14 December 2011

HIGHER GROUND update:
THANK-YOU ALL FOR COMING OUT AND SUPPORTING PLATFORM AT OUR FUNDRAISER THIS YEAR!!! Auction winners have all been contacted, and the delivery of prints will take place soon. Special thanks to all the artists who donated work for our event, as well as to: The Loft Gastropub DesignType The Labworks Colours PLATFORM offices will be closed until January 10th 2012.

03 December 2011

The 2011 PLATFORM Art Auction / Fundraiser, Higher Ground, will take place Saturday 10 December from 7PM - 2AM @ The Loft Gastropub [774 Corydon Avenue]. Entrance is $20.00 each! Check out the work you can bid on [cash, cheque, credit card accepted]. Email in your bid or call us [info@platformgallery.org 204.942.8183] ::
  • Auction Group 1: 10:30pm call
  1. Brendan Fernandes
  2. Larry Glawson
  3. Dominique Rey
  4. Collin Zipp
  • Brendan Fernandes
  • Artifact, 2010
  • digital print, edition 4/6
  • 12" x 8"
Born in Kenya of Indian heritage, BRENDAN FERNANDES immigrated to Canada in 1989. He completed the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art (2007) and earned his MFA (2005) from The University of Western Ontario and his BFA (2002) from York University in Canada. He has exhibited internationally and nationally including exhibitions at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Art and Design New York, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, The Art Gallery of Hamilton, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Andy Warhol Museum, The Art Gallery of York University, Manif d’Art: The Quebec City Biennial, The Third Guangzhou Triennial and the Western New York Biennial through The Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Fernandes has participated in numerous residency programs including The Canada Council for the Arts International Residency in Trinidad and Tobago (2006), The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Work Space (2008) and Swing Space (2009) programs, the AIM Program at the Bronx Museum (2009), The New Work Residency at Harvestwork, NY (2009), the Gyeonggi Creation Center Residency at the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Korea (2009) and ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany. He held the position of Artist in Residence at The School of Visual Arts, NY, in the graduate program for computer arts (2008). He was the recipient of a New Commissions Project through Art in General, NY (2010) and was the Ontario representative for the 2010 Sobey Art Award. In 2012 he will be featured in “Oh Canada” the largest survey of contemporary Canadian art ever produced outside Canada at the MASS MoCa. Fernandes’ work was recently acquired by the National Gallery of Canada. He is based between Toronto and New York.
  • Larry Glawson
  • Untitled (diptych with wasps), from the home bodies series, 2011
  • chromira print
  • 20" x 34"
LARRY GLAWSON has worked out of Winnipeg as a photo-artist for nearly thirty years. His work has been shown locally, nationally and internationally including exhibitions in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax, Edinburgh, New York, Helsinki, and Belgrade. He first taught photography at the University of Manitoba School of Art in 1990 and yearly since 1995, except while obtaining his MFA at the University of Western Ontario from 2000 – 2002. Glawson’s work over the last fifteen years has been largely involved with queer identities, politics and aesthetics. In June 2008, a major exhibition of his home bodies series was presented in Winnipeg. The survey exhibition of his work, 27 x Doug: Portraits by Larry Glawson, debuted at the University of Manitoba's Gallery One One One, and toured to Concordia University's FoFA Gallery in Montreal and Saint Mary's University Art Gallery in Halifax this past year.
  • Dominique Rey
  • Cottontail, 2011
  • c-print
  • 24" x 36"
DOMINIQUE REY has had a dozen one-person shows and has participated in an equal number of group exhibitions in both French and English Canada. She has also done residencies in Manitoba, Quebec and New Brunswick. Dominique Rey has been awarded grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council, the Winnipeg Arts Council, the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, and the Ricard Foundation. Her work has been reviewed in the Globe & Mail, Frieze, Canadian Art, Border Crossings, and the Winnipeg Free Press. Dominique Rey was named Winnipeg’s Visual Arts Ambassador for the 2010 Cultural Capital of Canada. She has recently been nominated to the 2011 Sobey Art Award Long List.
  • Collin Zipp
  • A Modern Community with Family Quarters, 2010
  • digital print
  • 16" x 20"
COLLIN ZIPP is a multidisciplinary artist whose work and research centers around notions of storytelling and contemporary myth making. He received his BFA from the University of Manitoba`s School of Art and his MFA from the University of Lethbridge. Zipp has been awarded grants from the Manitoba Arts Council and the Winnipeg Arts Council and from the Canada Council for the Arts for his artistic work.
