – 5pm
Sat 12 – 4pm

Public Installations:
Site-specific interventions in the urban landscape, throughout Toronto and across Canada.

•All ten public installations are FREE and Wheelchair Accessible.
•Please click on each photo to obtain the viewing date , address of the installation and a map of the location.
Permanent Error
Pieter Hugo
Billboards
April 25–June 4

Spadina Ave & Front St
Toronto, M5V 2J4

Wheelchair Accessible

Week-End
Alex Prager
Billboards
April 25–June 4

Strachan Ave & Adelaide St W
Toronto, M7A 2A9

Wheelchair Accessible

over here over there
Alain Paiement
Brookfield Place, Allen Lambert Galleria
April 29–June 2

181 Bay St
Toronto, M5J 2T3

Wheelchair Accessible

Battlefields 1848 – 1867
Giorgio Barrera

Consulate General of Italy, garden
May 1–July 17

136 Beverly St
Toronto, M5T 1Y5
Wheelchair Accessible

Cross-Canada Billboards
Denis Darzacq, Jessica Eaton, Fred Herzog, Scarlett Hooft Graafland, Maslen & Mehra
April 25–June 4

For Cross-Canada Billboard locations, please contact:

Scotiabank CONTACT
Photography Festival

80 Spadina Avenue, Suite 310
Toronto, Canada M5V 2J4
T 416-539-9595 F 416-539-0829
info@scotiabankcontactphoto.com

Wheelchair Accessible

Men in the Cities
Robert Longo

Metro Hall
May 1–31

King St W at John St
Toronto, M5V 3C6

Wheelchair Accessible

What Isn’t There
Elle Flanders & Tamira Sawatzky
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, courtyard
May 1–August 31

952 Queen St W
Toronto, M6J 1G8 (416) 395 0067

Wheelchair Accessible

Tomorrow is Yesterday
Bill Finger, Alex McLeod, Diana Thorneycroft, David Trautrimas
Onestop Nework LCD Screens, TTC Subway Station Platforms
May 1–31

Wheelchair Accessible

A Sign in the Northwest Passage
Kevin Schmidt
The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, South Facade
May 1–August 21

231 Queens Quay W
Toronto, M5J 2G8

(416) 973 4949
Wheelchair Accessible

Sachliches and Formen
Josef Schulz
Toronto Pearson International Airport, Terminal 1
May 1–August 29

3111 Convair Dr
Toronto, L5P 1B2

Wheelchair Accessible

Featured Exhibitions
Multifaceted explorations of the festival theme at 37 venues across the city.

•Please note that all 36 Featured Exhibitions and their Opening receptions are FREE.
•The Featured Exhibition Fall and Implosions and its Opening reception may require an admission fee and/or membership fee.

Fall and Implosions
Denis Darzacq, Mathieu Pernot

Alliance Française de Toronto – Galerie Pierre-Léon
May 4–June 4

OPENING Reception: May 4, 6:00–9:00 pm

24 Spadina Rd
Toronto, M5R 2S7
Mon – Thu 8am – 9:30pm
Fri – Sat 8am – 3:30pm

Wheelchair Accessible

Long Divisions
Geoffrey Pugen
Angell Gallery
May 5–June 11

OPENING Reception: May 5, 6:00–9:00 pm

12 Ossington Ave
Toronto, M6J 2Y7
Wed – Sat 12-5pm

(416) 530 0444

Kallima
Alex Kisilevich
Angell Gallery
May 5–June 11

OPENING Reception: May 5, 6:00–9:00 pm

12 Ossington Ave
Toronto, M6J 2Y7
Wed – Sat 12-5pm

(416) 530 0444

“Where I was born…” : A Photograph, a Clue, and the Discovery of Abel Boulineau
Abel Boulineau
Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)
March 5–August 21

317 Dundas St W
Toronto, M5T 1G4

Please note that there is FREE Admission only on Wednesday evenings from 6 to 8:30 pm for this Featured Exhibition (as well as AGO’s Permanent Collection only. Excludes surcharged exhibitions.)

Tue
Thu – Sun 10am – 5:30pm
Wed 10am – 8:30pm

Wheelchair Accessible

Boreal Collective
Rafal Gerszak, Brett Gundlock, Jonathan Taggart, Aaron Vincent Elkaim, Ian Willms
Bau-Xi Photo
April 30–May 13

OPENING Reception: May 5, 6:00–9:00 pm

324 Dundas St W
Toronto, M5T 1G5
Mon – Sat 10am – 5:30pm
Sun 11am – 5:30pm

(416) 977 0400

New Works 2011
Lee Goreas
Birch Libralato
April 30–June 4

OPENING Reception: April 30, 2:00–5:00 pm

129 Tecumseth St
Toronto, M6J 2H2
Wed – Sat 11am – 5pm

(416) 365 3003

Open Exhibitions:
In response to an open call to participate in CONTACT more than 1,000 artists exhibit their work at over 160 venues.

Please note that most of the exhibitions and their Opening receptions are free unless indicated otherwise on the hosts’ websites.

That is, if there is no mention of admission fees on the hosts’ websites, then admission is FREE.

For your info: AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) Art Rental + Sales Gallery hosting the Modus Operandi exhibition has FREE admission for both the exhibition (on week days from May 4 – June 3) and Opening reception (May 4) . Please note that this venue’s location is different from that of AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario).

Please click here for info on over 160 venues of the Open Exhibitions.

Contact Info:
Scotiabank CONTACT
Photography Festival
80 Spadina Avenue, Suite 310
Toronto, Canada M5V 2J4
T 416-539-9595 F 416-539-0829
info@scotiabankcontactphoto.com