MERCER

PAST EXHIBITION

Happy Holidays

21 December 2006 - 10 January 2007

Please note that Mercer Union is closed to the public until January 12th, when we are opening two new exhibitions, by Kate Terry (London, UK) and Diane Morin (Montreal, Canada). Our office is closed as of the 23rd of December and reopens January 2nd.

PAST EVENT

TEST READING SERIES: Fiorentino and Pettet

The next installment of the Test Reading Series features the ever charming Jon Paul Fiorentino and a rare Toronto reading by British ex-pat New York Schooler Simon Pettet (it might even be the first!). Tuesday December 12, 7:30 p.m. JON PAUL FIORENTINO and SIMON PETTET Mercer Union, A Centre for Contemporary Art 37 Lisgar Street, […]

PAST EXHIBITION

2008: MERCER UNION ANNUAL MEMBERS EXHIBITION AND SALE

5 December 2006 - 14 December 2006

“2008” is Mercer Union’s annual member show – a ten-day exhibition of drawings, paintings, photographs, sculpture, multiples, and other media, by members of Mercer Union. Artists include Arnaug Maggs, Gwen MacGregor, Germaine Koh, Lee Ranaldo, Robyn Collier, Micah Lexier, Tania Kitchell, Dean Baldwin, Instant Coffee, Derek Sullivan, Fastwurms, Monica Tap, John Massey, Lewis Nicolson, Kristan […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Michael Snow in Concert/Jonathan Monk in Person

7 November 2006

Jonathan Monk in Conversation and Michael Snow in Concert November 7, 6:30 pm, Drake Underground, $7 or $5 in adv A Co-production with Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, the Drake Hotel and Mercer Union As auxillary programming to Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, the Drake Hotel and Mercer Union are proud to present an evening […]

PAST EXHIBITION

JEREMY DELLER: A RETROSPECTIVE AT TWO SITES

Jeremy Deller

13 October 2006 - 25 November 2006
Opening Reception 13 October 2006 8pm

Jeremy Deller is an anthropologist of the ordinary, a field recorder of the overlooked, and a folklorist of the popular. This first retrospective of the Turner Prize winning British artist in North America that draws together all the dimensions of Deller’s varied work. Split between two sites, the exhibition runs from October 4 — December […]

PAST EVENT

FM3 and Polmo Polpo

Please join us at 9pm on Sunday October 8th for performances by FM3 (China) and Polmo Polpo (Toronto). This event is FREE. Founded in 1999 by Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian, two active members of the Beijing music scene, FM3 are considered pioneers of electronic music in China. Known for dedicating prime space for “live” […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Nuit Blanche: Mercer Union open all night and a new project by Tim Hecker

30 September 2006 - 1 October 2006

As part of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Mercer Union will remain open from 7pm Saturday September 30th until 7am October 1st. Join us for a drink and check out the exhibitions by Michelle Allard and Maider Fortune. Also, internationally renowned Sound Artist Tim Hecker will create an immersive sound environment using the tree across the street […]

PAST EVENT

Test Reading Series: Diana Fitzgerald Bryden and Jason Christie

Mercer Union presents: Test Reading Series: Diana Fitzgerald Bryden and Jason Christie Saturday September 23, 7:30 p.m. Curated by Mark Truscott Admission: PWYC ($5 recommended, all of which benefits the readers) Each monthly installment of Test features two poets, each of whom reads for 30-40 minutes. The readings are followed by a brief question and […]

PAST EVENT

Music In Alternative Spaces #10: Isabelle Noel

Please join us: Saturday, September 16, 2006, 9PM, at Mercer Union FREE For the tenth in our series of 10 Music In Alternative Spaces concerts, Isabelle Noel plans to develop a series of video murals with music, based on the theme of icons and notions of Canadian cultural identity, circa 70’s, and plans to compose […]

PAST EXHIBITION

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT

Maïder Fortuné

31 August 2006 - 7 October 2006
Opening Reception 31 August 2006 8pm

Back Gallery: Everything is Going to be All Right “Everything is Going to be All Right” reveals Maïder Fortuné’s (Paris, France) double passion, her double practice of media arts and performance. Producing such a piece requires both the ability to feel and understand the sensation of a body moving or still, as well as the […]

PAST EXHIBITION

FLOURISH

Michelle Allard

31 August 2006 - 7 October 2006
Opening Reception 18 December 2012 8pm

Mercer Union is pleased to announce the opening of two new exhibitions on Thursday August 31st, 2006, at 8pm. Front Gallery: Flourish “With reams of fluorescent office paper, glue sticks and expended fluorescent light tubes, Allard creates her work by shaping the sheets of paper around the tubes and then installing the resulting forms upright […]

PAST EVENT

Garage Sale

Mercer Union’s Third Annual Garage Sale Saturday, August 5, 8am-4pm Purge then Splurge: Mercer Union is preparing for our huge third annual Garage Sale. We are currently accepting donations of books that have been read, CDs that have been ripped, clothes tha have been out-grown, equipment that has been upgraded, furniture that no longer fits, […]