Working with a variety of media including video, photography, sculpture and installation, Zipp has exhibited his work widely both nationally and internationally in both solo and group exhibitions and screenings. Selected exhibiting venues include Saskatoon’s Paved New Media, Winnipeg’s Plug In ICA, The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Wynick/Tuck in Toronto, Gatineau’s Daimon, the Boston Underground Film Festival, Halifax`s eyelevelgallery, the Kelowna Art Gallery, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, and Exchange Square in Manchester UK.
  • Auction Group 2: 11:00pm Call
  1. Suzy Lake
  2. William Eakin
  3. Sarah Crawley
  4. Richard Hines
  • Suzy Lake
  • Dance to Life, 2010 / 1986
  • c-print
  • 11 1/2" x 16 1/8"
SUZY LAKE’s rigorous and challenging approach to art-making has earned her recognition as a decisive figure in Canadian visual art. Over the past 40 years, she has captured the experience and expression of female identity within contemporary political, social, and media milieus. Widely regarded as a pioneer in body-based work, her photographic and performative explorations offer a powerful and nuanced investigation of embodiment, femininity, and beauty. Her work opens up the fraught figure-ground relationship between image and identity, a central concern in late 20th and early 21st century art practice. The recent exhibition organized by the University of Toronto Art Centre, Political Poetics, showcased Lake’s most recent time-based works, framing them within the broader context of a career long exploration of embodied subjectivity. Examining an underappreciated aspect of Lake’s practice, the exhibition contends that the poetics of Lake’s work—their formal aesthetic—provides a space for understanding their political intent.
  • William Eakin
  • 24 HOURS, 2011
  • pigment print
  • 17" x 22"
WILLIAM EAKIN is a photographer living and working in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he was born in 1952. He studied art at the Vancouver School of Art and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. Eakin's photographs draw upon the cultural iconography of the West. Often depicting vintage cowboy figurines and Western collectibles, his photographs stage insight into the manufacturing of the Western image and cowboy culture. Eakin is the recipient of numerous awards from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Manitoba Arts Council, including the Duke and Duchess of York Prize for Photography, and his work can be found in numerous public and private collections across the country.
  • Sarah Crawley
  • untitled (from the Belgrade series), 2006
  • colour photograph
  • 20" x 24"
SARAH CRAWLEY is a visual artist who has exhibited across Canada in solo and group exhibitions as well as internationally. By using multiple processes, she creates images that reveal the photographic technologies she employs in her work. Sarah’s art practice explores aspects of memory, identity, and communication. She is interested in how memory has an impact on identity and the non-verbal ways that identity is communicated. As an active member of the visual art community in Winnipeg Sarah enjoys sharing her passion for photography. She has worked as an arts administrator and teacher, has volunteered on several boards, and is currently involved in a community art project through Winnipeg Arts Council’s With Art program.
  • Richard Hines
  • Elbows, Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland, 2011
  • c-print, edition 1/10
  • 24" x 30"
RICHARD HINES was born and raised in Windsor, Ontario. He currently lives and works in Winnipeg. He has earned a MFA from NSCAD University in Halifax, a BFA from the University of Manitoba, and a BA from the University of Winnipeg. He has taught fine arts at the University of Saskatchewan, NSCAD University, and Mount Allison University. His work has been published and exhibited in Canada and the USA. In 2010, Richard and his work will be featured in Blackflash Magazine and enRoute Magazine. richardhinesphotography.com
  • Auction Group 3: 11:30pm call
  1. Elaine Stocki
  2. Guy Maddin
  3. Sarah Anne Johnson
  4. Lisa Stinner-Kun
  • Elaine Stocki
  • Salter, 2009
  • platinum print
  • 15" x 15"
