Contact Photography Festival Welcomes Everyone: Parties Start April 29, 2011

Contact Photography Festival Welcomes Everyone: Parties Start April 29, 2011
Contact Photography Festival Welcomes Everyone: Parties Start April 29, 2011

The month of May, May 1 – 31, is Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival which is an annual festival of photography in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Contact Photography Festival 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.”

That sounds environmentally friendly to me! Environmental/Green photography is a good, topical interest for 2011.

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

Tomorrow 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
Venue Email→
Venue Website→

Map→

Please click here for info on more special events (41) of the Contact Photography Festival.

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

Venue Website→

Map→

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

Venue Website→

Map→

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
Venue Website→

Map→

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
Venue Email→
Venue Website→

Map→

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
Venue Email→
Venue Website→

Map→

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

Venue Website→
Map→

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

Map→

Week-End
Alex Prager

Billboards
April 25–June 4

Strachan Ave & Adelaide St W
Toronto, M7A 2A9

Wheelchair Accessible

Map→

over here over there
Alain Paiement

Brookfield Place, Allen Lambert Galleria
April 29–June 2

181 Bay St
Toronto, M5J 2T3

Venue Website→

Wheelchair Accessible
Map→

Battlefields 1848 – 1867
Giorgio Barrera

Consulate General of Italy, garden
May 1–July 17

136 Beverly St
Toronto, M5T 1Y5

Venue Website→

Wheelchair Accessible

Map→

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

Map→

Metro Hall
May 1–31

King St W at John St
Toronto, M5V 3C6

Wheelchair Accessible

Map→

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

Venue Email→
Venue Website→

Wheelchair Accessible

Map→

Tomorrow is Yesterday
Bill Finger, Alex McLeod, Diana Thorneycroft, David Trautrimas

Onestop Nework LCD Screens, TTC Subway Station Platforms
May 1–31

Wheelchair Accessible

Website →
Map→

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
Venue Email→
Venue Website→

Wheelchair Accessible

Map→

Sachliches and Formen
Josef Schulz

Toronto Pearson International Airport, Terminal 1
May 1–August 29

3111 Convair Dr
Toronto, L5P 1B2

Venue Website→

Wheelchair Accessible

Map→

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

Website →
Email →
Map→

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
Venue Email→
Venue Website→

Map→

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
Venue Email→
Venue Website→
Map→

“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

Map→

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

Venue Email→
Venue Website→
Map→

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
Venue Website→
Email →
Map→

Please click here for info on more venues (31) of the Featured Exhibitions.

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

Enjoy!