MERCER

PAST EVENT

ONE HOUR MIXER: Yaniya Lee

  Please join us on Friday 18 January for a one-hour mix by Yaniya Lee and a drink on the house with good company. This is your last chance to experience our current exhibition governance machines and the future of futures before it closes on 19 January, and an opportunity to order our 2018-2019 Member Edition by Lorna Mills. Not yet a […]

PAST EVENT

fORUM: Marc Couroux

FUTURE ANTERIOR: A PSYCHOTEMPORAL FUGUE (A XENFLIX ORIGINAL) Bahar Noorizadeh’s After Scarcity closes on an invitation: “The recent rise of TV culture proves that a planned and cultivated stretch of time can be adequately thrilling to stimulate a Utopian impulse.” Marc Couroux’s Future Anterior is a psychotemporal fugue in 17 episodes tracking the efforts of three temporal […]

PAST EVENT

Letter from the Future

  Something is exposed that blows your mind ‘unknowing’ ‘science fiction’ a narrative is science fiction only the future are black holes about future the ‘it’ the shift science fiction has a shift not necessarily about a linear shift of canter. Imagination fight for power ‘bad other (alien)’ spatial + time other ‘time fiction’ not […]

PAST EVENT

40 years of Mercer Union.
Cultivating artists and challenging audiences since 1979.

Mercer Union is turning 40! We have exhibited over 1,300 artists since our inception and currently count more than 28,000 annual participants in our programming. We are a launch pad for artists with bright futures. Like everyone on the cusp of a big birthday, we’re wishing for the gift of time. And as we all […]

PAST EXHIBITION

SPACE: Joi T. Arcand

17 November 2018 - 23 March 2019

It would be good if they were able to speak, were the words spoken in Plains Cree by Augustine Arcand, Joi T. Arcand’s grandmother. The concern is emotionally present within the connotation of her words. Augustine Arcand sees the need for the young to know their language, to inhabit their words, to feel the community […]

PAST EVENT

SESSION: María Alejandrina Coates

Understanding Systems with governance machines and the future of futures SESSION is a project modelling itself after an incubator that invites cultural practitioners to engage with questions that emerge out of a given exhibition. Presented in collaboration with SAVAC, curator María Alejandrina Coates will lead this third iteration of SESSION to flesh out the meanings […]

PAST EVENT

Aggregate: Sepake Angiama

Mercer Union’s Aggregate program seeks to invite cultural producers to Toronto, who are researching and developing methodologies that speak to the value of working small-scale. Aggregate aims to foster dialogue with like-minded organizations, combining knowledge and resources to expand the potential of our work. Sepake Angiama is a curator and educator currently based in Europe. […]

PAST EVENT

In Studio: Faraz Anoushahpour, Parastoo Anoushahpour and Ryan Ferko

Join Mercer Union for a studio visit with Faraz Anoushahpour, Parastoo Anoushahpour and Ryan Ferko. 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 by email or by calling 416.536.1519  Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour, and Ryan Ferko have worked in […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Bahar Noorizadeh: governance machines and the future of futures

17 November 2018 - 19 January 2019
Opening Reception 16 November 2018 7pm

Mercer Union is delighted to present a solo exhibition by Bahar Noorizadeh whose engaging, multi-layered film and video works use speculation and phantasmic computer-generated imagery to collide and reframe disparate histories. Her first solo exhibition in Canada premieres her newest works Ultima Ratio Δ Mountain of the Sun (2017) and After Scarcity (2018). In Ultima Ratio […]

PAST EVENT

ONE HOUR MIXER: Alvin Luong

Members-Only One Hour Mixer AFTER HOURS music and cocktails Please join us on Friday 2 November for a one-hour mix by Alvin Luong and a drink on the house with good company. This is your last chance to experience the exhibition The Fine Thread of Deviation before it closes, and an opportunity to renew your membership prior to […]

PAST EVENT

The Flesh of Memory

Writing workshop with Merray Gerges In advance of Nep Sidhu’s solo exhibition at Mercer Union entitled Medicine for a Nightmare (They Called, We Responded), which will open in February 2019, this writing workshop will explore how experience anchors itself in the body. Led by Merray Gerges, participants will be guided through a series of writing exercises that […]

