Monday, June 18, 2007

Love/Hate: New Crowned Glory in the G.T.A.

Rocketfans in the Greater Toronto Area:

I am very pleased to announce that some of my photography will be on display at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art from June 21st to August 19th, as part of a group exhibit called "Love/Hate: New Crowned Glory in the G.T.A."

Opening reception is this Thursday, June 21 from 7 to 10pm. Drop in for a chat if you're in the 'hood. I'm hilarious fun! - just ask Snooze, winner of Rocketradio's "Weekend Warrior Award", for having the ya-yas to party 'round the pole with me and the Grrrls into the wee hours on a Sunday night! Or was that a Monday morning?

This is my first show in a national gallery - well, in any gallery really - and I owe it all to the Scandelles, with special thanks to Sasha von Bon Bon and Bruce LaBruce. Their film, "Give Piece of Ass a Chance" will be screened throughout the duration of the show, and they asked me to support their film with stills from our previous collaborations. The image you see above will appear with 9 additional prints ... sorry, most of them are Not Safe For Work, and I'm sure I've already caused enough trouble with your employers lately, so feel free to view them in this Flickr set when no one's watching.

the MOCCA press release for Love/Hate:

The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art is pleased to welcome the arrival of the Summer of Love and Hate with our spectacularly contentious blockbuster exhibition Love/Hate New Crowned Glory in the G.T.A. taking place in our galleries from June 21st through August 19th. Curated by MOCCA partners in crime Camilla Singh and David Liss, the exhibition features over 30 of some of Toronto’s most loved and despised artistic icons, including those who we see and hear far too much from and others who deserve to be seen more often. This exhibition is full of contenders – and it’ll be up to audiences to decide who is who in that regard.

Traditionally it is the role of museums to sort through a particular theme, idea or art scene or movement and arrive at some sort of exhibition that will distill an idea down to a palatable, life-force sucking antiseptic theory that assumes an audience need for clean, easily definable and consumable product. But that approach is, like, sooooo last century and naturally compels MOCCA to peel off into the completely opposite direction. And, more importantly, the best thing about the current Toronto art scene is that it is anything but a neat, clean, easily definable, generic mass or school like the scenes in other Canadian cities that won’t be mentioned here. The Toronto scene is far too complex and far too interesting to be tagged by branding geniuses, marketing focus groups or pointy-headed academics. It’s a big, contentious, eclectic, messy and confusing scene filled with as many armchair curators and critics as there are Maple Leaf coaches and that’s what’s so great about it! And that’s what this sprawling exhibition celebrates – the unruly spirit, the gnarly soul, the dirt in the grooves, the talent, the eccentricity, the beauty and the unappealing splendour of it all! Love it, hate it, hate to love it or love to hate it. It’s bold, it’s loud, it’s unwieldy, its flamboyant – and this exhibition is proud to state that it’s… TORONTO!!

4 comments:

Snooze said...

I get an award??? yay! I never win anything.

You and the Grrrls are an absolute riot. Congratulations on your show! You owe it all to your talent, darlin'.

pistols at dawn said...

Congratulations! Who ever would have thought that pictures of women in varying states of undress would be accepted by the public? If that senior seminar on Mapplethorpe taught me anything, it's that art can only take the form of close-ups of very well-endowed black men.

Thank God someone finally challenged that, because I'd like to be able to walk by an art museum and suppress the burning question of my repressed homosexuality.

I should probably stop holding dudes' hands while walking everywhere while I'm at it.

Rob McCleary said...

Way to go, Cobe!

I wish I was there, but guess I'll have to enjoy by flickr.

Bert Bananas said...

We should all have exhibits!