ELAINE STOCKI was raised in Winnipeg, Canada. She earned two undergraduate degrees from the University of Manitoba (Bachelor of Science and Fine Arts) before completing her Master’s degree in Photography at Yale University (2009). Elaine has exhibited at the Deutsche Guggenheim (Berlin) and Zach Feuer (New York). She divides her time between Brooklyn, New York and Winnipeg, Canada. Stocki was shortlisted for the prestigious Grange Prize 2011, whose jury noted: Elaine Stocki’s photographs began drawing critical attention when she was still an undergraduate student at the University of Manitoba. Now based in Brooklyn, she continues to hone a practice that challenges the expected limits of documentary photography by infusing its conventions with a constructed theatricality expressed in a voice uniquely her own. Working with subjects from a range of social standings – some of whom are strangers she meets by placing classified ads – Stocki creates compositions that explore the pressing issues of race, class and gender. While her themes are age-old, her language is remarkable in its seamless merging of reality and fantasy, order and disorder, humour and tragedy. Stocki roots herself in the history of photography, but has devised an approach to the medium which allows her to create images that are consistently unexpected and unconventional and always provocative.
  • Guy Maddin
  • St Mary's Academy and College, 2007
  • collage
  • 6 1/2" x 6 1/2"
GUY MADDIN is a Winnipeg-based filmmaker with ten features to his credit, including cult-classic Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1988); and Archangel (1990), which won the U.S. National Film Critics Award for best experimental film of the year. Since then he has won many other awards – including the Telluride Silver Medal for life achievement in 1995; an Emmy for his ballet movie Dracula -- Pages from a Virgin's Diary; the San Francisco International Film Festival's prestigious Persistence of Vision Award in 2006, and others – and created dozens of beguiling films in his unique personal style. These include such celebrated feature works as The Saddest Music in the World (2003), Brand upon the Brain! (2006), and My Winnipeg (2007), winner of the TIFF City TV Prize for Best Canadian Feature. His latest feature, Keyhole, premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in 2011. Maddin is also a writer and teacher, and occupies the position of Distinguished Filmmaker in Residence at the University of Manitoba.
  • Sarah Anne Johnson
  • Sharks (working print) 2005
  • b+w print
  • 11" x 14"
SARAH ANNE JOHNSON received her BFA from the University of Manitoba in 2002, and completed her MFA at the Yale School of the Art in 2004. Johnson’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions internationally. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Grange Prize, granted by the Art Gallery of Ontario and Aeroplan, and a Major Grant from the Manitoba Arts Council. She has received numerous positive reviews in many publications including the New York Times, Village Voice, New York Magazine, Frieze, Modern Painters, Canadian Art, Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, Winnipeg Free Press, Art Forum, American Art Magazine, and Art on Paper. Three of her exhibitions were purchased in their entirety by major museums; namely, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography and Art Gallery of Ontario. Other institutions who collect her work are the New York Library, the Spencer Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Bank of Montreal. She remains an active presence in Winnipeg where she lives and works. For the last few years and ongoing, she participates in thesis committees at the University of Manitoba and last year she was a mentor for MAWA (Mentoring Artists for Woman’s Art). Johnson was a finalist for the Sobey Art Award 2011, representing the Prairies and the North.
  • Lisa Stinner-Kun
  • Hydro (floor boards), 2009
  • digital c-print
  • 34" x 44"
Since graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Photography, LISA STINNER-KUN's work has also been featured in several exhibitions, locally, nationally and internationally among them solo exhibition at Winnipeg's PLATFORM Centre (2007), and Gallery 803 (2008). She has received numerous grants and scholarships, and most recently was awarded a Visual Arts grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. Her work has been written about in Border Crossings Magazine, the exhibition monograph vague terrain published by PLATFORM, the Winnipeg Free Press, and Warehouse, a journal of the Faculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba. Stinner’s photographs have also been highlighted in several juried publications including Carte Blanche (2006) and Flash Forward (2006, 2007). Stinner obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Manitoba where she has been teaching photography as a sessional instructor. www.lisastinnerkun.com
  • Auction Group 4: 12:00am call
  1. Diana Thorneycroft
  2. Scott Benesiinaabandan
  3. Karen Asher
  4. Paul Robles
  • Diana Thorneycroft
  • Forest Tabernacle Choir, 2011
  • c-print
  • 17" x 21"
