Internationally Acclaimed Artists Explore the Theme: Public

TORONTO, April 24, 2012 /CNW/ - The 2012 Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, one of Canada's premier cultural events, will showcase Canadian and international artists and photographers exhibiting at almost 200 venues throughout Toronto. From April 27 to May 31, an extensive range of free exhibitions, public installations, films, lectures and workshops will be presented to more than one million people.

Now in its 16th year, CONTACT  continues to expand exhibition of groundbreaking photography. The festival includes 7 Primary Exhibitions, 11 Public Installations and 32 Featured Exhibitions, with more than 1,000 artists exhibiting their work at 134 Open Exhibitions across the city.

"The Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival presents powerful imagery across the city, reflecting our changing world," says Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival Executive Director, Darcy Killeen. "This year will be remarkable, with renowned artists including Berenice Abbott, Ai Weiwei, Henri-Cartier Bresson, Lynne Cohen, Tim Hetherington, Larry Towell, and Michael Wolf to name a few."

Stimulated by the renewed global interest in street photography, Scotiabank CONTACT 2012 explores the theme "Public". Drawing attention to social and political issues that are framed by photographic images, the works presented challenge the distinctions between our private lives and the public sphere. Scotiabank CONTACT 2012 highlights how photography shapes collective experience and makes things public.

"We see the powerful role the arts play in enriching the communities where we live and work, and that's part of what makes Scotiabank CONTACT such an important event for us," said Jane Nokes, Director, Scotiabank Corporate Archives & Fine Art, Executive Director, Scotiabank Photography Award. "It's important for us to support festivals like this one, which showcase incredible artistic talent and makes the arts accessible to a broader number of Canadians." 

Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival is pleased to present seven Primary Exhibitions:

Street View
Harry Callahan, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Gilden, Leon Levinstein, Helen Levitt, Lisette Model, Weegee
Spanning six decades, from the 1930s to the 1980s, Street View reflects the development of street photography as a record of city life and shifting social and economic conditions. Drawn from the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, this exhibition highlights the work of seven photographers whose seminal visions helped to describe the 20th-century urban landscape. Organized by the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA).
National Gallery of Canada at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art
April 28 - Jun 3. Opening Friday April 27, 7 - 10pm

PUBLIC: Collective Identity | Occupied Spaces

In an age of social media, global urbanization, protest and revolution, photography plays a crucial role in mediating our understanding of contemporary life. This two-venue exhibition, Public: Collective Identity | Occupied Spaces, presents images from around the world to explore the ways we articulate our identity in public, and the tensions that arise from the occupation of public space. Organized with the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art and University of Toronto Art Centre (UTAC). Curated by Matthew Brower, David Liss and Bonnie Rubenstein.
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art: Main Space
April 28 - June 3. Opening Friday April 27, 7 - 10pm
University of Toronto Art Centre
May 1 - June 30. Opening Saturday April 28, 6 - 8pm

Larry Towell, Donovan Wylie: Afghanistan
This exhibition brings together two acclaimed Magnum photographers who explore the consequences of the armed conflict in Afghanistan from contrasting perspectives. Larry Towell's black-and-white photographs reveal the devastating effects of war on the people and landscapes of Afghanistan. Donovan Wylie's colour photographs document the operating bases built by the Canadian military for surveillance and defense of the surrounding terrain. Organized with the Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). Curated by Francisco Alvarez and Bonnie Rubenstein.
Institute of Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum
May 5 - July 15. Opening Friday May 4, 6 - 8:30pm

Lynne Marsh: Upturned Starry Sky
Upturned Starry Sky presents a selection of works by Lynne Marsh that are brought together under the rubric of spectacle. Engaging with three sites in Berlin—an empty sports stadium, a disused amusement park, and the interior of an orchestral concert hall—Marsh positions the viewer as participant in the social relation that gives each location its essential meaning. Curated by Bonnie Rubenstein.
CONTACT Gallery
April 28 - Jun 16. Opening Thursday May 10, 6 - 9pm

Berenice Abbott: Photographs
Featuring more than 120 photographs, this is the first exhibition in Canada to cover the many facets of the American photographer, Berenice Abbott (1898-1991). A committed member of the avant-garde, and staunch opponent of the Pictorialist movement and the school of Alfred Stieglitz, Abbott spent the whole of her career exploring the limits of documentary photography and photographic realism. Organized by the Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto, and the Jeu De Paume, Paris. 
Presented in partnership with the Ryerson Image Centre and the Art Gallery of Ontario. This exhibition is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art. The presentation in Toronto is supported by Ryerson University and the Ontario Arts Council. Curated by Gaëlle Morel.
Art Gallery Of Ontario
May 23 - August 19. Opening May 23, 6 - 8:30pm

