Various Artists
November 17th - December 22nd, 2009
After 5 years of supporting emerging artists in Toronto as a non-profit organization that has exhibited over 1000 young artists, Whippersnapper Gallery unveils an elevated platform for supporting local talent with the Emergence Exhibition Series. In two curated exhibitions taking place in December and January, the series features major bodies of work by 7 exceptional emerging Canadian young artists under 30. Emergence 1, the first installment of the Emergence Exhibitions Series focuses on the diverging currents of photographic based practices, from traditional documentation, artist controlled or staged images, to non-photo works created in dialogue with the photographic image. This exhibit features newly presented work by artists Jonathan Taggart, David Waldmen, Patrick Struys, Laurie Kang, and Bogdan Luca. This special project is made possible though the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council.
Jonathan Taggart
Photojournalist, Jonathan Taggart’s work is grounded in the traditions and intentions of documentary photography. Dedicated to using photography as a tool of social engagement, his starkly honest and often moving work offers a testimony against some of our nation’s cultural and environmental injustices. He will be presenting a new series of photos documenting the people of the In-SHUCK-ch Nation, as they negotiate a new treaty with the Government of British Columbia.
Bogdan Luca
Painter Bogdan Luca examines how meaning is negotiated through technological, ideological and psychoanalytical screens of the mass media. In his painting traces of the digital image become metaphors for life lived at a disembodied level in a culture that privileges that most virtual and corruptible of senses: the visual.
Laurie Kang
Bright and daring Toronto-based photographer Laurie Kang’s intriguing photos have been turning heads at exhibits in Toronto and Montreal. Through constructed and staged environments Kang transforms the ordinary into fantastical with seemingly fictionalized characters and open ended narratives.
David Waldmen
Self taught artist and editorial photographer David Waldman made a name for himself posting gritty scenes of art punks and indie-rock dive bars on his now infamous photo-blog www.kidwithacamera.com. Shot in cramped bars with hidden remote flashes his photos shed harsh light on Toronto’s music scene Patrick Struys ¨Toronto based portrait photographer Patrick Struys will be unveiling a new work created in collaboration with contemporary dance choreographer Ame Henderson. In his large-scale digitally choreographed dances, Struys blurs the lines between traditional dance photography and staged photographic production.