DIANA THORNEYCROFT is a Winnipeg artist who has exhibited various bodies of work across Canada, the United States and Europe, as well as in Moscow, Tokyo and Sydney. She is the recipient of numerous awards including an Assistance to Visual Arts Long-term Grant from the Canada Council, several Senior Arts Grants from the Manitoba Arts Council and a Fleck Fellowship from the Banff Centre for the Arts. Her work has been the subject of national radio documentaries and a CBC national documentary for television. Thorneycroft's photo-based exhibition, The Body, its lesson and camouflage was on an eight city tour from 2000 to 2002. A book by the same name was published. Thorneycroft's work has been included in the 2002 released Phaidon Press publication Blink, which presents the work of 100 rising stars in photography. They have been selected by 10 world-class curators, each proposing 10 photographers who they consider to have emerged and broken new ground in the last five years.
  • Scott Benesiinaabandan
  • KISSKISSSHAKESHAKE, 2011
  • digital print
  • 24" x 44"
SCOTT BENESIINAABANDAN is an Anishinabe artist based in Winnipeg who works in photography, printmaking and video, among other media. Scott has recently completed an international residency at Context Gallery in Derry, North of Ireland (2010) and in Oklahoma with photographer Rita Leistner (2009). In the past four years, Benesiinaabandan has been awarded grants from the Manitoba Arts Council and the Winnipeg Arts Council for his artistic work. Benesiinaabandan has taken part in several group exhibitions across Canada and in the United States, most notably in Subconscious City at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 2008, Harbourfont’s Flatter the Land/Bigger the Ruckus in 2006 and recently presented his first solo exhibition, unSacred, at Gallery 1C03 this past January. He is currently preparing to do an arts project with the Roma/Traveller community in Europe in June. benesiinaabandan.com
  • Karen Asher
  • Erik the Great, 2010
  • c-print
  • 24" x 24"
KAREN ASHER is a lens-based artist from Winnipeg. She received her BFA Thesis in photography from the University of Manitoba in 2009. Asher is the recipient of numerous grants and awards and is featured in Flash Forward 2010 - Emerging Photographers from Canada, United Kingdom and the United States as well as the recently published book Front Line: Interviews with International Contemporary Photo-Based Artists. She had her first solo exhibition last year at Platform and was written up in several publications including The National Post, Canadian Art, BlackFlash and Border Crossings Magazine. Asher recently exhibited work at Toronto's Contact Photography Festival, the Gimli Film Festival, and the 2011 Pingyao International Photography Festival in Beijing. She is currently preparing for her upcoming solo exhibition at Truck Contemporary Art in Calgary. www.karenasher.ca
  • Paul Robles
  • Red River White Trainers, 2011
  • Collage / Cut Origami on Vellum
  • 18" x 15"
PAUL ROBLES is a Canadian artist based in Winnipeg. Born in the Philippines; he immigrated to Canada with his family at the age of four. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (First Class- Gold Medal) from University of Manitoba and Bachelor of Arts degree (Sociology) from the University of Winnipeg. Robles has exhibited nationally and internationally including Outpost Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Galerie Keza, Paris, France; Malaspina, Vancouver, BC: The New Gallery, Calgary, AB: Rideau Hall (Governor General Selected), Ottawa, ON; Doris McCarthy Gallery, Toronto, ON; as well as Plug In ICA and The Winnipeg Art Gallery. His work is featured as a CBC ArtSpots; published in Border Crossings Magazine, The Globe and Mail, Walrus, G.Love Magazines; and is a public artist bike rack on Broadway - commissioned by the City of Winnipeg/The Winnipeg Arts Council. In 2011, his work was showcased as part of the My Winnipeg group exhibition in Paris and Sete, France; at the Drake Hotel in Toronto and at Julia Saul Gallery in New York City this December. Robles is represented by Galerie Keza (Paris, France).
Film Screening, Thursday 08 December, 7PM followed by a discussion. Free Admission. In the gallery.
  • In partnership with Alliance Française, PLATFORM presents:
  • Barcelona or die by Idrissa Guiro
  • In conjunction with our current exhibition, Always Moving Forward Contemporary African Photography from the Wedge Collection(up until December 10th), PLATFORM is very excited to be working with Alliance Française in the presentation of this documentary film. Barcelona or die by Idrissa Guiro (2007), received in 2008 the Best Documentary Award from the Trophées des Arts afro-caribéen Festivaland the Prix Louis Marcorelles from Cinema du Reel Festival.
  • The documentary discusses the mass exodus of young Africans to the European continent: “In a suburb of Dakar, passengers are waiting to reach Europe in fragile boats, dealing with the risk of dissappearing under the waters of the Atlantic. The local fishing is in bankrupt or in jeopardy, and the country can’t provide a future for its youth. In every family, someone dreams of going oversea”.
  • The discussion will be led by Mamadou Ka, professor of political science at the University of St. Boniface.
  • For a preview of the film, please follow the link.