Lynne Cohen: Nothing is Hidden
Scotiabank Photography Award 2011 Winner Exhibition
Throughout her career, Lynne Cohen has largely focused on investigating the interiors of domestic, industrial, leisure, and educational institutions revealing the unexpected dimensions of public and private spaces. Her cool, and intriguing images, precisely executed and infused with uninflected light, reveal a great deal about the scope and limitations of our abilities to control chaos and make sense of the external world. Organized by the Scotiabank Photography Award. Curated by Barr Gilmore.
Design Exchange
May 3 - Jun 30

Public Installations

Showcasing artists from Canada and abroad, public installations throughout Toronto reflect the ways photography frames our ideas of "public". CONTACT presents site-specific projects by artists Sabine Bitter / Helmut Weber (at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, south facade), Max Dean (at the AGO and CONTACT events), Jim Goldberg (on billboards at Front and Spadina), Melanie Manchot (at the Distillery Historic District), Scott McFarland (at MOCCA courtyard), and Bill Sullivan (at Pearson Airport Terminal 1). In the Toronto subway system images by Alyssa Bisonath, Ruth Kaplan, Aaron Vincent Elkaim, Brent Lewin, Debra Friedman, and Robert Poulton are shown on platform posters, and in response to an open call a selection of images submitted by members of the public are shown on the LCD screens.

Derek Besant's series Public Spaces/Private Thoughts includes eight black and white portraits presented on TTC subway station posters. A special project supported by Pattison Outdoor Advertising.

A special Cross-Canada Billboards project, Sleeping Soldiers, presents portraits of sleeping American soldiers by the late photojournalist and filmmaker, Tim Hetherington, who was killed in April 2011 while on assignment in the besieged city of Misrata, Libya. The images feature on billboards, at the intersection of College, Dundas and Lansdowne in Toronto, and in five cities across Canada (Dartmouth, Montreal, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Vancouver). Supported by partnership with Pattison Outdoor Advertising and Nikon Canada.

Featured Exhibitions
Reflecting a diversity of approaches—documentary to abstraction—the 34 Featured Exhibitions presented at diverse venues throughout Toronto were developed through a public call for proposals and by means of collaboration within the community. Artists from around the world present a wide range of photographic works that speak to the vitality of the medium today.

Scotiabank CONTACT is pleased to presented 8 documentary films on photography in partnership with Hot Docs that reveal the life and work of internationally acclaimed artists and photographers. Highlights include Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry by director Alison Klayman, McCullin about the acclaimed war photographer Don McCullin, directed by Jacqui Morris, and The Queen Of Versailles, by photographer and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield.
Hot Docs
April 26 - May 6

CONTACT Portfolio Reviews continues to provide an opportunity for artists and photographers to meet with some of the most important professionals in the field. Located at the Gladstone Hotel on May 6 and 7.

For the fifth consecutive year Magnum Photos Workshop returns to Toronto, bringing Richard Kalvar, Constantine Manos, Mark Power, and Larry Towell to teach a week-long intensive shooting workshop at Ryerson University. In conjunction with the workshop evening lectures by each photographer are open to the public on May 8, 9, and 11.

BMW Exhibition Prize & Art Auction
The BMW Exhibition Prize of $5000 acknowledges an outstanding exhibition in the festival. The announcement of the winner will be made at an exclusive engagement held at the MOCCA on May 17.

Canadian photographers Jesse Louttit, Javier Lovera, Zach Slootsky, and Christopher Stevenson were invited to capture a new BMW using their own distinctive vision. These prints are the latest collection for the BMW Art Auction benefiting the Air Canada Foundation. www.bmw.ca/art.

NIKON Contest
NIKON will provide an online platform initiated through Facebook for people to share their photographs on the theme Public. CONTACT will post a series of selected images on the festival website during the month of May.

The Festival launches at the MOCCA on April 27, 7pm, supported by our official suppliers Kronenbourg, Cutty Sark and Santa Carolina. See the first appearance of the Foto Bug, a Public Installation by Max Dean.

www.scotiabankcontactphoto.com

About Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival
CONTACT, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1997 and granted charitable status in 2011, is generously supported by Scotiabank, BMW Group Canada, Nikon Canada, Torys LLP, Ernst & Young LLP, Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc., Pattison Outdoor Advertising, Vistek, Kronenbourg, Cutty Sark, Transcontinental PLM, 3M Canada, Genstar, Beyond Digital Imaging, Toronto Image Works, Superframe, The Drake Hotel, The Gladstone Hotel, Santa Carolina, Blurb, Toronto Star, The Grid, Fashion Television and BlogTO.

CONTACT gratefully acknowledges the support of Celebrate Ontario, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, the Hal Jackman Foundation, Goethe-Institut, Consulate General of France and its many partners.

CONTACT fosters and celebrates the art and profession of photography with an annual festival in May and year-round programming in the gallery.

About Scotiabank
Scotiabank is committed to supporting the communities in which we live and work, both in Canada and abroad, through our global philanthropic program, Scotiabank Bright Future.  Recognized as a leader internationally and among Canadian corporations for our charitable donations and philanthropic activities, Scotiabank has provided on average approximately $45 million annually to community causes around the world over each of the last five years. Visit us at www.scotiabank.com.