PAST EVENT

Clothing Swap

MERCER UNION’S FIRST EVER CLOTHING SWAP Sunday, July 30, 2pm Mercer Union 37 Lisgar Street FREE Bring the good, the sad, the polyester. Here’s how it works: You come with clothing to swap – one item or thirty, whatever you want to exorcise from your closet. Come when the swap starts. Put your items into […]

PAST EVENT

Music In Alternative Spaces #9: Friendly Rich Marsella and The Lollipop People

Please join us: Saturday, July 15, 2006, 9PM, at Mercer Union FREE For the nineth in our series of 10 Music In Alternative Spaces concerts, Friendly Rich Marsella will create, a unique orchestration, a truly distinctive and strange style of cabaret music with The Lollipop People, a blend of several talented musicians, each coming from […]

PAST EVENT

monochrom lecture and performance

Press Release: The Blackwood Gallery and Mercer Union present: monochrom: “We’re great together, the liberal society and it’s enemies” A lecture/event at Mercer Union, 8pm, Thursday July 13th, 2006 Free Admission monochrom from Vienna is a collective, operating worldwide, that deals with technology, art, context hacking and philosophy and was founded in 1993. monochrom is […]

PAST EXHIBITION

VOICE OF THINGS

Nobuyuki Takahashi

2 June 2006 - 8 July 2006
Opening Reception 2 June 2006 8pm

Mercer Union is pleased to announce two new solo exhibitions opening this Friday, June 2nd. Artist’s Talk: Clive Murphy, Friday, June 2, at 7:30pm Back Gallery: Voice of Things Nobuyuki Takahashi, from Nagoya, Japan, presents Voice of Things– an installation in Mercer Union’s back gallery of over 200 household products, including bottled drinks, cleaning liquid, […]

PAST EXHIBITION

PNEUTOPIA

Clive Murphy

2 June 2006 - 8 July 2006
Opening Reception 2 June 2006 8pm

Mercer Union is pleased to announce two new solo exhibitions opening this Friday, June 2nd. Front Gallery: Pneutopia Artist’s Talk: Clive Murphy, Friday, June 2, at 7:30pm Artist-in-residence Clive Murphy presents Pneutopia, a fully functioning, hand-made, inflatable Bouncy Castle (or Moonwalk). “The possibility remains that Murphy’s Pneutopia, like many of its inflatable architecture ancestors, may, […]

PAST EVENT

Music in Alternative Spaces #6: Colin Clark

Please join us: Music in Alternative Spaces #6: Colin Clark Saturday, May 27, 9pm, at Mercer Union FREE The Lions band will play verbal, graphic, and indeterminate scores by John Cage, Colin Clark, Christopher May, Michael Parsons, and Christian Wolff in their own idiosyncratic way. This concert includes the premiere of Staggering Numbers by Colin […]

PAST EVENT

Yesterduh CD launch and Closing Party

Mercer Union and Wavelength present a release party for: Brian Joseph Davis’ Yesterduh CD Wednesday, May 24th 8:30 PM at Mercer Union, 37 Lisgar St. Toronto, FREE   The CD For the month of April, artist Brian Joseph Davis ran a recording studio at the Mercer Union artist-run centre. Passersby were stopped and asked to […]

PAST EVENT

Test Reading Series: Stephen Cain and Lisa Robertson Wednesday, May 24, 6pm

Mercer Union presents: Test Reading Series Stephen Cain and Lisa Robertson a launch for Lisa Robertson’s The Men: A Lyric Book (BookThug) Wednesday May 24, 6pm* (Please note early start.) Curated by Mark Truscott Admission: PWYC ($5 recommended, all of which benefits the readers) Each monthly installment of Test features two poets, each of whom […]

PAST EVENT

STELLAR LIVING 2006

April 27-May 10, 2006 Location: Givins/Shaw Public School 180 Shaw St., Toronto (North of Queen St. West) Web site and online preview: www.mercerunion.org/SL Stellar Livingis a unique exhibition and auction featuring over 50 designers’, artists’ and architects’ visions of contemporary urban style. More about Stellar LIving

PAST EXHIBITION

Test Reading Series:
Brian Joseph Davis and Margaret Christakos

Curated by Mark Truscott

26 April 2006

Curated by Mark Truscott Wednesday, April 26, 7:30PM, at Mercer Union Admission: PWYC ($5 recommended, all of which benefits the readers) Each monthly installment of Test features two poets, each of whom reads for 30 to 40 minutes. The readings are followed by a brief question and answer period. Margaret Christakos lives in Toronto. Her […]

PAST EXHIBITION

YESTERDUH

Brian Joseph Davis

13 April 2006 - 20 May 2006
Opening Reception 13 April 2006 8pm

Back Gallery: Yesterduh (A Co-Presentation with Images Festival) Over the course of the exhibition Brian Joseph Davis is inviting the public to come into the back gallery space to record in a vocal booth their styling of the song “Yesterday” from memory, in one take, and with no practice. You will have a headset with […]

