All the Single Ladies

Four of the most highly anticipated exhibitions in Toronto this autumn are solos by four of the city’s most buzz-worthy artists, who just happen to be women.

It's Just One God Damn Thing After Another
Kelly Mark, 2009
powder coated aluminum
47" diameter x 0.25"
Courtesy Diaz ContemporaryKELLY MARK
at Diaz Contemporary: Sept. 3 - Oct. 10

Mark continues her exploration of the labour involved in art making, repetition and the passage of time in her first solo show at Diaz since joining the gallery’s roster earlier this year. The title of the exhibition, It’s Just One God Damn Thing After Another, indicates that Mark’s wry sense of humour remains intact. Influenced by such Minimalist and Conceptual artists as Hanne Darboven, Laurence Weiner and Bruce Nauman, Mark’s exhibition features drawings, text pieces, and video and neon-based works, as well as a continuation of her clever and visually enchanting Letraset series. In them, she uses this long-outmoded typesetting tool to create twisting patterns and shapes that emphasize the differences that can paradoxically exist in sameness.

For the Love of Gaud: Eye Candy
Laura Kikauka, 2009
Mixed media 55 x 48 cm
Courtesy MKG127LAURA KIKAUKA
at MKG127: Sept. 12–Oct. 10, 2009

Okay, Kikauka doesn’t actually live in Toronto (she was born in Hamilton and is currently based in Berlin), but a show here of new work by her was long overdue. Kikauka’s last appearance in Toronto was at the Power Plant in 2004, where she filled the gallery’s spaces with a sprawling installation that consisted of mountains of outmoded gadgets and electronics, anonymously produced crafts, flea market finds, cheap baubles, toys, and commercial products that appeared chaotic at first, but were actually sorted by hue or some other shared feature. Kitschy, colourful and fun, Kikauka’s ’trash art’ combines high and low art forms, and finds a quirky beauty in the detritus of our consumer society. The title of the show, For the Love of Gaud (Damien’s Worst), appears to poke fun at British Art Star Damien Hirst, which suggests this exhibition may also raise questions about taste, consumerism and whether art has become just another commodity.

Danger of Forgetting #3
Katie Pretti, 2009
Mixed media on canvas
Courtesy Le GalleryKATIE PRETTI
at Le Gallery: Sept. 11 - Oct. 5

In the past year, Pretti’s large drawings in oil stick, graphite and other materials on paper or canvas have garnered a lot of media attention from the home and interior design set. Don’t let yourself be fooled into classifying Pretti’s work as simply decorative, however. Pretti’s work is tumultuous, muscular, powerful and deeply personal; looking at her canvases, one always feels as if the artist is working something out. Pretti’s practice slyly trends the line between abstraction and the outer limits of figuration, placing her in the tradition of artists like Helen Frankenthaler or Grace Hartigan. Close study often reveals fragments of the human body (usually sexual and usually female) buried within them. Her latest exhibition promises to be her most ambitious yet.

Humpty Dumpty
Anitra Hamilton, 2007-09
Mixed media collage: MDF, military uniform images from book, eggshell
10 x 6 inches
Courtesy Georgia Scherman Art + ProjectsANITRA HAMILTON
at Georgia Scherman Projects: Sept. 11 – Oct. 24

For years, Hamilton has largely resisted the siren’s call of the commercial gallery. Rather, she has focused her practice on large-scale installations or participatory art events such as “Beater”, in which she suspended an old Buick by a crane in the courtyard of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art and invited people (after giving them a shot of tequila and blindfolding them) to take a couple of swings at it with a mallet. (Click here for a clip.) Hamilton’s work over the last few years has examined themes of nationalism, territoriality, the history of war and the co-opting of one culture by another. This exhibition will feature older works culled from her 20-year career, as well as suites of new work, including elegant and pathos-evoking collages of soldiers whose heads have been replaced by delicate pieces of broken eggshell.