MERCER

PAST EVENT

In Studio: Laurie Kang

Join Mercer Union for an private view of Laurie Kang’s studio and current practice. Free for Sustaining Members and above; open to other members and select non-members for $15. Refreshments will be served.  RSVP to York Lethbridge by email or by calling 416.536.1519 Laurie Kang (b.1985) works in photography, sculpture and installation. Recent exhibition sites include Raster Gallery […]

PAST EVENT

Steps/Mesures | Caroline Hancock

Mercer Union is delighted to partner with the Institut Français and the Consulate General of France in Toronto on a new platform entitled Steps/Mesures. This program will invite artists and curators living in France for a series of short-term residencies in Toronto between Winter 2015 and Summer 2016 to forge conversation between cultural ecologies. The […]

PAST EVENT

In Studio: Jennifer Marman & Daniel Borins

Join Mercer Union for a private visit to Jennifer Marman & Daniel Borins’ studio and current projects. Free for Sustaining Members and above; open to other members and select non-members for $15. Refreshments will be served. Meeting location will be announced to confirmed attendees closer to the date of the studio visit.  RSVP to York Lethbridge […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Liz Magic Laser: Kiss and Cry

20 November 2015 - 23 January 2016
Opening Reception 20 November 2015 7pm

Mercer Union is delighted to present a solo exhibition by New York based artist Liz Magic Laser. The exhibition titled Kiss and Cry will feature a new video work commissioned by the gallery and Partners in Art. There will be an artist talk at 7pm on Friday 20th November 2015, followed by the opening reception. Liz […]

PAST EVENT

fORUM: Eileen Myles | A Reading and Conversation

Mercer Union is delighted to partner with Toronto New School of Writing and BookThug to present a full length reading by poet and author Eileen Myles. Myles will be reading in celebration of the release of I Must Have Lived Twice: New and Selected Poems, and the rerelease of her novel Chelsea Girls. Poet Julie Joosten will join […]

PAST EVENT

In Studio: Katie Bethune-Leamen

Join Mercer Union for an intimate view of Katie Bethune-Leamen’s studio and current practice. Free for Sustaining Members and above; open to other members and select non-members for $15. Refreshments will be served.  RSVP to York Lethbridge by email or by calling 416.536.1519 Katie Bethune-Leamen works in sculpture, installation, and video, toward consideration of the […]

PAST EVENT

ONE HOUR MIXER: Bojana Stancic

Mercer Union Members-Only Cocktail Hour Please join us on Thursday 15 October for a one hour mix by Toronto artist Bojana Stancic. Members enjoy a drink on the house with good company and a chance to experience Abbas Akhavan’s exhibition after hours. Not yet a member? To have access to this and future cocktail mixers, become an Associate Member starting at only […]

PAST EVENT

Mythology, Gender and Cyber-virtual Identity in Pop Music Performance

Mercer Union is delighted to announce that Lief Hall will be the eleventh guest of our fORUM critical conversation series. Please join us on Tuesday 15 September at 8PM. Doors will open at 7:30. Please note this event will be held at Propeller Coffee Co, 50 Wade Avenue (just around the corner from Mercer, just […]

PAST EXHIBITION

SPACE: Olivia Plender

12 September 2015 - 15 January 2016
Opening Reception 12 September 2015 5pm

The fourth artist to create a commissioned work for SPACE, Mercer Union’s billboard project, is Olivia Plender. Olivia Plender’s research-based practice interrogates the ideological framework around the narration of history and, more recently, changing attitudes to education and value. Her 2010 installation, titled Google Office, in the Tapei Biennial, Taiwan, interrogated the commodification of knowledge […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Abbas Akhavan: variations on a garden

12 September 2015 - 31 October 2015
Opening Reception 12 September 2015 5pm

Mercer Union is delighted to present a solo exhibition by Abbas Akhavan entitled variations on a garden opening on Saturday 12th September 2015. Abbas Akhavan’s practice ranges from site-specific ephemeral installations to drawing, video, sculpture and performance. The direction of his research has been deeply influenced by the specificity of the sites where he works: the […]

