Educational Program
Feature Talks

Presented by Esker Foundation, Lead Educational Partner

Daily at 2 pm in the Courtyard of the Joey & Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre

Thursday, October 22, 2 pm
Who Are We? What Are We Doing Here?
Presented by Momus

Keynote lecture
Ben Davis, National Critic for artnet News and author of 9.5 Theses on Art and Class


What, really, does visual art do today? We talk about it as if it is not just important, but more important—loftier, more charged with meaning and value—than other kinds of creative endeavours. But is this anything more than a convenient myth? You can make the case for art’s importance, but to do so I think you need to give up some cherished myths. You need to begin from first principles to explain what the thing we call “visual art” actually does and doesn’t do in the contemporary world. That’s right, this is a talk about the question, “What is contemporary art?”

Friday, October 23, 2 pm
The Question of Painting in Today’s Art World
Presented by Border Crossings

Barry Schwabsky, Art Critic for The Nation, in conversation with Robert Enright, Contributing Editor of Border Crossings


A freewheeling conversation about the many lives of painting today. Painting remains the most contested art form in contemporary practice. Art critic, essayist and poet Barry Schwabsky will address, in conversation with Robert Enright, its hydra-headed nature. Schwabsky is one of the most influential writers on the art of painting; his essays, “Everyday Painting” in VP2 (2011), “An Art that Eats Its Own Head” in The Triumph of Painting (2005) and “Painting in the Interrogative Mode” in Vitamin P: New Perspectives in Painting (2002) are now canonical. He is also the art critic for The Nation and co-editor of international reviews for Artforum.

Saturday, October 24, 2 pm
No Walls: Community in Contemporary Art
Presented by CART and Momus

Gregory Burke, Executive Director/CEO, Remai Modern
Shannon Stratton, William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator, Museum of Arts and Design, New York
Moderated by Sky Goodden, Editor, Momus


How can a community of artists be actualized in a situation of disillusionment, precarity and dislocation? CART and Momus present a panel on our shifting modes of connection and production, and our effectiveness in embodying a changed notion of site. We’ll examine two approaches to artist communities that utilize tensions between the international and super-local. Through their respective practices and projects, each of the panellists will bring a unique voice to the topic of community in the context of contemporary art. Gregory Burke, as CEO of Remai Modern, will co-host Supercommunity Live: The Climatic Unconscious this fall; Shannon Stratton is co-founder of Common Field and its Hand in Glove conference, a gathering for practitioners in the field of alternative art spaces, projects and organizations; CART is a 501(c)3 organization of Canadian artists and cultural producers living and working transnationally; and Momus is an international online art publication that stresses a return to art criticism.

Sunday, October 25, 2 pm
Visual Literacy: A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words
Presented by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Innovation Lab

Shelley Kimelberg, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Buffalo
Dr. Janne Sirén, Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Sara Diamond, President and Vice-Chancellor of OCAD University, Ord. Ontario; RCA
Moderated by Russell Davidson, Innovation Lab and Special Projects Manager, Albright-Knox Art Gallery


We are living in a digital-media saturated world that increasingly demands a highly developed ability to see, understand and communicate with the images around us. Through its Innovation Lab, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery is seeking to understand how obvious gaps in today’s public-education system can be addressed by introducing the concept of visual literacy. Drawing upon their research and experience in education, the arts, museums and digital communication, the panellists will discuss how a new emphasis on visual language can serve as a global catalyst for change.

