5 February 2013 6pm - 8pm
A public conversation with Derek Liddington, Daniel Faria, Erin Stump and Pascal Paquette
What role does the commercial gallery play in contemporary society? What does this mean for artists who arguable do not make saleable work? Where do artists and their ephemeral works fit in to the gallery’s catalogue? What does representation mean for an artist versus for a public? Independent and represented artists, as well as some of Toronto’s respected art dealers enter a dialogue about the history and current place of artists and commercial galleries.
For more information, contact Ellyn Walker, RG*RG Program Coordinator, at ellyn@mercerunion.org
Derek Liddington works and lives in Toronto. He obtained his MFA from the University of Western Ontario and BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Liddington’s work has been exhibited in numerous public settings, most recently at the opening night of Art Toronto 2011 where he staged Dandy Gangs. In 2010, Liddington staged Allegory for an Opera as part of Nuit Blanche. He had his first solo show, titled Coupe de Grace, at Clark and Faria Gallery in 2010. Liddington’s work has also been exhibited in group shows, most recently in Meet us on the Commons, curated by Elizabeth Underhill for the Art Gallery of Mississauga. Derek has received project support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council and the London Community Foundation. In 2011, Derek Liddington was shortlisted for the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Artist Prize.
Daniel Faria received a BFA from the University of Waterloo in 1999 and an M.A. in Art History from York University in 2003. He has worked at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery and interned at Mercer Union. Daniel was the Director of Monte Clark Gallery until opening his own space in October 2011. Gallery artists include Douglas Coupland, Mark Lewis, Kristine Moran and Derek Liddington.
Erin Stump is the Director/Owner of Erin Stump Projects located in the heart of Queen West, Toronto.
Pascal Paquette is a Toronto-based artist. His practice places him literally and metaphorically outside and inside the mainstream art world by combining alternative practices of graffiti writing and street art with contemporary painting and site-specific or geographically dependent installations. Paquette’s thematic interests interrogate the transformation of culture that occurs when two or more economic, social or cultural realities collide. Paquette is a graduate of the Graphic Arts program at La Cité Collégiale in Ottawa, Canada. His work has been exhibited worldwide in public institutions, art fairs and both commercial and artist-run spaces. Paquette was represented by Artcore in Toronto for most of his emerging career (2000–07).