PAST EXHIBITION

UNION MADE

Group Show

16 December 1980 - 23 December 1980
Opening Reception 16 December 1980 12pm

Main Gallery: Union Made Small scale works by Mercer Union Board members: Michael Davey, Peter Hill, Michael Balfe, Colin Lochhead, Jaan Poldaas, Jamie Lyons, Peter Blendell, Judith Schwarz, Robert Wiens, Anna-Marie Cobbold, Ric Evans, Renee Van Halm, John McKinnon and Robert McNealy. As part of this non-profit gallery’s fundraising campaign all the works on view […]

PAST EXHIBITION

THOMAS LAWSON

Thomas Lawson

13 December 1980 - 23 December 1980
Opening Reception 13 December 1980 12pm

Front Gallery: In his recent paintings, Lawson places advertising images of a domestic variety, – babies, dogs and so forth, that we almost tend to ignore or passively accept as part our daily visual diet, into a painterly context, thus causing the viewer to reevaluate what the imagery denotes.  

PAST EXHIBITION

BODY REGISTERS

Lee Paquette

29 November 1980 - 12 December 1980
Opening Reception 29 November 1980 12pm

Front Gallery: Body Registers In a one-man show entitled Body Registers, Pacquette, a participant in Mercer Union’s Locations show held in the summer, will exhibit four forged steel works relating to the body.

PAST EXHIBITION

SLATE INSTALLATION

Michael Davey

26 November 1980 - 13 December 1980
Opening Reception 26 November 1980 12pm

Sculptural Installation

PAST EXHIBITION

MICHAEL AMAR

Michael Amar

15 November 1980 - 28 November 1980
Opening Reception 15 November 1980 12pm

Front Gallery: Recent stone carvings and drawings by the Toronto artist.  

PAST EXHIBITION

SIX FROM THE STYX: AN EXCHANGE WITH EYE LEVEL

Brad Brace, John Clark, Dennis Gill, John Greer, Colette Urban, Carol Wainio

4 November 1980 - 23 November 1980
Opening Reception 4 November 1980 12pm

Six artists affiliated with the Eye Level Gallery showing in Toronto in an exchange exhibition with Mercer Union. The six artists are: Brad Brace – installation John Clark – paintings Dennis Gill – floor pieces John Greer – wall pieces Colette Urban – installation Carol Wainio – paintings Offerings From Maritimes Suffer Strange Power Failure […]

PAST EXHIBITION

ANOTHER CORNER

Macy Awad

1 November 1980 - 14 November 1980
Opening Reception 1 November 1980 12pm

Front Gallery: Another Corner This exhibition by the Toronto artist will consist of a large painted plywood construction incorporating one corner of the Front Gallery.

PAST EXHIBITION

ROGER PIOTROW

Roger Piotrow

18 October 1980 - 31 October 1980
Opening Reception 18 October 1980 12pm

Front Gallery: Recent gouache works on paper by the Toronto artist.  

PAST EXHIBITION

PICTURES OF THINGS

Lynn Hughes

14 October 1980 - 1 November 1980
Opening Reception 14 October 1980 12pm

Main Gallery: Pictures of Things “I am interested in a dense and ambiguous sense of ‘thing’ that hovers between the animate and the inanimate, prose and paradise, the classic and the mannerist…” A selection of the Montreal artist’s recent paintings entitled “Pictures of Things”. Nancy Carroll Vanguard, December 1980 “Pictures of Things” is the title […]

PAST EXHIBITION

ANONYMOUS MECHANISIM

Andy Patton

4 October 1980 - 17 October 1980
Opening Reception 4 October 1980 12pm

Front Gallery: Anonymous Mechanisim The large scale photographs comprising this show are of a series of posters executed anonymously by the Toronto artist over a period extending from April 1978 to June 1979. Each poster was originally designed for a specific context. As Patton has explained, “Two are from a series of five which worked […]

PAST EXHIBITION

PAUL STRATIGOS & HASS MURPHY

Hass Murphy & Paul Stratigos

23 September 1980 - 11 October 1980
Opening Reception 23 September 1980 12pm

Main Gallery: New York Show Chosen by Hass Murphy Paul Stratigos Paintings Hess Murphy Sculpture  

PAST EXHIBITION

CARL JACOBSON & LAWRENCE SILVER

Carl Jacobson & Lawrence Silver

20 September 1980 - 3 October 1980
Opening Reception 20 September 1980 12pm

Front Gallery: Two Artists from New York Carl Jacobson Paintings on Paper Lawrence Silver Drawings and Collages  