Mamadou Ka holds a BA in Politics, LLB, MA (International Relations and Comparative Politics) and has completed his Ph.D course work in Political Science, which he teaches at the Collège Universitaire de St. Boniface in Winnipeg. He also teaches African Development issues at the Menno Simon College/The University of Winnipeg. Mamadou is also a Political Analyst on French CBC radio and television.

22 November 2011

Day With(out) Art Film Screening Friday 02 December at 7PM @ PLATFORM \ *free admission.

VisualAIDS and PLATFORM present

Untitled by Jim Hodges, Carlos Marques da Cruz and Encke King

PLATFORM observes the 22nd Day With(out) Art, taking place on World AIDS Day, by participating in the national, simultaneous, free screenings of Untitled, a film by Jim Hodges, Encke King, and Carlos Marques da Cruz.

Day With(out) Art was launched by Visual AIDS in 1989 as a national day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis. PLATFORM will be screening Untitled as part of Day With(out) Art along with over 55 major museums, arts organizations, community groups, and colleges throughout the United States.

Untitled, is a 60-minute non-linear montage of archival and pop footage recalling the passionate activism sparked by the early years of the AIDS crisis. Viewers can visit the Untitled website built for Day With(out) Art 2011 by Creative Time at www.creativetime.org/daywithoutart to watch a trailer, view the list of participating venues, access the Resource Guide, respond to the film, and engage in dialogue about the work necessary to end AIDS.

Visual AIDS utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over. Visual AIDS is the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to HIV prevention and AIDS awareness through producing and presenting visual art projects, while assisting artists living with HIV/AIDS. We are committed to preserving and honoring the work of artists with HIV/AIDS and the artistic contributions of the AIDS movement. www.visualaids.org.

Visual AIDS launched Day With(out) Art as a World AIDS Day initiative in 1989 to mourn those we have lost and to promote a broader awareness of the crisis. At it’s height Day With(out) Art was a collaborative project of an estimated 8,000 national and international museums, galleries, art centers, AIDS Service Organizations, libraries, high schools and colleges. In 1997 we suggested Day Without Art become a Day WITH Art, to recognize and promote increased programming of cultural events that draw attention to the continuing pandemic. Though "the name was retained as a metaphor for the chilling possibility of a future day without art or artists", we added parentheses to the program title, Day With(out) Art, to highlight the proactive programming of art projects by artists living with HIV/AIDS, and art about AIDS, that were taking place around the world. It had become clear that active interventions within the annual program were far more effective than actions to negate or reduce the programs of cultural centers. As the AIDS crisis and our understanding of it evolve, so must our actions. Visual AIDS continues to produce a year-round program of thought-provoking exhibitions, events and artist editions promoting HIV prevention and AIDS Awareness.

19 November 2011

Artist Talk with Dawit L. Petros
  • Monday November 21, 12pm @ The University of Manitoba School of Art, Room 303 FitzGerald Building
  • In conjunction with Always Moving Forward Contemporary Africa Photography from the Wedge Collection
Dawit L. Petros was born in Asmara, Eritea and currently lives and works in New York. He has exhibited his work in group shows throughout Canada and in the United States, including the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit, Wedge Curatorial Projects, Prefix Photo, and the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. He has also exhibited at the Photographic Resource Center at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and the Maison de la culture Frontenac in Montréal. Petros has received Fulbright and J. Armand Bombardier Internationalist Fellowships, as well as an Art Matters foundation grant and he has participated in residencies at the Center for Photography, Woodstock, and the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Image: Proposition 1: Mountain. 66 x 86.4cm, digital print, 2007

29 October 2011

Always Moving Forward Contemporary African Photography from the Wedge Collection Mohamed Bourouissa, Mohamed Camara, Calvin Dondo, Samuel Fosso, Hassan Hajjaj, Bouchra Khalili, Antony Kaminju Kimani, Lebohang Mashiloane, Aȉda Muluneh, Dawit L. Petros, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Guy Tillim, Andrew Tshabangu, Nontsikelelo 'Lolo" Veleko Curated by Kenneth Montague
Dawit L. Petros, Proposition 1: Mountain, 66 x 86.4cm, digital print, 2007.
  • Exhibition: 03 November - 10 December 2011
  • Opening Reception + Curatorial Tour: Thursday 03 November, 7PM
  • Artist Talk with Dawit L. Petros @ The University of Manitoba School of Art: Monday 21 November, 12PM
  • Film Night with Alliance Française @ PLATFORM: Thursday 08 December, 7PM
Always Moving Forward features photo-based work by a diverse range of young African-born artists in Toronto's Wedge Collection. Curated by Ken Montague, this exhibition highlights a generation of global artists exploring different dimensions of the African imaginary and African spaces. Living and working across Africa, North America and Europe, their work points to the reality of African diasporic identities as being fluid, constantly in flux. These are artists who have turned to lens-based practices to open up a kind of critical "third space" countering the history of Western media as a purveyor of "Afro-pessimism." Their internationally acclaimed work also reflects the current shift away from the commercial studio portraiture that predominated in Africa in previous decades, to reveal an emphasis on conceptual art, documentary, fashion and street photography. The exhibition provides a glimpse at how emerging technologies, transitioning landscapes, rampant globalization and forces of capitalism including the influence of advertising and new media is rapidly changing the continent and people. - Pamela Edmonds.
Kenneth Montague is an art collector and curator based in Toronto, Canada. Founder and director of Wedge Curatorial Projects, he began collecting and exhibiting photo-based work that explored black identity and the African diaspora over ten years ago. The Wedge Collection has grown to encompass both historical and contemporary photography, as well as non-photo based works that challenge notions of representation and identity.
PLATFORM acknowledges the support of its membership, Board of Directors, staff, and partners in presentation. Operating and project assistance for PLATFORM programming is provided by: Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, The Winnipeg Foundation, and The W.H. & S.E. Loewen Foundation. Platform would also like to acknowledge Alliance Française du Manitoba, Wedge Curatorial Projects and the University of Manitoba. For more information about this exhibition or other PLATFORM programming, please contact the Centre directly: PLATFORM | 121-100 Arthur Street [Artspace Building] | Winnipeg, Manitoba | R3B 1H3 | 204.942.8183 | www.platformgallery.org