Feature Tours

Daily at 1 pm, departing in the Cultural Partners Lounge

Thursday, October 22, 1 pm
Views from the 6

Sarah Robayo Sheridan, Curator


Presented by the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery and University of Toronto Arts Centre

Friday, October 23, 1 pm
The Endless Weekend

Mireille Eagan, Curator of Contemporary Art


Presented by The Rooms

Saturday, October 24, 1 pm
The Exhibitionary Trace

Georgina Jackson, Director of Exhibitions & Publications


Presented by Mercer Union

Sunday, October 25, 1 pm
The "are you experienced?” Tour

Melissa Bennett, Curator of Contemporary Art


Presented by Art Gallery of Hamilton

Video Program
Louise Noguchi

Crack, 2000
3 min 28 sec
Birch Contemporary

Kelly Mark

A Man & A Woman, 2007
8 min 10 sec
Diaz Contemporary

Alex McLeod

Deadwater, 2015
8 min 5 sec
Division Gallery

Sara A. Tremblay

Tableaux, 2015
10 min 3 sec (excerpt)
Galerie Donald Browne

Jon Rafman

A Man Digging, 2013
8 min 20 sec
galerie antoine ertaskiran

Maria Hupfield

Yes, Yes, Yes, No, No, No, 2015
9 min 41 sec
Galerie Hugues Charbonneau

Olga Chagaoutdinova

un-ravelling, 2013
11 min (excerpt)
Galerie Trois Points

Christopher Lacroix & afallenhorse

I was the answer to their problem, 2015
1 min 22 sec
Georgia Scherman Projects

Yi Xin Tong

The Distribution of Hypotheses, 2012
8 min 29 sec
Katzman Contemporary

Leslie Reid

Cape Pine: The Station, 2009
5 min 54 sec
Laroche/Joncas

Erica Eyres

Clay Head, 2015
6 min 49 sec
Lisa Kehler Art + Projects

Andrew Wright

Beijing Odyssey, 2014
8 min 43 sec
Patrick Mikhail Gallery

Khan Lee

Hearts and Arrows, 2013
10 min (excerpt)
Republic Gallery

Clive Holden

INTERNET MOUNTAINS Video 3, 2015

2 min
Stephen Bulger Gallery

Evann Siebens

Gesture, 2015
5 min 9 sec
Wil Aballe Art Projects

Satellite Activities
Saturday, October 24
Book Launch: The Illuminations Project
Art Metropole, in collaboration with Oakville Galleries
4pm

Join us to celebrate the launch of The Illuminations Project, a book by Shary Boyle and Emily Vey Duke.

The Illuminations Project is a decade-long collaboration between two artists, feminists and friends. Boyle and Duke's visionary call-and-response—to which Boyle contributed images and Duke texts—forges connections between subversion and joy, drawing and writing. It is an exquisitely rendered road map through the chaos of growing up female, fearless and hungry for meaning.


The League of Women of Great Personal Charm and Wit, Exemplary Whiskey Drinkers, Feminists, Defenders of the Earth, Citizen Smokers, Survivors of Many Neglects and Troubles
On the second floor at Feature, at The Hoard, an installation by Dean Baldwin
5pm

TLWGPCW, a woman-only scotch club for artists, writers and cultural workers based in Toronto, invites you to join them for a drink at Feature. Named after the group formed around Joyce Wieland at the time of her retrospective at the AGO in 1987, TLWGPCW gathers to discuss art and politics over a glass of irresistible malt, and to summon Wieland’s "pioneering spirit in pushing the boundaries of the art system for women.”

An informal reunion, TLWGPCW offers a casual context for women to discuss current issues in the arts and beyond. This event is organized in conjunction with Feature's Educational Program, and will be hosted in The Hoard, an installation by Dean Baldwin supported by Esker Foundation.


OPENING: 8 The Esplanade
White Condo
8pm

A space furnished by Marvin Luvualu Antonio, Jeff Bierk, Joshua Citarella, Maggie Groat, Jason de Haan, Ben Hall, Aleksander Hardashnakov, Valérie Kolakis, Kristie Muller, Tibi Tibi Neuspiel, Geoffrey Pugen, Brian Rideout, Talwst, Brad Tinmouth, Naomi Yasui; and curated by Jess Carroll and Emma Clough. Open daily from October 22 to 26, noon - 8pm. For more information and exact location, please email [email protected]