Sara Cwynar: Source

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Sara Cwynar, "Red Film," 2018

film still, 16 mm film transferred to video, 13:00 min. Courtesy of the artist; Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto; and Foxy Production, New York.

Drawing on an ever-expanding collection of image and objects, Cwynar has developed a distinctive visual language. She combines materials from a multitude of sources, including thrift stores, eBay, discarded photo albums, art history books, fashion and luxury advertising. Her process often shifts back-and-forth between printing, collaging, assembling and re-capturing. The resulting compositions are dense, chaotic and logic-defying, speaking to the endless accumulation of consumer products and pictures.

“Sara Cwynar has an obsessive curiosity about images: how and why they are created, and how they move through the world,” said Rose Bouthillier, Remai Modern Curator (Exhibitions). “Her work really speaks to the complexity of how we navigate vast amounts of visual information in our daily lives. Especially with new digital tools, there’s a balance between what might be gained — including more choices, access and knowledge — and what might be lost in terms of privacy, security and trust."

The title of the exhibition, Source, describes a point of origin, a direct or authentic connection. It also evokes something mystical, a form of energy or power beyond understanding or control. Technology is changing how we engage with images and information, in increasingly ever-present and data-driven ways. Cwynar’s work explores these developments in the arc of late capitalism, considering new and fundamental shifts in how we see, feel and function.

 The exhibition is organized by Rose Bouthillier, Curator (Exhibitions).

About Sara Cwynar

Sara Cwynar (b. 1985, Vancouver) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at The Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver; Oakville Galleries, ON; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, USA; Minneapolis Institute of Art, USA; MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Germany; and Foam Photography Museum, The Netherlands. Recent group exhibitions include Subjektiv (2017), Malmö Konsthall, Sweden; L’Image Volée (2016), Fondazione Prada, Italy; and Greater New York (2015), MoMA PS1, USA. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

In 2017, she published her first book Kitsch Encyclopedia with Blonde Art Books, and her first monograph, Glass Life is scheduled to be published by Aperture in spring 2021. In 2020, Cwynar was recognized with a Sobey Art Award and the Shpilman International Prize for Excellence in Photography.