04 October 2011

In partnership with send + receive: a festival of sound v. 13, PLATFORM is pleased to present:
ZIMOUN 150 prepared dc-motors, filler wire 1.0mm sound installation
  • Exhibition: October 06-29, 2011
  • Opening Reception: Thursday 06 October @ 7:30PM
"Zimoun breaks the distance we think exists between structure and chaos. Ordered, structured, and temporal-minded work enables the organic creation of noise by pared-down elements that evoke a Minimalist ethos. Though you stop to listen, you hear what you might have missed.
Planned and ordered mechanisms enable minimal materials to make the noise they happen to make. This causes us to think about what structure means for creative production. Does creative freedom benefit from planned organization?" - Kowtow blog
Zimoun, born 1977, is an installation and sound artist from Switzerland. Exploring mechanical rhythm and flow in prepared systems, the sculptures and sound architectures of Zimoun incorporate commonplace industrial objects. The pieces transform constructed acoustic electrical noises into reverberating ambient hums that resemble natural systems. The artist focuses on creating acoustic architecture with an organic feel, investigating the properties of sound, materials, resonance and generative systems.
  • In the past years Zimoun 's work has won several prizes and awards and have been exhibited and shown as live performances in numerous countries in Europe as well as in China, Singapore, Egypt, Canada and the US.

PLATFORM acknowledges the support of its membership, Board of Directors, staff, and partners in presentation. Operating and project assistance for PLATFORM programming is provided by: Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council, The Winnipeg Foundation, and the W.H. & S.E. Loewen Foundation and The Canada Council for the Arts. For more information, please contact the centre directly: PLATFORM | 121-100 Arthur Street [Artspace Building] | Winnipeg, Manitoba | R3B 1H3 | 204.942.8183 | www.platformgallery.org

09 September 2011

GUY MADDIN HAUNTINGS I
  • Exhibition: 02 September - 02 October 2011
  • Opening Reception: Friday 02 September, 7PM
  • Screening of Our Winnipeg, by Sarah Febbraro + Art City participants: Friday 16 September, 7PM
  • Artist Talk with Guy Maddin: Saturday 01 October, 3PM
  • WNDX Closing Party with Artist-in-Attendance: Saturday 01 October, 11PM, during Nuit Blanche
  • Collaboration Between WNDX & PLATFORM

Opening at Platform Centre (Main floor of the Artspace Building, 100 Arthur Street), this multi-channel installation will be presented in a haunted-house like setting, with the films projected on to bedsheets, cheesecloth and other surfaces, while the evocative soundtracks flood the gallery.

Through this recent work, which was commissioned for the opening of the TIFF Bell Lightbox, home of the Toronto International Film Festival, Maddin continues to explore the history of film, which he describes as "a haunted medium, a projection of people, places and things not really present."

Following it's initial presentation in Toronto, Maddin's Hauntings project was presented at the Berlinale, and most recently as part of the hugely successful tour de force, My Winnipeg, organized by Plug In ICA and presented in Paris at La Maison Rouge.

He summons the unmade and lost films of F.W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, Hollis Frampton, Victor Sjöström, Jean Vigo, Kenji Mizoguchi and Josef von Sternberg, and rescues cinematographic ghosts from oblivion. Consigned to limbo, now resurrected and remade, he projects these masterpieces so that they might continue to haunt film history.

