I will be participating as a speaker in Blackwood Gallery‘s exciting two-day hybrid panel/presentation/event/talk series.

I need you.
I often perform with others in my work. Some projects feature prepped performers, while other projects ask the audience to complete the intended action. Drawing examples from Make a wish! (2007), The Kiss (2008-2011), _scape with 6 and 7 (2009-2010), and Knowhere (2011), I will talk about how needing others motivates my ideas, and how their bodies perform in my practice.

A TWO DAY HYBRID* EVENT
LED BY FOUR DISTINGUISHED GUESTS:

Michael Fernandes (artist, Nova Scotia College of Art & Design) Peggy Gale (independent curator, Toronto), Sheila Heti (writer, Toronto) and Mark Lanctôt (curator, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal). Moderated by Suzanne Carte (independent curator, New York/Toronto).

*Part-workshop, part-conference, part-crit session, part-masterclass, part pechakucha (but longer), part ignite (but longer still).

How do ideas take form? How does one embark on the process of extracting, editing and distilling an idea into a presentable format? One half of this intensive two day event (May 5–6) will be led by four distinguished guests who will model the process by which they each move from the conceptual to the final stages of a project. They will present the successes and failures of both in-progress and finished work in a series of engaging presentations.

The conference will take place on Saturday May 5 & Sunday May 6 (10am to 5pm) at the Blackwood Gallery, Kaneff Centre (UTM). You must register in advance to attend.

ABOUT OUR GUESTS
HOW TO REGISTER
FUNDERS & PARTNERS

I’m excited to present a new, small-scale sculpture (pictured above) entitled tooth and nail (and hair) at a silent-auction organized by main Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (mMOCCA), Art History Graduate Students Association (AHGSA at York University), and hosted at Gendai Workstation.

Half of the funds raised will go toward supporting AHGSA’s 11th annual symposium (to be held March 31st, 2012), developed in collaboration with the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. The remaining portion of the auction sale price will go to the artist who created the work.

Preview and Silent Auction are held at:
Gendai Workstation
1265 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Phone: 416.534.1693

Preview dates:
Tuesday February 28 to Saturday March 3, from 11-6pm

Silent Auction date:
Saturday March 3, from 7pm-12am

Thanks to Starving Artists Collective (Catherine Clarke, Jess Dobkin and Stephanie Springgay) for curating a great 6 weeks of artist lunches, and to all the volunteer performers who made I want more a fun-filled afternoon:

Kate Barry
Alison Creba
Kathleen Edwards
Leanne Gillard
Arden Hagedorn
Adam Herst
Johanna Householder
Sandra Liu
David Reyes
Sean Smith
Connie Tsang

For six Monday afternoons this winter artists are invited to come to the Artists’ Soup Kitchen for a FREE HOT LUNCH. Each week is hosted by different artists who will bring their creative practices to the Soup Kitchen.

A new menu each week!
Monday, January 9: Ulysses Castellanos
Monday, January 16: Helen Reed and Hannah Jickling
Monday, January 23: Tobaron Waxman
Monday, January 30: Naty Tremblay
Monday, February 6: Annie Onyi Cheung
Monday, February 13: Swintak

Artists’ Soup Kitchen Mondays ONLY
Series runs Jan 9 to Feb 13, from 12-3pm
The Raging Spoon Cafe
761 Queen Street West, Toronto
Wheelchair accessible space

Volunteer at the Soup Kitchen!
Contact: StarvingArtistSoupKitchen@gmail.com
Info: jessdobkin.com

The Starving Artists Collective
(Catherine Clarke, Jess Dobkin and Stephanie Springgay)

Made possible with support from the Toronto Arts Council and SSHRC

2 of my videos are now on view at art+drinks, a moving images space by John Oswald.

_scape with 6 and 7 and Untitled [black+grey] will be on view occasionally from now through to the end of the year. Oswald switches up the selection on view on a near-nightly-basis, choosing from work by Michael Snow, David Rokeby, John Oswald, Renée Lear, Bettina Hoffmann, Laurel MacDonald, Max Dean, Mani Mazinani, Annie Onyi Cheung, and Mark Reale.

