April 1, 2012 - April 30, 2012

Opening: Thursday, April 5, 2012

The work I produce reflects my need for uncovering dark places and further feeds my desire to produce humanistic, palpable photography. I choose to work with photography on the deepest level possible to produce the best work that I can. I photograph things I feel and see, trying to give voice and meaning to the environment around me.

The foreclosure crisis has been widespread across America, in particular within the state of Florida where the recession has affected many families and forced many out of their homes. These images are a document of this ongoing crisis.

B. 1986 toronto

Mike Berube was raised in Toronto, where he is an established photographer. He initially gained recognition for his pictures in 2007 when he was commissioned to cover life in the slums in Kibera, Kenya. In 2008, the images would go on to receive recognition from world press photo. Mike’s distinct style of emotional, humanistic photography has  characterized his work since. Mike's photographs explore themes of human, social and economic conflict on local and international scales. 

Belgrade House

By Vuk Dragojevic

March 1 - March 31, 2012

Opening: Thursday, March 1, 2012. 6pm - 10pm

Vuk Dragojevic is a Toronto based artist who works in a range of media including animation, video and photography. He has produced work that has been shown in group exhibits and festivals - both locally and abroad - as well as featured in print and online publications. This is his first solo show.

Belgrade House documents the people and places of my life in Belgrade and is driven by the personal and cultural struggle of going back to a place that is at once foreign and familiar.  

Please join us for the opening reception of Anastasia Taylor-Lind's show "The National Womb: Baby Boom in Nagorno-Karabakh". She is the 2011 winner of the Pikto Top Pick competition and will receive $5,000 towards the production of her show.

Her series explores the Birth Encouragement Program in Nagorno-Karabakh, which distributes cash payments to newlyweds for each baby born with the aim of repopulating the region after the devastating 1991-1994 war.  

Anastasia Taylor-Lind is an English/Swedish photographer based out of London, United Kingdom. She is represented by the VII Photo Agency.

The show will run from January 5, 2012 - February 29, 2012
Opening reception: January 21, 2012, 6pm-10pm 

Opening Reception Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011, 7 - 9pm Covert: $50

Remarks at 8pm  

From the pages of history: A unique photo exhibition featuring rare images of Jerusalem from the archives of the Old Yishuv Museum, located in the heart of the Old City. Contemporary photographer Merry Somers takes to the streets of Jerusalem to capture the celebrations and intrigue that make this city a beacon for the world. Proceeds from the sale of photos will benefit the Canada Club and youth programs in Jerusalem's Morasha Community and Cultural Centre.

Please join us for the Nzirambi Photo Exhibition fundraiser, featuring photos by Brian Pieters, on Oct. 27, 7p.m.-10p.m. $20 Tickets 

Earlier this year, Brian traveled to Uganda to photograph the 85 boys and girls of the Nzirambi Orphans Talent Development Centre. The result is an inspiring collection of photos that captures the resilience and hope of the women and children there. This photo exhibition fundraiser will include a silent auction, raffle and African drumming. Local businesses have donated more than $5000 in gifts to be auctioned at the event. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at http://orphanage.eventbrite.com All proceeds from the evening will go toward the Nzirambi Education Fund to ensure the children have access to high school and post-secondary education. Higher levels of education are especially critical for these children, giving them additional resources to become leaders in their communities and break free of the cycle of poverty that has defined their families. For more information about the Education Fund and the orphanage, check out the Facebook page at http://on.fb.me/nzirambi

Leanne Eisen

Exhibition Dates: November 1st until November 16th 2011

Opening Reception: Friday 4th, 2011. 6pm - 10pm.

(In her series Scan), Eisen explores the effects of movement and reflection in a digital technology that renders the material into data. The resulting works resemble ethereal landscapes, floating apparitions or maybe distant galaxies, however the pieces are more than merely finding shapes in the clouds, there is the presence of sheer volumes of space and distance, and the photographic feeling of capturing the image of something living and breathing. The images stimulate more questions than answers, with the viewer unable to come to any concrete conclusions about the works, leaving them in a sublime limbo.

- Zachary Eastwood-Bloom, Klat Magazine

Exhibition dates: November 22 - December 31, 2011.

Opening Reception: November 25, 2011, from 6pm-10pm. The artist will be in attendance.

