TORONTO, March 27, 2018 /CNW/ - The Ryerson Image Centre (RIC) will kick off the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival with the official launch party, open to the public, on April 27, 2018, 7:00 – 11:00 p.m. In addition to acting as a host institution for the Festival, the RIC is proud to present the Scotiabank Photography Award exhibition, this year featuring the work of Shelley Niro, 2017 winner of the prestigious award. Alongside this show, the RIC will showcase a video installation by multidisciplinary artist Nadia Myre. In the same building, the annual year-end exhibition Maximum Exposure presents work by the best young emerging Canadian and international artists at Ryerson University's School of Image Arts. 

"We're thrilled to be partnering once again with the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival to launch Toronto's month of photography," says Paul Roth, Director of the Ryerson Image Centre. "It's exciting for us at the RIC to host the kickoff of one of the world's largest photography festivals, and to welcome thousands of visitors to our museum to celebrate the medium."

Scotiabank Photography Award: Shelley Niro celebrates the career of this Canadian artist, known for challenging stereotypes and exploring notions of culture and identity with sensitivity and humour. A member of the Six Nations Reserve, Bay of Quinte Mohawk, Turtle Clan, Niro combines beadwork designs, archival images, family pictures, videos, and installation to question traditional representations of Indigenous peoples, with a particular focus on womanhood. This exhibition is presented by Scotiabank and organized by the Ryerson Image Centre in partnership with the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

"It will be a wonderful experience to be able to see my life's work in one place," says Shelley Niro, winner of the 2017 Scotiabank Photography Award. "This award is one of the most important events in my career and I'm looking forward to the future."

On view on the RIC's Salah J. Bachir New Media Wall, Nadia Myre's silent video Acts that Fade Away presents the artist's hands and forearms filmed from above as she carefully manipulates the needles, threads, patterns, beads, and tools necessary to craft four Indigenous-inspired objects. These include a pair of baby moccasins, a small basket, a woman's hair bonnet, and a bandolier bag—guided only by instructions pulled from nineteenth-century women's magazines. Through the reappropriation of instructions and gestures drawn from European and North American illustrated publications, Myre reclaims Indigenous skills and crafts devalued by colonization.

Also as part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Maximum Exposure features multidisciplinary work produced by photography, film, and integrated digital students in a professional gallery setting. Since its inception 23 years ago, this three-day exhibition continues to expand its list of successful alumni while providing a platform for networking between emerging artists of Ryerson's School of Image Arts and top industry professionals.

Scotiabank Photography Award: Shelley Niro and Nadia Myre: Acts that Fade Away are both primary exhibitions of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. On view from April 28 to August 5, 2018, these exhibitions are accompanied by free public programming, including artist and curator walk-throughs, talks, and more. A full schedule of events is available via ryersonimagecentre.ca/events.

Ryerson Image Centre
33 Gould Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

FREE ADMISSION
Free exhibition tours daily at 2:30 p.m.

www.ryersonimagecentre.ca 
416-979-5164 
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The Ryerson Image Centre (RIC) exists for the research, teaching and exhibition of photography and related media. We are an active partner within the academic fabric of Ryerson University, the cultural network of greater Toronto, and the national and international artistic community. We develop rigorous yet inclusive programs for students, faculty, artists, researchers and curators, as well as the general public. The RIC boasts three interrelated areas of activity. Our exhibition program addresses topics of social, cultural, aesthetic and historical concern from a variety of contemporary perspectives. Our Peter Higdon Research Centre conducts and facilitates inquiry into primary resource materials and offers workshops, lectures, symposia and publication programs. Finally, we maintain a collection of photography spanning the medium's history, as well as several artist and journalism archives—including the renowned Black Star Collection of twentieth century photoreportage. For more information, visit www.ryersonimagecentre.ca

Ryerson University is Canada's leader in innovative, career-oriented education and a university clearly on the move. With a mission to serve societal need, and a long-standing commitment to engaging its community, Ryerson offers more than 100 undergraduate and graduate programs. Distinctly urban, culturally diverse and inclusive, the university is home to more than 41,500 students, including 2,400 master's and PhD students, 3,200 faculty and staff, and nearly 170,000 alumni worldwide. Research at Ryerson is on a trajectory of success and growth: externally funded research has doubled in the past five years. The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education is Canada's leading provider of university-based adult education. For more information, visit www.ryerson.ca  

CONTACT, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1997, fosters and celebrates the art and profession of photography with an annual Festival in May and year-round programming in the CONTACT Gallery. CONTACT is generously supported by Scotiabank, Nikon Canada, Pattison Outdoor Advertising, La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso, Vistek, Dentons Canada LLP, Toronto Image Works, The Gilder, Transcontinental PLM, 3M Canada, BIG Digital, Waddington's Auctioneers and Appraisers, Four By Eight Signs, Beyond Digital Imaging, Steam Whistle Brewing, Art Toronto, The Gladstone Hotel, The Globe and Mail, NOW Magazine, CBC Toronto, and Canadian Art. CONTACT gratefully acknowledges the support of Celebrate Ontario, Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Ontario Arts Council, The Government of Ontario, Partners in Art, Canada Council for the Arts, the Howard Webster Foundation, Mondriaan Fund, Goethe-Institut, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, and all of our funders, donors, and programming partners.

The Scotiabank Photography Award, now in its eighth year, is Canada's largest annual peer-nominated, peer-reviewed acknowledgment of excellence in contemporary photography. In 2010 Scotiabank co-founded the Award with photographer Edward Burtynsky, in order to recognize an established mid to later-career artist; celebrate the outstanding contribution they have made to the arts; and raise international and national awareness of the strength of photography in Canada. Each year, the Scotiabank Photography Award-winning artist receives a prize of $50,000, a book overview of their work, published and distributed worldwide by esteemed German publisher Steidl, and a solo exhibition at the Ryerson Image Centre during the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. These three components of the Award combine to reward the winning artist and advance his or her career in a tangible and meaningful way.

SOURCE Scotiabank