Running from September 2–October 19, 2014, this group exhibition at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery in Toronto mines minimalism for its humorous side by pointing to a latent absurdity hiding beneath its cool demeanour. The exhibition rejects the assumption that minimal art requires solely serious, solemn contemplation, and embraces the more intuitive, jovial and personal pleasures that occur when one has fun with the comically utopian ambitions of unitary forms. Playing with the forms, traditions and incongruities of multiple levels of minimalism, the presented works elude rational comprehension, repositioning conceptual value to make room for the types of recognition made possible through levity, play, humour and sentiment.
Curated by John G. Hampton, the exhibition features the work of artists Jennifer Marman & Daniel Borins, John Baldessari, John Boyle-Singfield, John Marriott, John Wood & Paul Harrison, Jon Sasaki, Ken Nicol, Liza Eurich and Tammi Campbell.
The opening reception takes place on Thursday, September 11th from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. A tour with curator John G. Hampton takes place at 2:00pm on September 20th, followed by another curator’s tour at 2:00pm on September 26th as part of Culture Days. On October 14th at 6:00pm, a panel discussion on humour and minimalism with Daniel Borins, Jennifer Marman, John G. Hampton, John Marriott and Tammi Campbell takes place at the University of Toronto Art Centre, located at 15 King’s College Circle.
For more information, please visit www.jmbgallery.ca/exhibitions.html