  • The WNDX Festival is scheduled September 29 – October 2, 2011
  • “Hauntings” was commissioned for the opening of the TIFF Bell Lightbox, 2010

PLATFORM acknowledges the support of its membership, Board of Directors, staff, and partners in presentation. Operating and project assistance for PLATFORM programming is provided by: Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council, The Winnipeg Foundation, and The W.H. & S.E. Loewen Foundation. PLATFORM + WNDX extend thanks to our colleagues at aceartinc. for in-kind support of this project. For more information about this exhibition or other PLATFORM programming, please contact the Centre directly:

PLATFORM | 121-100 Arthur Street [Artspace Building] | Winnipeg, Manitoba | R3B 1H3 | 204.942.8183 | www.platformgallery.org

08 September 2011

A Reading of Chicago of the North by Hannah Godfrey
  • Thursday, August 8 - 6PM
  • a story stemming from her research-based installation on the member's wall P121

"If the thought of extracting money from Madam had ever crossed a Winnipegger's mind it would have been tied to the tracks of decency and disembowelled by the freight train of common sense..."

Tap dancing typists, a wallet made out of a dead dog's ears, the most notorious boozecan in the Prairies: this is the backdrop for the battle between the reigning Madam of the city and the dangerously greedy Chief of Police. Inspired in part by trawling through the PLATFORM online archive, this story is a work of Winnipeg Folklore.

Image. "Megan" by Debra Mosher

09 August 2011

Language Formed In Light: A selection of works by Barry Doupé

  • Tuesday, August 16 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm
  • The Black Lodge - 3rd Floor Artspace
    100 Arthur St.
Please join us TUESDAY 16 August @ 7PM in The Black Lodge / ARTSPACE for the final screening of Language Formed in Light, guest-curated by Clint Enns. All screenings are Free and open to the public.
  • Doors at 7:00 / Screening at 7:30
  • ***WITH BARRY DOUPÉ IN PERSON****
...
  • PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts presents the conclusion of our four-part monthly screening series curated by Clint Enns. Language Formed in Light has been comprised of different film screening nights featuring experimental films and video art by recognized and note-worthy contributors to the medium from Canada and the United States. The works in this series were selected due to their innovative use of cinematic language. Some of the titles create an entirely new filmic language, while others focus on expanding the established cinematic vocabulary. Previous screenings in this series included work by: Shana Moulton, Ben Russell, and most recently Michael Robinson.
  • The final screening in this series is three works by Barry Doupé, namely, Thalé, Distraught Mother Reunites with Her Children and At the Heart of a Sparrow. Through haphazard, yet stunningly beautiful 3D computer animation, Doupé explores the tropes of narrative cinema while seemingly rejecting traditional forms of narrative. In this work, ambiguous symbols, repetition and ambiguity are used to explore universal themes such as anxiety, failure and the rites of passage. In addition, Doupé constantly plays with audience expectations creating surreal (and quite often humourous) situations. It should be noted that this work is not for the cinematically lazy, however, the work is as equally rewarding as it is demanding.
  • Program:
  1. Thalé (2009, 5 minutes)
  2. Distraught Mother Reunites with Her Children (2005, 25 minutes)
  3. At the Heart of a Sparrow (2006, 29 minutes)
  • PLATFORM wishes to acknowledge the support of its membership, board of directors, volunteers, and staff. Language Formed in Light is made possible with funding received from Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council, and Canada Council for the Arts.

28 July 2011

Artistic Licence Bureau A Performative Installation by Glen Johnson
  • Exhibition 04-26 August 2011
  • Opening Reception Thursday 04 August, 7PM
  • Hours Tuesday-Saturday, Noon-5PM
PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts is relatively pleased to announce the opening of the performative installation, Artistic Licence Bureau, by Glen Johnson. In a parody of the bureaucratization of the art world, and the seemingly endless ways artistic practices have become systemized, Johnson has created an office where artistic licences are dispensed.

Visitors to the Artistic Licence Bureau [ALB] will be able to experience all the fun that comes with a trip to a government office: waiting in line, filling in forms and having an unflattering photograph taken.

The ALB also offers a veritable potpourri (pronounced potpourri) of information pamphlets intended to demystify the various artistic practices one might endeavour to pursue: "It's Nothing Really, a Guide to Making Conceptual Art"; "ME, ME, ME, Turn Your Self-Obsession Into a Career as a Performance Artist"; and "How Long is This Thing? A Guide to Video Art" etc. Visitors to the ALB will be able to apply for (and possibly receive) a provisional Artistic Licence in order to finally have proof that they are not dilettantes but actual artists.