About art+drinks – A storefront location in Toronto on Dundas West (at the intersection of Palmerston) is a comfortable viewing lounge/observia connected to a bar/café which is connected to a locavore deli; a new place to eat and drink and talk, and especially to watch images unfold.

open Tuesday – Saturday from sunset to 11pm
800 Dundas Street West, Toronto   ON   M6J 1V1
phone: 647-665-8585

A Piece of a City is a neighbourhood-based curatorial initiative commissioned for Toronto’s Art of the Danforth Festival (May 2012). The project brings together a group of emerging and established artists to envision a series of site-specific installations and performances that address the interlocking themes of locality, community & contemporary art practice.

Over the course of 6 months, project curators and artists will work within the Danforth East community to conceive, research, document, and finally build a series of contemporary art projects for the festival. This website will serve as our show & tell space. All projects will be documented here from the ground up.

About the AOD Festival:

Art of the Danforth is a month-long multidisciplinary arts festival held along Danforth Ave East between Greenwood Ave and Woodbine Ave in Toronto, Ontario. This year’s festival will host three distinct curatorial zones, each zone produced by a commissioned curatorial collective.

A Piece of a City Project is curated by east-end artists, Annie Onyi Cheung, John Loerchner & Laura Mendes and will run from Coxwell Ave to West Lynn Ave in Zone 2 of the festival.

*Depending on size & scale, artists will be given a budget to conceive their projects.

*Toronto east-end artists and applicants from the neighbourhood are strongly encouraged to apply.

Visit www.apieceofacity.com for more submission guidelines and more details.

Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, 2011
October 1, 2011, 6:59 pm to sunrise

I will be installing a version of The Kiss indoors at Hart House as part of their Nuit Blanche exhibition. Please come and see the work in the East Common Room at Hart House, relax on soft rugs, sneak some kisses, and snuggle by the fire place between your jaunts from zone to zone.

A perennial crowd favorite, the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery is once again proud to present a slate of programming for the City of Toronto’s annual all night contemporary art festival, Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. This year’s highlights include a newly commissioned Farmers Market 2050, a new bar-chitectural installation by Dean Baldwin, a film screening by Joyce Wieland and Hollis Frampton, and a video installation by Annie Onyi Cheung, among others. We are also excited to announce that we are expanding out of Hart House and moving into Marshall McLuhan’s famous Coach House Institute with a multimedia installation by Amsterdam-based Mark Boulos.

Sincerest thanks to all performers: Adam, Alexander, Alise, Annie, Asad, Caitlin, Carl, Claire, David, Deanna, Emma, Erin, Joanna, Jonathan, Jon, Kim, Lannie, Laura, Leanne, Lora, Marla, Matthew, Meg, Mimi, Natalie, Nayeon, Paul, Rick, Risa, Russel, Shannon, Tharmila, Van, Vika, and Will

Untitled [ black + grey], edition 1/10 was donated to Canadian Art Foundation and auctioned during their annual gala fundraiser, held on September 21 at The Carlu in Toronto.

Edition 1/10 was recently donated to Canadian Art Foundation for their annual fundraiser gala and auction. Numbers 5 through 10 of 10 are available.

Special thanks to Sandra Liu who designed and produced this edition with me.

I made a video [ elastic body / elastischen Körper ] that will be exhibited at A trans Pavilion (Berlin), a contribution to Gwen MacGregor and Sandra Rechico‘s collaborative exhibition inviting video calls + responses from artists in Berlin.

Backtrack / A serendipi(ci)ty #04

Through a shared interest in the art and language of mapping Canadian artists Gwen MacGregor and Sandra Rechico turn the A trans Pavilion into a LAB environment. The serendipity of these chance encounters with the public, will provide the data needed for the artists to create an installation that will be a collective portrait of the city based on where and when people travel

Collaborators in this endeavour are: Annie Onyi Cheung, Shannon Cooney, Dan Hudson, David Kripppendorff, Mareike Lee, Sonya Schoenberger and Christof Zwiener, Maria Sewcz, and Molly Sigalet.