PAST EVENT

BIG on Bloor: Mantasha

Mercer Union presents Mantasha at BIG on Bloor 2015. Now in its 8th year, BIG on Bloor is a two-day, car-free summer street celebration of arts, culture and small business. The festival takes place in Bloordale (Dufferin to Lansdowne) and runs from Saturday 22 August  1 pm – 10 pm through Sunday 23 August noon […]

PAST EVENT

How Lesbians Invented the Internet

Mercer Union is delighted to announce that Cait McKinney will be the tenth guest of our fORUM critical conversation series. Please join us on Wednesday 10 June at 7PM. Doors will open at 6:30. Please note that this event will not be held at Mercer Union. Join us Wednesday evening at Scrap Metal, located a […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Karen Kraven: Flip Flop, Punch Front

29 May 2015 - 1 August 2015
Opening Reception 29 May 2015 7pm

Mercer Union is delighted to present a solo exhibition by Montreal-based artist Karen Kraven entitled Flip Flop, Punch Front opening on Friday 29th May 2015. Karen Kraven’s works set up unexpected encounters between sculptures and images, uncanny resemblances and misleading juxtapositions. Flip Flop, Punch Front continues Kraven’s interest in sport with an exploration of adornment, performance and conceptions […]

PAST EXHIBITION

VSVSVS: Not together, but alongside

29 May 2015 - 1 August 2015
Opening Reception 29 May 2015 7pm

Mercer Union is delighted to present an exhibition by VSVSVS entitled Not together, but alongside opening on Friday 29th May 2015. Not together, but alongside explores the potentiality of relationships between the viewer and the artist, the collective and the individual, the gallery and the studio. In their large scale installation sprawling through the front […]

PAST EVENT

Member Edition Launch | Jon Sasaki

Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist Jon Sasaki has designed our 2015-16 member card edition entitled 1:1 replica of a key to Mercer Union. Please join us for the edition launch, followed by the opening reception for Mercer Union’s summer exhibitions. Artist in attendance. All new and existing members are invited to enjoy a drink on the house […]

PAST EVENT

Stellar Living 2015

Join us for Stellar Living 2015, Mercer Union’s biannual fundraising auction. Canadian and international artists have generously contributed unique works of art to be sold in support of Mercer Union’s programming and exhibitions in 2015-2016. Works will be on view at Mercer Union starting Thursday 30 April leading up to the auction night Wednesday 13 […]

PAST EVENT

fORUM: Lisa Robertson | Cinema of the Present

Mercer Union is delighted to announce that our ninth fORUM of the season will be a performative reading by poet Lisa Robertson. Robertson and artist Hadley Howes will read the entire text of Cinema of the Present (Coach House Books, 2014), Robertson’s most recent publication. This reading is an experiment for two voices, in an uninterrupted two […]

PAST EVENT

ONE HOUR MIXER: David Poolman

Mercer Union Members-Only Cocktail Hour Please join us on Friday 24 April for a one hour mix by Toronto artist David Poolman and a drink on the house with good company. If you haven’t had a chance to see the current exhibitions by Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen and Krista Belle Stewart, be sure to stop by early for a last look. Not a […]

PAST EVENT

fORUM: Why Do We Do Things?

Mercer Union is delighted to announce that our eighth fORUM of the season will be a conversation between Aisha Sasha John and Jacob Wren. In both art and in life, why do we do the things we do? As Aisha wrote to Jacob: what might it mean to be wholesomely, hungrily ambitious – ambitious for […]

PAST EXHIBITION

SPACE: WALTER SCOTT

8 April 2015 - 8 August 2015
Opening Reception 1 January 1970 12am

The third artist to create a commissioned work for SPACE, Mercer Union’s billboard project will be Montreal and Toronto based artist Walter Scott. Scott is an interdisciplinary artist working across writing, illustration, performance and sculpture. In 2011 while living in Montreal, he began a comic book series, Wendy, exploring the narrative of a fictional young woman […]

PAST EVENT

What Can Art Do for Post-Capitalism?