Artist statement:

There are over 200 independent countries of the world with an estimated 6800 different spoken languages, creating many language barriers, lost translations and hand signals. However within this mass of confusion, pictures and photography can still be universally understood. Pictures can speak a thousand words to a thousand different people. This global understanding has been the main reason that I have been documenting various cultures around the world. Over the past 15 years I have concentrated on photographing people and their various ways of life that seem to have been left behind by the world’s rush to modernize. Certain aspects of these various cultures seem to be in a time warp, many within their own country. The photographs presented in this show are part of a long-term project photographing some of these people that live and work in challenging environments that time seems to have forgotten and whose way of life may never be seen again. Maynard Switzer

Yuriko Kubota

ON EARTH

June 1 - June 30 2011

For on Earth, Yuriko continues exploring her double-layer technique, which involves placing two photographs on top of each other and meticulously cutting thin vertical strips of the top layer to reveal slivers of the image beneath.　This merging of two images creates an effect of vibration, where movement and stillness play off each other, and lines between two and three-dimensional space are blurred.

Yuriko studied oil painting at Joshibi University of art and design in Tokyo, Japan. Approaching photography as an extension of her painting, she uses it as a tool to study and reconfirm her thoughts as well as record what she feels in her journey through life. In the series On earth, she focuses on the relationship between humans and natural forces, and the ways that they exist within the same world and share its interrelated complexity.

www.yurikokubota.com

Carlos Cazalis

URBAN SHADOWS

May 2011

CONTACT Feature show

Urban Shadows examines the damaging effects that people have on urban centres, specifically in Osaka, Japan; Tehran, Iran; Mexico City, Mexico; São Paulo, Brazil; and Dhaka, Bangladesh. Carlos Cazalis documents these overpopulated megacities that have become epicentres of cultural and economic power, yet are also major consumers of the planet’s resources. These images take the viewer on a journey from the vastness of the cityscape through to the detailed interiors of a squatter’s shack. The artist’s lens exposes the man-made systems that mediate our lived experience of urban environments.

The planet now harbours over 35 megacities–several with a population of over 20 million–and for the first time in history, more people are living in urban rather than rural areas. As millions migrate to these vast concrete jungles, populations distance themselves from the reality that humankind is an integral part of the natural world. The consequences of overpopulation and the housing shortage within these megacities reflect a growing disparity between economically underprivileged classes and the wealthy. By exposing how humankind’s needs have reshaped the world, we become aware of our surroundings and how they impact the individual.

www.cazalis.org

Jocelyn Philibert

September 7th - October 26th 2011

Reception: Friday September 9th, 6pm-10pm, 2011

"At night, my camera takes picture blindly and becomes like the eye of a robot. All we need to do is to scan the space by taking several pictures like if, to see, I would need to close my eyes, get away, not to frame or discriminate. Try objectivation. The process can be described with a vocabulary nearly judicial: camera as an instrument of investigation, exploration of sites, searching, meticulous examination, reconstitution, revelation, "world of darkness". My point of view is the following: during the day, the sun would hide as much as it would reveal; at night, I take images out of obscurity. In fact, each image is built on a computer screen and becomes a "discovery" that moves me each and every time (such as the archeologist that discovers something unknown). The nocturne atmosphere, the raw light of the flash, the effects of perspective create a climate of strangeness and mystery; everything seems both real and unreal, natural and artificial. It is this tension between reality and fiction that I find interesting. Sometimes, I happen to think that I am painting with photography. Right now, I am fascinated by the painting of landscapes, the one of the pre-impressionism era, for example when painters seemed to be obsessed by painting the "truth" by imitating nature with studied perspectives, dramatic stagecrafts, huge trees, luxuriant vegetation, magnificient skies, tormented seas, etc. It was like a fight against reality. We cannot say that what we see is real but we cannot say it is unreal either. This is also part of my questioning. This way, I have been invited last summer to participate in the exhibition Natural Forms in Regina (curator and artist JG Hampton) where we were questioning our links with nature, our ever-renewed will to control it and to create "genuine" natural settings."

Jocelyn Philibert

Jocelyn Philibert lives and works in Montréal. He studied communications at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Recipient of many scholarships from the Canada Council for the Arts and from the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, his work has been exposed in 2010 at the York University of Toronto, at ARTsPLACE (Annapolis Royal, NS) and at Neutral Ground (Regina, SK). He exposed his work at the Galerie Clark, the Centre d’exposition Circa, L’Œil de Poisson, VU and the Galerie Sans Nom in Moncton and has done residencies at the Chambre blanche, at the Centre Est-Nord-Est and at Sagamie (Alma).