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After a long time together full of shared curatorial vision and dreams, Laid Bare: Curations and other Concerns is closing up shop. We want to thank everyone for supporting us and sharing in this wonderful Toronto community of up and coming artists and visionaries.  Though we are moving on from a shared collective, we would love for you to keep watching for what’s to come from each of us separately.  Kelsey is pursuing her photography while exploring her love of print through zine projects such as Deze Daze, a shared zine with Marishka Anne and Drew Lint. She has also co-founded The Commonwealth, a community event that hosts artist vendors to sell their works. Kelsey also plans to continue to further her curatorial goals and arts administration skills through working at Cooper Cole Gallery. Though Laid Bare has been put to rest, she continues to feel enriched by the arts community, and lucky to be a part of something so vibrantly vast.  Kelsey's Blog: www.blowherup.tumblr.com Kelsey's Website: www.cargocollective.com/kelseyrae The Commonwealth: www.commonwealthto.tumblr.com Cooper Cole Gallery: www.coopercolegallery.com Andrea is studying for her MA in Contemporary Art History at OCADU, while continuing her curatorial practice. After a dreamy summer in Dawson City, Yukon, she co-organized and performed in an all female wrestling league. Hoping to continue this project in Toronto, she has co-founded the League of Lady Wrestlers, a collaborative effort aimed at subverting gender stereotypes and queering the concept of competitive sports while entertaining the masses.  Andrea's Blog: www.shelovedtohappen.tumblr.com Andrea's Website: www.andrealeighpelletier.com LOLW on Facebook: www.facebook.com/dclolw LOLW website: www.dclolw.com xo LB (Image by Robert Padbury)

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"The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival celebrates the latest works by Indigenous peoples at the forefront of innovation in film, video, radio, and new media. Each fall, imagineNATIVE presents a selection of the most compelling and distinctive Indigenous works from around the globe. The Festival's programming, cultural & social events, and Industry Series attract and connect filmmakers, media artists, programmers, buyers, and industry professionals. The works accepted reflect the diversity of the world's Indigenous nations and illustrate the vitality and excellence of our art and culture in contemporary media."

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Tomorrow night at Blackwood Gallery

Red, Green, Blue ≠ White ft. Golboo Amani & Manolo Lugo, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Aryen Hoekstra, Brendan Fernandes, Kika Nicolela, Jude Norris and Kristina Lee Podesva.

Curated by Johnson Ngo

Opening Reception  Wednesday September 18, 5 – 8pm

A FREE shuttle bus will depart from Mercer Union (1286 Bloor Street W) at 6pm and return for 8:30pm.  Artists will be in attendance.

Live performance by Golboo Amani & Manolo Lugo.

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IS ANYONE ELSE SUPER PUMPED ABOUT THE MICAH LEXIER SHOW OPENING FRIDAY AT THE POWERPLANT?

Opening - Friday Sept 20th, 8pm Artist Talk - Thursday Sept 26th, 6:30pm 

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I’ve been in Dawson City, Yukon for about a month now- apologies for the brief hiatus due to the overwhelming sublimity of the environment and lack of Internet access.

The art scene here has completely blown me away. For a town of just over a thousand year-round residents there certainly is a lot going on!

One of the highlights thus far has been the exhibition, artist talk and musical performance by the duo Tyler Brett and Kerri Reid at KIAC (Klondike Institute of Art & Culture). For those of you who are unfamiliar, Brett and Reid are the minds behind The Bruno Arts Bank in Bruno, Saskatchewan. This rural arts centre is a music venue, coffee shop, music and book store, art gallery, mini-museum, and artist residency.

On top of being entrepreneurs, the two are also practicing artists. Their exhibition Signs of Life, currently showing at Odd Gallery, explores issues of obsolescence within our social and geographical landscape. Much like their work in the small town of Bruno, Brett and Reid cherish the tiny aspects of our environment, forcing us to reconsider our ideas of value.

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TONIGHT at BEAVER HALL GALLERY CONCLUSION: Lessons in Photography closing reception ft. Rock Bottom Movement After 3 weeks, and over 275 visitors, Lessons in Photography: Appropriations by Jackson Klie & Michelle O'Byrne is closing TODAY! Join us for one last look and an original live contemporary dance performance by Rock Bottom Movement. 29 McCaul St, 7-9pm. Refreshments will be available.