PAST EXHIBITION

SPACE: Joi T. Arcand

14 September 2018 - 3 November 2018
Opening Reception 14 September 2018 7pm

kiya itako (be you) presents two mirrored Nēhiyawēwin (Plains Cree) phrases written in syllabics. One phrase, set atop a prairie sky, is installed outside of MOCA Toronto; the other, on a childhood photograph of Arcand, is installed outside Mercer Union. The two sentences come from words spoken by Joi T. Arcand’s mentors, offering contradictory descriptions […]

PAST EVENT

SESSION: Jean-Paul Kelly

Considering The Fine Thread of Deviation, artist Jean-Paul Kelly will lead a SESSION that regards the purposeful abstraction of historical material as a means to defamiliarize the primacy of retroactive sense: Using his own research and forthcoming projects related to the ethics of queer aesthetics in the work of American writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964), […]

PAST EVENT

fORUM: Evan Calder Williams

Abstract Floods Drawing on research linked to his current exhibition at Mercer Union, theorist and artist Evan Calder Williams moves across technological, political and artistic histories to sketch a theory of subsumption. As a philosophical category, subsumption suggests the gathering of particulars under the sign of a universal, while in Marxist theory, it became a crucial […]

PAST EXHIBITION

The Fine Thread of Deviation

Anne Low & Evan Calder Williams

15 September 2018 - 3 November 2018
Opening Reception 14 September 2018 7pm

The silkworm has long been reared commercially for the production of silk fibre; their cocoons are naturally spun white and later dyed into a variety of colours. In 2011, researchers in Singapore developed a technique of adding a chemical dye known as Rhodamine B into the diet of silkworms, producing cocoons of brightly coloured silk […]

PAST EVENT

Summer Holiday

Mercer Union galleries will be closed from 12 August to 13 September 2018. We look forward to seeing you in the fall for the opening of our exhibition with Anne Low and Evan Calder Williams on Friday 14 September 2018, 7pm. While the gallery will be closed, regular office hours will be maintained, Tuesday through Friday, 11am–6pm. Image: Atom Deguire, Mercer […]

PAST EVENT

ONE HOUR MIXER: Yaniya Lee

Due to ongoing maintenance activities following Tuesday’s inclement weather, ONE HOUR MIXER: Yaniya Lee is postponed. Rescheduled event information will be shared via our website and social media in due time. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please join us on Friday 10 August for a one-hour mix by Yaniya Lee and a drink on the house with good company. This […]

PAST EVENT

Artist performance: Dana Michel

Mercer Union is delighted to announce a performance by Dana Michel presented as part of group exhibition and event series RAGGA NYC. Please join us on Tuesday August 7. This event will follow the final session of Michèle Pearson Clarke’s What We Owe to Each Other, which opens at 6PM. Dana Michel’s performance will begin at 8:30PM. Admission is free and all are […]

PAST EVENT

fORUM: Tau Lewis in conversation with Katherine McKittrick

The conversation between Tau Lewis and Katherine McKittrick will explore their relational archives – situated in black cultural production and black studies. McKittrick will explore and query Lewis’ work in relation to belonging, scavenging, retrieval; Lewis will explore and query McKittrick’s work in relation to black geographies, plantocratic enumerations, and black life. The discussion hopes […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Michèle Pearson Clarke: What We Owe To Each Other

26 June 2018 - 7 August 2018

In a November 2017 interview, Mia Mingus, cofounder of the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective, ends by saying, “people talk about [transformative justice] as though it’s ‘soft’ [but] it’s one of the hardest things you’ll ever have to do.” What We Owe To Each Other is a public research project in which Michèle Pearson Clarke is trying […]

PAST EXHIBITION

RAGGA NYC

Michèle Pearson Clarke, Martine Gutierrez, Oreka James, Aaron Jones, Tau Lewis, Sondra Perry, Diamond Stingily, Camille Turner, Christopher Udemezue, Syrus Marcus Ware

22 June 2018 - 11 August 2018
Opening Reception 21 June 2018 7pm

RAGGA NYC is a growing collective of Queer Caribbean artists and allies. Founded by Christopher Udemezue (Neon Christina), the group was created to make space for and nurture ties amongst a group of artists who feel a deep commitment to their ancestral and diasporic histories. Working across various disciplines, ranging from visual art and poetry […]

