Tough talk on race, class and the arts
Gerald McMaster frames Aboriginal art in the era of Truth and Reconciliation
Opening
Indian Acts: Truths in the Age of Reconciliation: If the title of this exhibition seems more than a little charged, fair enough. In the aftermath of last year’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, an exhaustive document that quite rightly laid the blame for decades of mistreatment of aboriginal Canadians at the feet of the federal government, points of re-engagement have started being forged in earnest. This one, curated by Gerald McMaster, former AGO curator of Canadian art and current Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Visual Culture at OCAD University, punches above its weight. Though it’s in a commercial gallery, it has ambitions to address big questions. Or as McMaster, who is Plains Cree and a member of the Siksika First Nation, puts it: “Canadian society remained surprisingly oblivious when it came to the nihilistic authority enshrined in the Indian Act.” Whether art can help remedy that wilfull ignorance is a longstanding question for a generation of First Nations artists but, with no satisfactory answer, the time is ripe to ask it again, especially with all levels of government scrambling to fund worthy First Nations cultural development initiatives. For McMaster, the post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission era starts now. Featuring works by Sonny Assu, Nicholas Galanin and Geronimo Inutiq, a.k.a. madeskimo.
Starts May 28 with opening reception June 4 at 2 p.m. On until July 9 at Katzman Contemporary, 86 Miller St., katzmancontemporary.com
Events
Damned If You Do: A Conversation On the Politics of Refusal Within Art Institutions: With art museums being challenged at every turn over their bygone-era singular authority, it’s fair to question whether the rising rhetoric of inclusiveness is anything more than lip service. To ask that question, Whippersnapper, a local artist-run centre, is hosting 2016 Sobey Award winner artist Abbas Akhavan, who is Iranian Canadian, and Deanna Bowen, an African-Canadian artist with roots in the U.S., to help shed light on the challenges of expectation from institutions craving the diversity they bring, and the weight of expectation that can put on their shoulders.
May 29 at 2:30 p.m. at the Theatre Centre, 1115 Queen St. W., whippersnapper.ca Symposium: Public Exposures: Carole Conde and Karl Beveridge have made a lifelong project of fusing their art practice to realworld causes and public engagement, so it only makes sense that Public Exposures, their career survey lining the walls of 401Richmond St., would have a public fo- rum built in. On Saturday, a daylong symposium held at OCAD University holds true to their enduring priorities. Art historians, community organizers and organized labour leaders will mix and mingle in a microcosm of the ideal world the couple has envisioned since the start, where art is of the broader people, not of privilege, and all ideas are welcome.
May 28, 10 a.m., OCAD U Auditorium, Room 109, 100 McCaul St.