The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art Features Three New Exhibitions

Written by Connor Fitzpatrick Friday, 27 January 2012 23:36

Toronto, Ontario.- The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art is pleased to launch its 2012 season with three visually stimulating and contemplative exhibitions: "Tasman Richardson: Necropolis"; "Spectral Landscape"; and "Daisuke Takeya: GOD Loves Japan". All three exhibitions open on February 4th and remain on view through April 1st. The opening celebration for all three takes place on February 4th from 2-5pm.

Featured in the MOCCA main space, "Tasman Richardson: Necropolis" is an immersive multi-media meditation on the nature of video and its strong affiliations with death culture. Consisting of six installations housed within a twisting, darkened superstructure, Necropolis channels visitors through stages of erosion, narcissism, acceleration, idolatry, self-doubt, and oblivion. Tasman Richardson is a Toronto based video artist. For over a decade he has exhibited or performed extensively throughout the Americas, Europe, North Africa and Asia. His work focuses on entropy, tele-presence, appropriation, synesthesia, and JAWA editing (of which he is the founder), in which musical composition and abstract narratives are created entirely from video cut ups. His artworks are available through Vtape, V-Atak, Art Metropole, and tasmanrichardson.com.


"Necropolis" is curated by Rhonda Corvese and presented by the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art. For the museum's widely acclaimed 'National Gallery of Canada at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art' program MOCCA presents "Spectral Landscape". The expression "losing yourself in the wilderness" takes on new meaning in works by Peter Doig, Tim Gardner, and Sarah Anne Johnson. Here ambiguous, hallucinatory vistas collide with sublime, pastoral scenes and the idea of the ruggedness of the hinterland clashes with its ultimate fragility. In each case, the realism of the works is interrupted by a sense of sheer uncanny. These multifarious landscapes mix autobiography with illusion, and the banal with the extraordinary, offering striking images that suggest a shift in our perceived relationship with the natural world.

Spectral Landscape is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art and the National Gallery of Canada. "Daisuke Takeya: GOD Loves Japan", an installation in MOCCA media/retail space, is a time-sensitive project memorializing the earthquake/tsunami disaster that took place in Japan on March 11th, 2011. This installation intends to raise awareness of Japan's long-term recovery needs and will encourage viewers to re-evaluate the meaning of love and empathy in our time. Born and raised in Japan, Daisuke Takeya obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Graduate School of Figurative Art at the New York Academy of Art and received Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual arts in the States. Currently based in Toronto, Canada, Daisuke has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Spain, the United States, and Canada. Venues have included the Japan Foundation, Toronto, the Embassy of Japan in Canada, Nuit Blanche, Seoul Auction, Pouch Cove Foundation, Wagner College Gallery, Mori Art Museum, Kyoto Art Center, and the Prince Takamado Gallery at the Embassy of Canada in Japan. Daisuke has co-directed and performed at Ashita: Artists for Japan, a Tsunami Relief Fundraiser in March, 2011, which featured the visual, music, dance, performance, and literary art communities of Toronto. Daisuke is also a past programming director and board member of Gendai Gallery, and is currently an artist and ambassador of ARTBOUND and co-director of DAICHI Projects.


The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA) was founded from the former Art Gallery of North York in 1999, and exists as a not-for-profit, arms-length agency of the City of Toronto. In 2005, MOCCA relocated to the West Queen West Art + Design District in downtown Toronto, in the heart of one of North America’s most dynamic arts communities. The facility is modest in scale, impressive in design, and functions effectively as a nucleus of energies for cultural production and exchange. The mandate of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art is to exhibit, research, collect, and promote innovative art by Canadian and international artists whose works engage and address challenging issues and themes relevant to our times. MOCCA is committed to providing a forum for emerging artists that show particular promise and to established artists whose works are considered to be ground-breaking or influential. Featuring two primary exhibition spaces, the 5,000 sq, ft. Main Space and the 1,000 sq. ft. Project Room, MOCCA presents a variety of original and thought provoking exhibitions. Since 2005, over 800 artists have been featured in more than 80 exhibitions and projects. In addition MOCCA includes work by non-Canadian artists, in group exhibitions, to foster a global context for the Canadian cultural voice. It is MOCCA’s objective to forge a network of contacts and partnerships locally, nationally and internationally as a catalyst for local-to-global connectivity and engagement. Since 2001 MOCCA has presented exhibitions and projects in 7 countries outside of Canada, including the United States, China, Taiwan, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.mocca.ca

---

Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~