Feature is pleased to present, in conjunction with the robust educational program, a special project by artist Dean Baldwin. A master of conviviality and hosting, and a devisor of renowned social situations, Baldwin is creating and running The Hoard, a site-specific installation that includes a bar on the second floor of the fair. Supported by Esker Foundation, The Hoard will be open daily after the Feature Talks, serving as the meeting point for further informal discussion. Baldwin will build the installation with objects and accoutrements from the Canadian Opera Company’s seldom-seen arsenal of props. As such, The Hoard will reflect the history of Feature’s unique locale, and provide visitors to the fair with the opportunity to experience new configurations of the material history of the opera, while engaging in conversation about the fair’s critical talks, all over a drink.
This year, for the second edition of Feature, the educational program has been refined and bolstered to offer a range of compelling critical events. Feature Talks are peppered with diverse experts from Canada and abroad, and include a keynote lecture that will touch upon some of the most pressing questions in contemporary art today. Daily guided tours of the fair, presented by a selection of the fair’s Cultural Partners, are led by prominent curators, researchers and critics. These tours enrich the experience of the curated selection of works presented, speaking to the possibilities of vibrant critical discussion and engagement in the context of the fair.
In addition to the rich diversity of works presented within the exhibitor booths at Feature, the fair is pleased to present a revamped video program that includes works by some of Canada’s most respected contemporary artists. Further, the video program will also be exhibited off-site at the newly opened Creeds Coffee Bar, allowing the reach of Feature’s programming to extend beyond the Joey & Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre and enliven other locales in the Toronto area.
Esker Foundation is collaborating with Feature once again—this year as the Lead Educational Partner—to provide support in realizing this critical and timely educational program. Founded in 2012 by Jim and Susan Hill, Esker Foundation is the largest privately funded, non-commercial contemporary art gallery in Calgary. The Foundation is dedicated to the advancement of contemporary art through the production and presentation of innovative artistic and curatorial projects. Esker Foundation strives to support the development of work, ideas and research in visual arts, while creating opportunities for critical dialogue. This partnership speaks to the mutually engaged and critical visions of both Feature and Esker Foundation, a collaboration that is resulting in an incomparable educational program.
Presented by Esker Foundation, Lead Educational Partner
Daily at 2 pm in the Courtyard of the Joey & Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre
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?”
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.
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.
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.
Daily at 1 pm, departing in the Cultural Partners Lounge
Sarah Robayo Sheridan, Curator
Presented by the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery and University of Toronto Arts Centre
Mireille Eagan, Curator of Contemporary Art
Presented by The Rooms
Georgina Jackson, Director of Exhibitions & Publications
Presented by Mercer Union
Melissa Bennett, Curator of Contemporary Art
Presented by Art Gallery of Hamilton
Crack, 2000
3 min 28 sec
Birch Contemporary
A Man & A Woman, 2007
8 min 10 sec
Diaz Contemporary
Deadwater, 2015
8 min 5 sec
Division Gallery
Tableaux, 2015
10 min 3 sec (excerpt)
Galerie Donald Browne
A Man Digging, 2013
8 min 20 sec
galerie antoine ertaskiran
Yes, Yes, Yes, No, No, No, 2015
9 min 41 sec
Galerie Hugues Charbonneau
un-ravelling, 2013
11 min (excerpt)
Galerie Trois Points
I was the answer to their problem, 2015
1 min 22 sec
Georgia Scherman Projects
The Distribution of Hypotheses, 2012
8 min 29 sec
Katzman Contemporary
Cape Pine: The Station, 2009
5 min 54 sec
Laroche/Joncas
Clay Head, 2015
6 min 49 sec
Lisa Kehler Art + Projects
Beijing Odyssey, 2014
8 min 43 sec
Patrick Mikhail Gallery
Hearts and Arrows, 2013
10 min (excerpt)
Republic Gallery
INTERNET MOUNTAINS Video 3, 2015
2 min
Stephen Bulger Gallery
Gesture, 2015
5 min 9 sec
Wil Aballe Art Projects
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.
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.
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]