PAST EXHIBITION

RECENT PLANTS

Garry Neil Kennedy

6 September 1980 - 19 September 1980
Opening Reception 6 September 1980 12pm

Installation: Mercer Union Gallery would like to borrow for two weeks a potted plant from your gallery. The plant will be carefully transported to and from the gallery, and while it is at Mercer Union it will be well cared for and placed in a room which has a natural light source. It will form […]

PAST EXHIBITION

BURN

John McEwen

2 September 1980 - 20 September 1980
Opening Reception 2 September 1980 12pm

Understanding Caliban McEwen’s Work Speaks For Itself, But What’s It Saying? John Bentley Mays Globe and Mail, September 1980 I do not understand John McEwen’s installation at Mercer Union, 29 Mercer, which is on view until Sept. 20. But this is what’s there: clamped on the west wall, three large iron slabs. Near the top […]

PAST EXHIBITION

TIME

Dan Reid

23 August 1980 - 5 September 1980
Opening Reception 23 August 1980 8pm

Front Gallery: Installation

PAST EXHIBITION

SITE CONSTRUCTION

Robert Wiens

12 August 1980 - 30 August 1980
Opening Reception 12 August 1980 8pm

Installation: Robert Wiens, a Toronto artist, will have his first major solo-exhibition at MERCER UNION August 12 to 30th. The constructions done specifically for the gallery will be large scale requiring a week’s on-site labour previous to the opening date. The installation consists of six parts: two truncated pyramid structures extending floor to ceiling based […]

PAST EXHIBITION

GRID II

F.M. Hogan

26 July 1980 - 8 August 1980
Opening Reception 26 July 1980 8pm

Front Gallery: Grid II “Drawing in Space” Installation: arrangements of nylon cord referring to the interior space of the Front Gallery which also allude to exterior natural phenomena.

PAST EXHIBITION

ANNA-MARIE COBBOLD

Anna-Marie Cobbold

15 July 1980 - 2 August 1980
Opening Reception 15 July 1980 8pm

Main Gallery: A series of postcards and two large paintings of equivalent dimensions asserting a simultaneous experience of transition from the city of Montreal to the city of Toronto. Anna-Marie Cobbold is a painter currently working in Toronto.  

PAST EXHIBITION

BARBARA REID

Barbara Reid

12 July 1980 - 25 July 1980
Opening Reception 12 July 1980 8pm

Front Gallery: Watercolour paintings The New Image as metaphysical landscape.

PAST EXHIBITION

PAPER QUILTS

Nancy Smith

28 June 1980 - 25 July 1980
Opening Reception 28 June 1980 12am

Front Gallery: Paper Quilts Hand-colored paper constructions improvised from traditional Amish designs.  

PAST EXHIBITION

SELF EMPLOYED MACHINE (FOR H.B.)

Bernie Miller

14 June 1980 - 28 June 1980
Opening Reception 14 June 1980 8pm

Front Gallery: Self Employed Machine (For H.B.)

PAST EXHIBITION

CANADIAN WORD-CHASER SERIES

Richard Nonas

3 June 1980 - 12 July 1980
Opening Reception 3 June 1980 8pm

Installation

PAST EXHIBITION

DRAWINGS OF A CERTAIN NATURE

Elizabeth MacKenzie

31 May 1980 - 13 June 1980
Opening Reception 31 May 1980 8pm

Front Gallery: Drawings of a Certain Nature  

PAST EXHIBITION

BLUEPRINTS: THE SACRED CIRCUIT

Richard Purdy

27 May 1980 - 31 May 1980
Opening Reception 27 May 1980 8pm

Installation and performance

PAST EXHIBITION

STEVE ARMSTRONG

Steve Armstrong

17 May 1980 - 30 May 1980
Opening Reception 17 May 1980 8pm

Front Gallery.  

PAST EXHIBITION

LOCATIONS II

Michael Amar, Peter Blendell, Robert Bowers, Paul Campbell, Stan Denniston, Peter Dykhuis, Brian Groombridge, Colin Lochhead, Hans Peter Marti, Robert McNealy, Lee Pacquette, Andy Patton, Robin Peck, Dan Reid, Caroline Simmons, James Taciuk.

