"Liz Magor: Sculpture Installation"
2005-02-24 until 2005-04-09
Susan Hobbs Gallery
Toronto, ON, CA Canada

Opening on February 24th and continuing until April 9th we will be showing new work by Liz Magor. Widely regarded as one of Canada’s most important artists, this will be her first exhibition in Toronto since her acclaimed survey at The Power Plant in 2003. The main gallery will feature a sculpture cast from a 27 foot beach log divided into sections. The spaces between each piece reveal an unexpected and impossible interior. Of the piece Magor says, “The image of the log is there as a skin or a sheath or a long tube or pipe, making a form which is available to contain something other than wood. Its convincing resemblance to a weatherbeaten log continues to conjure solidity even though all evidence is to the contrary.”

Liz recently completed two major public commissions. LightShed 2004 is a work commissioned Grosvenor Ltd. to commemorate their 50th year of activity in North America. The sculpture consists of a half-scale version of a cedar planked freight shed as typically seen on the industrial waterfront in British Columbia. Although the image is one of a traditional wooden building, the sculpture is cast entirely in aluminum. What appears to be an ordinary job of mill-work is in fact an extraordinary job of foundry work as every detail; each board, nail, hinge and barnacle of the model has been cast and reassembled. The sculpture sits on the seawalk at the north end of Broughton Street in Coal Harbour, Vancouver.  

Channel 2004 was produced for Oakville Galleries. Sited in the Gairloch Gardens, this bronze sculpture is in the form of a hollow tree trunk with indications of an alternative interior space. Cast directly from a black locust (a tree native to Ontario) it has the appearance, texture and colour of a fallen log. However, closer examination reveals that the sculpture has qualities that suggest an alternate form.

Recently her work was featured in the exhibition Baja to Vancouver: The West Coast and Contemporary Art which toured to the Seattle Art Museum; CCA Wattis, San Francisco; MCA, San Diego; and The Vancouver Art Gallery. The photographic series Fur Trade 1996 and Civil War Portfolio 1991 were recently included in the exhibition Histories des Amériques at the musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. Later this year Camping Portfolio 2002, a suite of 8 photographs, will be included in the exhibition CAMP(sites) at the Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff and Museum London.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for Canada

Other Important Exhibitions in Toronto