held open, curated by Marie-Charlotte Carrier
In 2022, Art Toronto launched the Focus Exhibition, creating a context to explore and investigate the works of artists shown at the fair, and an opportunity for them to present new and often ambitious works. Here, contemporary artists are shown alongside historical works, complicating narratives and creating points of understanding contemporary concerns by examining the past.
Curated by Marie-Charlotte Carrier, held open explores the manifold ways we relate to one another and the non-human. They hint at what these intimacies might mean, in all their complexity and ambivalence - and in doing so, they reveal the entangled narratives and ecologies that characterize the living but also how such relationships are in constant flux. The works in the show, pulled from exhibiting galleries from across Canada and the US, offer a respite, a moment to observe what is often concealed, and at times, speculation of how these worlds might be intertwined or even collide.
Curator
Marie-Charlotte Carrier is a Canadian curator whose research focuses on art practices deconstructing networks and ecosystems in which individuals, groups, and machines cohabit. She is currently Assistant Curator at Hayward Gallery in London (UK), where she worked on solo exhibitions such as Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child, Igshaan Adams: Kicking Dust and Thabiso Sekgala: Here is Elsewhere and numerous group exhibitions.
Selected Artists
Lorna Bauer (Galerie Nicolas Robert)
Nadia Belerique (Daniel Faria Gallery)
Sharona Franklin (Bradley Ertaskiran)
General Idea (United Contemporary)
Nan Goldin (Caviar 20)
Maureen Gruben (Cooper Cole)
Alicia Henry (TrepanierBaer)
Laura Hudspith (Zalucky Contemporary)
Oreka James (Pangée)
Laurie Kang (Franz Kaka)
Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill (Cooper Cole)
Elise Lafontaine (Pangée)
Karen Lofgren (Royale Projects)
Jenine Marsh (Cooper Cole)
Preston Pavlis (Bradley Ertaskiran)
Shanie Tomassini (Blouin Division)
