Thursday, June 24, 2010

Worth a Look: Beyond Imaginings at Harbourfront Centre


While many are avoiding the downtown at all costs this G20 weekend, and many galleries and museums are closing (the AGO, the Gardiner Museum and U of T St George campus galleries included) one of the art centres closest to the summit grounds—Harbourfront Centre, which includes the Power Plant—is mostly open for business. One of the exhibitions there, Beyond Imaginings, can even be enjoyed 24/7, being posted on all-weather billboards as it is. The show, which will evolve with new photographs in October, focuses on 8 artists' views of the Greenbelt, a newish semi-protected zone around Toronto. As I write in a review out in this week's NOW,

While all the artists are quite capable, there are a couple of standouts: Meera Margaret Singh’s penetrating portraits of migrants and women in the agriculture sector put overlooked workers front and centre, suggesting toughness as well as vulnerability. They have a haunting, powerful depth.

On a different note, Mark Kasumovic’s wide, sprawling views of people at play in the landscape – flying kites in Kleinberg, fishing at Christie Lake or walking the Blue Mountain Caves – reframe our relationship to nature and tourism in a way that seems both intimate and sweeping.


You can read the full review here and see the full range of currently installed photos here.

(Image of Mark Kasumovic's photo of the Caledon Badlands from NOW)

2 comments:

kat said...

This is great Leah. I really enjoyed reading your review. Thank you!

Leah Sandals said...

Glad you liked it, Kat!