Please join us for the opening reception Thursday the 04th of August beginning at 7PM. Refreshments will be served (well, they will be there, out on a table - no one is going to actually serve them to you).

Since graduating from the University of Winnipeg with a BA in classics in 1993, Glen Johnson has produced a large body of writing that has been distributed in the form of brochures, novellas, and insertions within various catalogues and books. His performances, invariably involving text, and that take the form of storytelling segments or lectures accompanied by projected images, have been performed at The National Gallery of Canada (2008), the University of Winnipeg's Gallery 1C03 (2007), Winnipeg Art Gallery (2006), Mount Saint Vincent University (2005), PLATFORM, Winnipeg (2005), aceartinc (2009, 2005, 2003), and The Annex (2004). Among other strategies, Johnson incorporates humour in almost every (guess which ones!) artwork he produces.

PLATFORM wishes to acknowledge the support of its membership, board of directors, volunteers, and staff. Operating funding for PLATFORM exhibitions and projects is received from Manitoba Arts Council and Winnipeg Arts Council.

For more information about this exhibition or other PLATFORM programming, please contact the Centre directly: PLATFORM | 121-100 Arthur Street [Artspace Building] | Winnipeg, Manitoba | R3B 1H3 | 204.942.8183 | www.platformgallery.org

21 July 2011

  • Curator's Tour: Saturday July 23 @ 3PM
  • Please join us at PLATFORM for a unique look at the current exhibition, Haven't We Been Here Before? as Kegan McFadden hosts an intimate discussion.
  • Haven't We Been Here Before?
PLATFORM THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITIONS! Until 23 July 2011
Recently Reviewed by Allison Gilmore for The Winnipeg Free Press
So Many Letdowns Before We Get Up... // Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

In celebration of PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts' Thirtieth Anniversary, The Centre will be presenting two exhibitions simultaneously: So Many Letdowns Before We Get Up... featuring work in sculpture, drawings, installation and video by: Jo-Anne Balcaen, Steven Leyden Cochrane, Maura Doyle, Glen Fogel, Alex Kisilevich, Kelly Mark, Ashley Neese, Ryan Peter, and Jim Verburg, with J.J. Kegan McFadden as curator; and Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Aleesa Cohene, Alex Da Corte, Jon Pylypchuk, and Markus Vater with Kim Nguyen as curator. As an anniversary project, we have opted to invite a roster of emerging and mid-career artists who have not yet exhibited with PLATFORM. Together, these exhibits offer insights and ruminations on failed love and thwarted dreams, as well as an overall malaise and melancholy stemming from our current climate steeped in popular culture. Stay tuned for the forthcoming publication featuring artist pages from all involved, as well as curatorial texts and essays by invited contributors.
PLATFORM acknowledges the support of its membership, Board of Directors, staff, and partners in presentation. Operating and project assistance for PLATFORM programming is provided by: Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, The Winnipeg Foundation, and The W.H. & S.E. Loewen Foundation. Seemed Like a Good Idea the Time was originally curated by Kim Nguyen for Or Gallery (Vancouver) in September 2010; we extend our gratitude to Or and their staff for their assistance in re-presenting this exhibit. Special thanks to the artists and their representatives, including: Paul Petro Contemporary Art (Toronto), Fleisher/Ollman Gallery (Philadelphia), China Art Objects (Los Angeles), Friedrich Petzel Gallery (New York City). For more information about this exhibition or other PLATFORM programming, please contact the Centre directly: PLATFORM | 121-100 Arthur Street [Artspace Building] | Winnipeg, Manitoba | R3B 1H3 | 204.942.8183 | www.platformgallery.org

20 July 2011

CANCELLED DUE TO LACK OF ENROLLMENT [stay tuned for rescheduling this Fall]: Photography Walk with Duncan McNairnay

  • Thursday 21 July 2011, 7PM (Meet at PLATFORM at 6:45PM
  • $20 members, $35 non members (including membership)
  • Toy cameras provided for those who do not have one
  • 1 roll of film included
  • No photography experience necessary
Join us for a unique take on the popular 'photo walk' experience. This is a social photography event where lo-fi shooters will be touring the exchange district while photographing with toy cameras. We will seek to create a unique perspective on this city using the plastic lenses, minimal controls and film based images that these cameras are so well known for, and at the same time mingle and have fun with other photographers. If you've never shot with a toy camera before, now's your opportunity!
Duncan McNairnay has been in love with film for five years. He enjoys street photography, the snapshot, and unusual results. He is also an instructor at PrairieView School of Photography and has exhibited works in various group shows within Winnipeg.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanmcnairnay