Last Chance: Mark Kasumovic @ TIW

A little show I saw and really enjoyed recently was Mark Kasumovic at Toronto Image Works. The show, which focuses on power-line infrastructure, closes tomorrow, Saturday, January 30. Definitely worth a look. Also, if you have the time while in 80 Spadina, check out Sammy Baloji's installation at the Contact fest's new gallery. Baloji's work (the Toronto debut for this Congolese photographer, I beleive) is up to March 14, but merits repeat visits. (I'll be going back.)

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Out Today: Arch-Art Gallery Hop in Nat Post

The research for this weekend's National Post gallery hop column got me thinking a lot about architecture. Maybe it's just (as I've mentioned previously) living across from a condo-construction site. Or maybe it's the still-hot museum trend for new buildings and renos. In any case, I saw a lot of architectural content in some Toronto shows of late. The column published today links a few of them. Here's an excerpt:

Toronto Image Works 80 Spadina Ave., Suite 207
In his latest exhibition of ice-fishing-hut photographs, Richard Johnson highlights architecture as image. And we're not talking about the usual 2-D qualities of colour prints here. Johnson deliberately shoots each hut straight-on so that only one facade of the building is revealed. His results possess a kind of super-flat, snapshot, steamroller effect; many of these structures, transformed by Johnson's eye, could be cardboard stage props plopped in a field, or pieces of paper pasted onto snowy-white backdrops. Even those very human touches of hut-owner decor - like maple-leaf patterns, lace curtains and even, in a touch of good humour, a tropical palm tree - appear at an unreal remove. Through extreme detail, viewer attention is also drawn to the visual textures of hut surfaces, be they battered, silvery metal, reclaimed wood panelling or acid-hued plywood. Some might find these pics too conceptually chilly, while others will delight in their colour and crystal clarity. To Sept. 5.

Richard Johnson image courtesy of Toronto Image Works via the National Post

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