Notice Board

Artists’ Voices

Yvonne Lammerich and Ian Carr-Harris will discuss their recent project Voices: artists on art opening at the SAAG on February 17.

Comprising interviews with 51 artists drawn from across Canada, Voices references the catalogue for the National Gallery's exhibition of 51 artists, Sculpture '67, held in Toronto 50 years ago. Taking the concept of the artist's statement as its base, the project employs 24 questions to investigate the ways in which artists encounter the world around them, and how that enters into the narrative of their work.

As both a research project and an artwork in its own right, Voices opens a door onto what artists think about their practice, the artworld, and what an artwork can be when it is neither a research project nor an artwork.

Yvonne Lammerich, born in Germany, has lived in England, France and Canada. While living in the UK, she did research at the Brain and Perception Laboratory with Richard Gregory, University of Bristol, UK (1975-1976). She lived and worked in Montreal (1985 – 2002), and Toronto (2002 – 2015). In 1988 she conducted research in Canada, USA, Europe on the Camera Obscura Observatoires (1988) and in 1989 she delivered a conference paper "Cortickle" at the 11th European Conference of Visual Perception, Bristol, UK. She was Artistic director for the 1991 Baie Saint Paul Painting Symposium. She has taught at York University, the Ontario College of Art, the University of Lethbridge and at Zayed University (UAE), and has participated on several graduate defence panels at Concordia University and the University of Waterloo's School of Architecture (1998 through 2013). In Montreal she was on the Board of Optica as board member and president 1986 – 1993. In 1994 she was awarded Quebec's Paris studio for a 6-month residency, and in 1996 she was awarded the Maria Stafford Mid-Career Prize administered by the Canada Council. She has written reviews for Parachute, Vie Des Arts, ETC, Canadian Art, Contemporary Magazine (UK) as well as numerous catalogue essays. In 2005 she delivered a paper on painting today (A Cat Amongst the Pigeons) at ARCO (Madrid) and in 2006 she participated in the Banff residency The Future of Idea Art.

Recent significant solo and special projects include the TMCA proposal (Toronto Museum of Contemporary Art) in Everywhere and Nowhere, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery (2011); Incidentally with Joan Key, Nunnery Gallery London UK (2010); Common Ground, Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge (2008); Belief at Diaz Contemporary, Toronto (2008); Problems of knowing #1 and #2, 1st Quebec International Biennale (2000). Group Exhibition, Art + Labour Gallery, Shanghai (2016); Idiorrythmic: Canadian & Chinese Artists Urban Art Creation Project, Suzhou (2016). Voices: artists on art, Artport Gallery, Harbourfront, Toronto (2017).

Her work appears in public and private collections in Canada and Europe.

Ian Carr-Harris is based in Toronto, Canada, and his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally since 1971.

Significant international and national exhibitions include the Venice Biennale (1984), Documenta, Kassel, Germany (1987), the Canadian Biennial at the National Gallery, Ottawa (1989), the Sydney Biennale, Sydney, Australia (1990), the Montreal Biennale (1998), Projections, University of Toronto (2007) and Continental Drift: Conceptual Art in Canada: the 1960s and 70s, Badischer Kunstverein, Germany (2013), with solo exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario (1989), Chelsea Space, London and The Power Plant (2002).

He was named a recipient (Laureate) of the Governor-General's Awards in the Visual and Media Arts in 2007 and in 2012 recipient of the Life Achievement Award from the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts.

He is represented by the Susan Hobbs Gallery in Toronto (since 1993), and prior to that by the Carmen Lamanna Gallery (1973 – 1992).

Educated at Queen’s University, Kingston (Modern History), the University of Toronto (Library Science) and the Ontario College of Art (Sculpture), he is a life member of the RCA and a current member of the Chelsea Arts Club in London, UK. He served as Director of Library Services at the Ontario College of Art and Design from 1972 to 1987, following which he was Chair of the Experimental Arts Department and the Sculpture/Installation Program, during which time he initiated the founding of the Criticism and Curatorial Program. He taught in several of the University’s programs from 1975 to 2015, and is now Professor Emeritus at OCAD University.

His writing has included reviews and articles for journals and magazines, including Parachute, Vanguard, Canadian Art, Prefix, and the London (UK) magazine Contemporary, as well numerous catalogue essays; he has been a contributing editor for Canadian Art magazine, Toronto.

A founding Board member of one of the first artist-run galleries, A Space, Toronto, in 1971 and of The Power Plant in 1987, he has also served on the Boards of the Art Gallery at Harbourfront (pre-cursor to the Power Plant), the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Board of the web-based CCCA (Centre for Canadian Contemporary Art), where his work can be viewed on line through www.ccca.ca as well as through the Susan Hobbs Gallery.