PAST EVENT

ONE HOUR MIXER: Benjamin Ong

Members-Only One Hour Mixer AFTER HOURS music and cocktails  Please join us on Friday 1 June for a one-hour mix by Benjamin Ong and a drink on the house with good company. This is your last chance to experience the group exhibition Sophia Al Maria: Black Friday before it closes and an opportunity to order the last of our 2017-18 Member Edition by Oliver Husain. Not […]

PAST EVENT

SESSION

SESSION: Rouzbeh Akhbari, Faraz Anoushahpour, Parastoo Anoushahpour and Ryan Ferko   Mercer Union is delighted to launch Session, a project modelling itself after an incubator that invites cultural practitioners to engage with questions that emerge out of a given exhibition. Taking the form of workshops, conversations or teach-ins, Session is interested in developing a dialogue between […]

PAST EVENT

fORUM: Nasrin Himada

 fORUM: Nasrin Himada Nasrin Himada’s writing and curatorial series For Many Returns challenges traditional forms of art writing and reading. Instead of talking or writing about the art work as a way to analyse, explain, or interpret the object in question, this series focuses on the ways in which art can be a catalyst in constituting a radical, […]

PAST EVENT

Call for Board Members

Mercer Union, a centre for contemporary art, enjoys a unique position at the forefront of contemporary art in Toronto and Canada – a vantage point cultivated over many years, bolstered by the efforts and foresight of countless members, volunteers, staff and supporters. We are distinctive in our commitment to supporting the production of new and experimental […]

PAST EVENT

ONE HOUR MIXER: Sandra Brewster

Members-Only One Hour Mixer AFTER HOURS music and cocktails Please join us on Friday 23 March for a one-hour mix by artist Sandra Brewster and a drink on the house with good company. This is your last chance to experience group exhibition Common Cause: before and beyond the global before it closes and an opportunity for […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Sophia Al Maria: Black Friday

Sophia Al Maria

13 April 2018 - 2 June 2018
Opening Reception 12 April 2018 7pm

Sophia Al Maria’s exhibition Black Friday foregrounds the artist’s ongoing investigation into the accelerated development of the Gulf Nations and the sobering signs of a hyper-capitalist future to come. The large scale single-channel video installation Black Friday (2016) features hypnotic renderings of Qatari shopping malls that are often distorted and refracted, creating a dizzying disorientation […]

PAST EVENT

fORUM: Denise Ferreira da Silva

** Please note this event will start at 6:30, as well as taking place off-site at at the Mediatheque (Room 200), 1 Spadina Crescent, Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, University of Toronto. Mercer Union is delighted to announce that Denise Ferreira da Silva will give a lecture on Monday 19 March 2018 at 6:30PM. This lecture is presented in partnership […]

PAST EVENT

Artist performance: Jeneen Frei Njootli

Soundtools created by Jeneen Frei Njootli will be used in her performance to create a live soundscape in the gallery. This artist performance is presented in conjunction with Common Cause: before and beyond the global, guest curated by Denise Ryner. Admission to our public programming is free and all are welcome. Jeneen Frei Njootli is a […]

PAST EVENT

Artist Talk: Sandra Brewster

Please join us for a public artist talk by Sandra Brewster in conversation with Richard Fung. This public artist talk is presented in conjunction with group exhibition Common Cause: before and beyond the global, guest curated by Denise Ryner. Admission is free and all are welcome. BIOGRAPHIES Sandra Brewster is a Canadian artist and holds a Masters of Visual […]

PAST EXHIBITION

Common Cause: before and beyond the global

Fayçal Baghriche, Sandra Brewster, David Hartt, Jeneen Frei Njootli

Curated by Denise Ryner

16 February 2018 - 24 March 2018
Opening Reception 16 February 2018 7pm

Common Cause: before and beyond the global What’s left is politics but even the politics of the commons, of the resistance to enclosure, can only be a politics of ends, a rectitude aimed at the regulatory end of the common. And even when the election that was won turns out to have been lost, and […]

PAST EVENT

One hour mixer: Oliver Husain

ONE HOUR MIXER: Oliver Husain   2 February 2018 6pm – 7pm   Members-Only One Hour Mixer AFTER HOURS music and cocktails   Please join us on Friday 2 February for a one-hour mix by Oliver Husain and a drink on the house with good company. This is your last chance to experience the group […]