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THIS FRIDAY at THE MAY LETS GET PHYSICAL w/ THE MIDNIGHT SOCIETY Live 80s covers by THE MIDNIGHT SOCIETY and DJ sets by Brenton "Smut" Pedler Get touched like it's for the very first time with 80s classics by The Talking Heads, Michael Jackson, Madonna, The Clash and of course, the one and only Prince.

PLU$: ϟDancing ϟ Sweating ϟ (probably Crowd Surfing) Doors at 10pm, Concert at 11pm $10 19+ The May - 876 Dundas St. W, Toronto

RSVP on Facebook.

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OPENING TONIGHT After months of hard work Lessons in Photography: Appropriations by Jackson Klie & Michelle O'Byrne is opening TONIGHT 6-10pm at Beaver Hall Gallery, 29 McCaul St., Toronto. The exhibition will be open 12-6pm every day until May 28th.  Hope to see you there!  Poster design by Brittany Edwards. 

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A new exhibition by German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans encompasses everything from third world poverty to shiny cars and witchy, psychedelic sunsets.

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FUN!

If you’re in Toronto this weekend, Patricia No will be part of a 3 day seminar at Art Metropole discussing the social life of books. 

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OPENING TONIGHT at OZ STUDIOS  There, Not There "There, Not There is a collaboration by two photo based artists who each explore a journey, one national and one local, through both analogue and automated digital processes.

In 2010, Josh MacDonald and his brother embarked on a vagabond road trip across Canada with ten rolls of expired Kodachrome and a point-and-shoot camera. The resulting images are snapshots that document their journey. There, Not There is a nostalgic reflection on their trip, in which MacDonald’s photographs are paired with a corresponding image from Google Street View. Andrew Williamson's work uses Google Street View as a database to trace a local journey along Dundas West in Toronto while representing the collection of images together from the recent past." 

Opening Reception: May 8th, 6pm-12am Exhibition Dates:  May 1st-15th, Mon-Fri 12-7pm or by appointment Oz Studios | 134 Ossington Ave, Toronto  RSVP on Facebook. 

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Oh yeah... yesterday we got some love from shedoesthecity! Check out what writer Sara Harowitz had to say about our upcoming exhibition Lessons in Photography. 