15 May 1980 - 30 June 1980
Opening Reception 15 May 1980 8pm

LOCATIONS OUTDOOR WORKS BY TORONTO ARTISTS Catalogue published by Mercer Union, 1980 Introduction by Peter Hill, Michael Balfe: In past years there has been an increasing awareness of the fact that there are many limiting and neutralising factors inherent in the gallery space which alter the original context of most artists’ work. This perception has […]

PAST EXHIBITION

ROLAND POULIN

Roland Poulin

6 May 1980 - 24 May 1980
Opening Reception 6 May 1980 8pm

Sculpture

PAST EXHIBITION

DAVID CLARKSON

David Clarkson

3 May 1980 - 16 May 1980
Opening Reception 28 May 2023 12am

Front Gallery: Sculpture  

PAST EXHIBITION

DAVID BROWN

David Brown

19 April 1980 - 2 May 1980
Opening Reception 19 April 1980 8pm

Main Gallery: Paintings

PAST EXHIBITION

INTERIOR PROJECTION

Renee Van Halm

15 April 1980 - 3 May 1980
Opening Reception 15 April 1980 8pm

Interior Projection Installation

PAST EXHIBITION

DIVINAE PROPORTINAE

David MacWilliam

15 April 1980 - 3 May 1980
Opening Reception 15 April 1980 8pm

Sculpture

PAST EXHIBITION

TRANSLATIONS

Shannon Griffiths

5 April 1980 - 18 April 1980
Opening Reception 5 April 1980 8pm

Front Gallery: Translation “The mausoleum of Galla Placidia is dominated by a remarkable colored atmosphere of gray light. This effect is produced by bathing the blue mosaic walls of the interior in an orange light, filtered through narrow windows of orange-tinted alabaster. Orange and blue are complimentary colors, the mixing of which yields gray. As […]

PAST EXHIBITION

PETER HILL

Peter Hill

25 March 1980 - 12 April 1980
Opening Reception 25 March 1980 8pm

Peter Hill Comes Up With Some Surprises By John Bentley Mays GLOBE AND MAIL, March 25 1980 If the most recent Peter Hill paintings you’ve seen were the ones in his 1975 A Space show, you may be surprised by what goes on view tonight at Mercer Union (29 Mercer St.) Each work at A […]

PAST EXHIBITION

PUDDLE PLAZA

Henk Jacobs

8 March 1980 - 21 March 1980
Opening Reception 8 March 1980 8pm

Front Gallery: Puddle Plazaˆ Opening March 8 and continuing until the 21st in the front gallery of Mercer Union will be an installation work by Toronto artist, Henk Jacobs. Entitled Puddle Plaza, the piece is made of lard and water and is installed in a manner which directly relates to the room in which in […]

PAST EXHIBITION

GEORGE TRAKAS

George Trakas

4 March 1980 - 22 March 1980
Opening Reception 4 March 1980 8pm

George Trakas Destined To Be One Of The Great Sculptors John Bentley Mays Globe and Mail, March 1980 The first major breakthrough for George Trakas in his home country was the inclusion of two sculptures in the 1978 landmark exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario entitled Structures for Behaviour. At that time, the Quebec […]

PAST EXHIBITION

ROBERT BOWERS

Robert Bowers

23 February 1980 - 7 March 1980
Opening Reception 23 February 1980 8pm

Sculpture

PAST EXHIBITION

AVENGING ANGELS

Milt Jewell

12 February 1980 - 25 February 1980
Opening Reception 12 February 1980 8pm

Rick Rhodes Vanguard, April 1980 What’s most likeable about Milt Jewell’s two-part painting, called Avenging Angels, is the gritty, ersatz surface. The underpainting of acrylic covered by iron filings has a tactile density that favours concrete properties over pictorial ones. It’s substantial and it also indicates a stance, rooted to Robert Ryman’s work and Richard […]

PAST EXHIBITION

SMALL WORK/ SMALL GALLERY

Jamie Lyons

9 February 1980 - 22 February 1980
Opening Reception 9 February 1980 8pm

Paintings

PAST EXHIBITION

FOUR ASPECTS, EIGHT ARTISTS

Sorel Cohen, Paul Hess, Stephen Horne, André Jodoin, Douglas Kirton, Ian Murray, Tom Sherman, Theodore Wan

8 January 1980 - 1 March 1980
Opening Reception 1 January 1980 8pm

This exhibition will include the works of two photographers, Theodore Wan and Sorel Cohen; two sculptors, Andre Jodoin and Dan Reid; two painters, Paul Hess and Doug Kirton and two artists working with installations, Richard Purdie and Tobie Maclennan. This exhibition will draw attention to the four major aspects of contemporary artmaking activites. Within the […]