*Please note that the talk will start at 7:30PM Mercer Union is delighted to announce that Suhail Malik and Nick Srnicek will be the seventh guests of our fORUM critical conversation series. Please join us on Tuesday March 24th at 7:30PM for their discussion on ‘What Can Art Do for Post-Capitalism?’ Left Accelerationism proposes that […]

PAST EVENT

CHALLENGE FOR CHANGE AND A NEW SOCIETY

A discussion after Challenge for Change/Société nouvelle Between 1967 and 1980 the National Film Board of Canada spearheaded a social activist documentary initiative placing film skills into the hands of the people to tackle poverty, environmental, first nations and women’s issues. Government bureaucrats, documentary filmmakers, community activists and citizens defined a participatory model of filmmaking […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Challenge for Change / Société Nouvelle

Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen

13 March 2015 - 25 April 2015
Opening Reception 13 March 2015 7pm

Mercer Union is delighted to present Challenge for Change/Société Nouvelle: Documents in Participatory Democracy, a project by Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen. Between 1967 and 1980 the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) spearheaded a social activist documentary initiative placing film skills into the hands of the people to tackle poverty, environmental, first nations and women’s issues. Government […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Seraphine, Seraphine

Krista Belle Stewart

13 March 2015 - 25 April 2015
Opening Reception 13 March 2015 7pm

Mercer Union is delighted to present a solo exhibition by Krista Belle Stewart, opening Friday 13 March 2015. Echoing the excavation of the past in her work, Krista Belle Stewart in Seraphine: Her Own Story (2014) juxtaposes two images; a docu-drama shown on CBC in 1967 portraying the first Aboriginal public health nurse in British Columbia, with […]

PAST EVENT

Artist Talk: Giles Round

Please join us for an artist talk by British artist Giles Round on Monday 23 February at 7pm in the gallery. Round’s work Untitled, 1943/1944 (SORRY!) is currently installed on the corner of St. Clarens and Bloor Street West. Giles Round looks to the language of modernism to explore the history of ideological positions that proposed […]

PAST EVENT

Death from Laughter, Female Hysteria, and Early Cinema

Mercer Union is delighted to announce that Maggie Hennefeld will be the sixth guest of our fORUM critical conversation series. Please join us on Tuesday 17 February at 7PM for her lecture Death from Laughter, Female Hysteria, and Early Cinema, followed by a discussion period. Did early film audiences really find movies so funny that […]

PAST EVENT

Platform: Miracle Fortress & Ken Park

Ken Park | Performance at 9 pm  Miracle Fortress | Peformance at 9:40 pm Admission $10 | Members $5 (available at the door) A limited amount of regular admission tickets are on sale at Soundscapes* *in person / cash-only, small service fee applies   KEN PARK is a Toronto-based dance music producer. Favouring gear to software, Park makes dance music […]

PAST EVENT

ONE HOUR MIXER: Iris Fraser-Gudrunas

Mercer Union Members-Only Cocktail Hour Happy New Year members! Join us on Friday 30 January for a last look at Tiziana La Melia‘s exhibition and Elisabeth Subrin‘s film, Shulie (1997). We’ve invited Toronto-based artist and filmaker Iris Fraser-Gudrunas to contribute a one-hour track made specifically for the occasion. Enjoy a drink on the house with good company.   Not a member? To have access […]

PAST EVENT

Beyond Broadcast: Artists and the Future of Public Service TV

Mercer Union is delighted to announce that Maeve Connolly will be the fifth guest of our fORUM series. Since at least the 1960s, artists have been drawn toward broadcasting, sometimes seeking access to new technologies and broader audiences or opportunities to interrogate television as a cultural form. In recent years, however, collaborations between artists and […]