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We are hosting a panel discussion featuring 7 Emerging Creatives in dialogue on the topic "New Modes of Image-Making" All of our participants are at the beginnings of their creative careers and working in the Toronto area, and it is our goal to create an environment for these new and up-and-coming voices to converse about their experience and observations in the image-based arts community. Topics of Concern: - Screen image saturation and the rebirth of tactility - Use of the archive and found images as a medium - Growth of interactive, experiential and immersive artworks - Self-referential art and concerns with honesty and trust within photography - The increased use of video and/or motion within image-based exhibitions - The possibility or impossibility of finding "the original" within photography - Photography as an creator of objects, and an object itself Presented in conjunction with our exhibition Lessons in Photography: Appropriations by Jackson Klie & Michelle O'Byrne, a Featured Exhibition in the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival 2013. Please RSVP to laidbareart@gmail.com if you plan on attending as space is limited. Go to the Facebook event page. --------------------------------- The Panel: SAM COTTER Sam Cotter is a Toronto-based artist, writer and critic; his practice employs photography, film, installation and sculpture to focus on issues of visual representation and relationships between art and culture. He currently works for Canadian Art magazine and Gallery TPW. www.sam-cotter.com www.canadianart.ca/author/scotter/ --------------------------------- BENJAMIN FREEDMAN Benjamin Aaron Freedman is an emerging photo based artist presently working in Toronto. He is a recent graduate of Ryerson University's Image Arts Program and currently exhibiting his work at Alliance Française as part of the CONTACT Photography Festival. All of Ben's artistic work uses analogue materials including small, medium and large formats. Ben is also a co-founder of NOMADS, an outdoor street art initiative that launched in 2010. www.benfreedmanphotography.ca www.scotiabankcontactphoto.com/featured-exhibitions/1354 --------------------------------- AARON FRIEND LETTNER Aaron Friend Lettner is a Toronto-based artist. His work derives from an incessant curiousity about the world and the different ways it can be represented through art. Combining photographic prints, projections and sound installations he creates experiential situations where artwork is treated as a gift. His work can be seen in the collaborative exhibition The Pensive Spectator at Alliance Française until May 31st. He is also co-creator of NOMADS, a public art initiative founded in 2010. www.aaron-friendlettner.com www.scotiabankcontactphoto.com/featured-exhibitions/1354 --------------------------------- LILI HUSTON-HERTERICH Lili Huston-Herterich is an artist and gallerist working in Toronto. Her work has been exhibited at Mercer Union, Gallery TPW and XPACE. She was the Co-Director of O'Born Contemporary and is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Butcher Gallery. Butcher Gallery was founded in 2009 and has a determined commitment to positioning Toronto’s young artists’ community within the broader international contemporary dialogue.  www.lilihustonherterich.com www.butchergallery.com --------------------------------- FELIX KALMENSON Felix Kalmenson is a Toronto-based artist and curator. Kalmenson works in a variety of media including; installation, film, photography, and collage, within public space, as well as, in the gallery setting. His work engages in conversations surrounding publicness, memory, myth and how these are mediated by complex social, economic, and urban landscapes. www.felixkalmenson.com --------------------------------- JIMMY LIMIT Jimmy Limit is a photo based artist living in St Catharines Ontario. His most recent exhibition Show Room "combined his long-standing interest in self-publishing and photography with a new fascination: ceramics and sculpture, examining photography as both a purveyor of commodities and a commodity in itself." (Sam Cotter. "Jimmy Limit Pushes Photo Boundaries at Clint Roenisch." Canadian Art. 19 February 2013.) He is represented by Clint Roenisch Gallery. www.jimmylimit.com www.clintroenisch.com --------------------------------- VANESSA RUNIONS Vanessa Runions is an artist and writer working in Toronto. She co-edits Carbon Paper, an emerging Toronto arts and culture publication trying to bridge the gaps of access through conversation, critique, humor, and humility. Vanessa is also a Board Member at Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography. www.carbonpaper.ca --------------------------------- The Moderator: ANDREA LEIGH PELLETIER Andrea Leigh Pelletier is an artist, curator and writer based in Toronto. She began curating shortly after finishing her BFA in Photography from Ryerson University in 2011. Since then, she has curated six exhibitions of image-based work in various Toronto venues, at Galerie Coatcheck in Montreal and Underground Gallery in London, UK. She teaches artistic promotion through social media at Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography and is co-founder of Laid Bare: Curations and Other Concerns. www.andrealeighpelletier.com ------------------------ LAID BARE: CURATIONS AND OTHER CONCERNS Laid Bare: Curations and Other Concerns is a Toronto-based not-for-profit curatorial collective dedicated to sharing art that is innovative, visceral, untapped and site-specific. Like a gallery but without the physical space, Laid Bare organizes exhibitions, publishes zines and plans other artistic events while maintaining a strong social media presence. Through periodic concerts and events, Laid Bare fundraises for their artistic projects, subsidizing the cost of exhibiting for emerging artists. www.laid-bare.com

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OPENING TOMORROW NIGHT at ALLIANCE FRANCAISE  THE PENSIVE SPECTATOR

A highly anticipated exhibition from two of Toronto's most promising up-and-coming image-based artists, Benjamin Freedman and Aaron Friend Lettner. This exhibition features an offering of diaristic moments, that appear as tactile photographic objects available for consumption and removal by the friends and strangers that view them. Additionally, the two artists present a collaborative multi-channel video installation on 16mm film. 

Alliance Française | 24 Spadina Rd (north of Bloor) Toronto, ON 

OPENING RECEPTION MAY 7th 6:30-9:30pm EXHIBITION DATES: May 2nd-31st HOURS: Mon–Thurs: 8am- 9:30pm, Fri & Sat: 8am-4pm

Featured Exhibition in this years CONTACT Photography Festival.

RSVP on Facebook  

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MORE PRESS!!!!!! Much love to the folks over at Canadian Art for listing our upcoming Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival Featured Exhibition Lessons in Photography: Appropriations by Jackson Klie & Michelle O'Byrne as #7 in 12 Shows We Want To See At Contact. 

Lessons in Photography opens May 9th at Beaver Hall Gallery, RSVP on Facebook.

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We are delighted that our upcoming Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival Featured Exhibition Lessons in Photography: Appropriations by Jackson Klie & Michelle O'Byrne was be recommended by friend and photographer Robert Burley in The Globe and Mail! Check out what he had to say. 

Lessons in Photography opens May 9th at Beaver Hall Gallery, RSVP on Facebook.

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Wishing we could be in Toronto and New York at the same time...

Ten things to do at the New Museum’s Ideas City festival, from parkour to animated GIFs.