Attica, U.S.A., 1971: Images and Sounds of a Rebellion
In 1971, inmates at the Attica Correctional Facility staged a riot, taking control of the prison and launching heated negotiations with authorities over living conditions. By the time the uprising was quashed, 33 inmates and 10 guards were dead. This exhibition looks back at the radical protest through photojournalism, music, film and other art from the period to measure its lasting legacy on prisoners’ rights. Jan. 18 to April 9. Ryerson Image Centre, 33 Gould St., 416-979-5164, ryerson.ca/ric.
Jonathas de Andrade, Kapwani Kiwanga and Maria Hupfield In his films and photographs, de Andrade is by turns a journalist, historian and artist, using his 16 mm documentary movies to explore Brazil’s class system, colonial past and mistreatment of marginalized groups. Hamilton-bred, Paris-based Kiwanga is similarly engrossed in history and place: in her multimedia performance, Afrogalactica: A Brief History of the Future, she assumes the role of a fictional anthropologist, delivering a lecture on Afrofuturism. Hupfield, meanwhile, taps into Anishinabe oral storytelling traditions with her new film, which combines her own dance-like movements, handmade sculptures and costume art. Jan. 28 to May 15. The Power Plant, 231 Queen’s Quay W., 416-973-4949, thepowerplant.org.
Kent Monkman The Cree iconoclast’s sesquicentennial exhibition is more a critique than a celebration of Canada’s first 150 years. The sprawling show, a collection of Monkman’s oftcomical paintings, begins in the present, with scenes of prison brawls, and divine visitations on the streets of northern Winnipeg and modern reserves. Those images hang next to depictions of Monkman’s drag queen alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, reigning over fur traders in New France. Together, the works are meant to trace—
and rewrite—the history of Canadian colonialism and highlight Indigenous resilience. Jan. 26 to March 4. The Art Museum at the University of Toronto, 7 Hart House Circle, 416-978-8398, artmuseum.utoronto.ca.
Leopold Plotek: No Work, Nor Device, Nor Knowledge, Nor Wisdom Plotek was born in postwar Moscow and raised in Warsaw, where his father was an economic attaché to the Polish embassy during Stalin’s reign. Though Plotek has lived in Montreal since the 1960s, his massive, slightly surreal canvases feel haunted by the ghosts of his homeland. He paints Soviet philosophers and poets, and eerie authoritarian scenes using dark, reddish hues to chronicle 20th-century history as it might appear in an otherworldly dream. Jan. 19 to March 19. Koffler Gallery, 180 Shaw St., 647-925-0643, kofflerarts.org.
Sky Glabush Few of the London, Ont., artist’s works look alike. He’s painted realist suburban landscapes, neo-Fauvist portraits and minimalist, Rothko-esque watercolours. He’s sculpted modernist forms that could be mistaken for IKEA shelving. And he’s woven and dyed abstract textiles. This show serves as a sampler, displaying Glabush’s disparate works. Jan. 7 to Feb. 4. MKG127, 1445 Dundas St. W., 647-435-7682, mkg127.com.