PAST EXHIBITION

THE EVENING CANOPY AND THE SUNSET HOUR

Karen Azoulay

13 April 2006 - 20 May 2006
Opening Reception 13 April 2006 8pm

Front Gallery: The Evening Canopy and the Sunset Hour Karen Azoulay constructs a grotto in the gallery, complete with shells, cascades of water, and, at least occasionally, a live tutelary spirit. These traditional trappings of the grotto, however, lie on the outside walls of her fabricated cave. Stepping in through the portal, one enters a […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Platform: Test Reading SeriesJay MillAr and Rachel Zolf

29 March 2006

Test Reading Series: Jay MillAr and Rachel Zolf Curated by Mark Truscott Wednesday, March 29th, 7:30PM, at Mercer Union Admission: PWYC ($5 recommended, all of which benefits the readers) Each monthly installment of Test features two poets, each of whom reads for 30-40 minutes. The readings are followed by a brief question and answer period. […]

PAST EVENT

Music in Alternative Spaces #4 and #5: Josh Thorpe and John Mark Sherlock

Please join us: Saturday, March 18, 2006, 9pm, at Mercer Union FREE About his work for the fourth in our series of 10 Music In Alternative Spaces concerts, Josh Thorpe writes: “The Mercer show contains two half-hour pieces. The first, a solo, will involve music boxes, objects, recordings, amplification, and unintelligable text by Gertrude Stein. […]

PAST EVENT

Performance: Awesome

Performance by Awesome The opening reception of Infinity, Etc. begins at 8pm and is followed at 10pm by a performance by the decidedly druid Awesome, who will perform a feedback drenched set to “summon the malevolent and infinite cycle of Tinnitis on the day of the old Roman leap year. The usurper of Judas will […]

PAST EXHIBITION

INFINITY ETC

Kelly Mark, Germaine Koh, Daniel Olson, Micah Lexier, Martin Creed, Lee Ranaldo, Jonathan Monk and Claude Closky.

Curated by Dave Dyment

24 February 2006 - 1 April 2006
Opening Reception 24 February 2006 6pm

Mercer Union is pleased to announce the opening of a new group exhibition, “Infinity, Etc.”. Performance: Awesome, Friday, February 24, 10PM “Infinity, Etc.” brings together the work of seven artists whose work deals with time, feedback loops, closed circuits, numbers, randomness and the infinite. Four of Toronto’s most consistently engaging conceptualists – Kelly Mark, Germaine […]

PAST EVENT

Music in Alternative Spaces #3: Doug Tielli

Please join us: Saturday, February 18, 2006, 9PM, at Mercer Union FREE For the third in our series of 10 Music In Alternative Spaces concerts, No Man Band (Doug Tielli) will sing mostly British Isles folk songs through different objects that alter or filter the tone of the voice such as a tea pot, a […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Mercer Loving: Halcyon Days: Mercer Members’ Exhibition

8 February 2006 - 11 February 2006
Opening Reception 1 April 2023 12am

Mercer Members’ Exhibition February 8-11th, 2006 Closing Reception and Sale: Saturday, February 11, 2006, 8pm Hosted by Misha Glouberman Mercer Loving: Halcyon Days What if we are, at this very moment, in the midst of those blissful halcyon days? What if this is in fact the peaceful, happy golden era that we will look back […]

PAST EVENT

Music in Alternative Spaces #2: Clemens Merkel

Please join us: Saturday, January 21, 2006, 9PM, at Mercer Union FREE For the second in our series of 10 Music In Alternative Spaces concerts, Montréal based violinist Clemens Merkel (Quatour Bozzini, Kore, Wandelweiser) will give a rare performance of l’hiver monastique – 70 consolations harmoniques pour violon, a 70-minute work for solo violin, written […]

PAST EXHIBITION

PLAINSONG

Conor Kelly

6 January 2006 - 4 February 2006
Opening Reception 6 January 2006 6pm

Mercer Union is pleased to announce two new exhibitions – Leah Garnett’s Greater Than Smaller Than and Conor Kelly’s Plainsong. Artist Talk: Conor Kelly: Friday, January 6, 2006 7:30pm Back Gallery: Plainsong Conor Kelly’s Plainsong is a five channel video installation that is “an irreverent, infectious hymn to the mundane and the temporal” (Art Forum, […]

PAST EXHIBITION

GREATER THAN, SMALLER THAN

Leah Garnett

6 January 2006 - 4 February 2006
Opening Reception 6 January 2006 6pm

Mercer Union is pleased to announce two new exhibitions – Leah Garnett’s Greater Than Smaller Than and Conor Kelly’s Plainsong. Artist Talk: Conor Kelly: Friday, January 6, 2006 7:30pm Front Gallery: Greater than Smaller than Leah Garnett‘s practice explores interests in architecture, landscape, and cosmology, consistently questioning scale, physical phenomena, illusion, and logic. Her work […]