Deborah Turbeville, “Asser Levy Public Bathhouse, New York, for Vogue (New York),” 1975, black and white chromogenic print (courtesy of The Image Centre, Gift of Eric Berthold, 2017 © Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection)
‘Dark, Brooding’ Fashion Photography on View
Deborah Turbeville started her career as a fashion editor, working for publications that included Harper’s Bazaar, but by the 1970s, she was making her mark as a photographer, with her dreamy, dark, haunting images. Otherworldly: Deborah Turbeville Photographs is on now through April 6 at The Image Centre (IMC) at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Curated by Denise Birkhofer, the show features more than 40 works pulled from The Image Centre’s collection, including some of the American photographer's major fashion commissions of the 1970s — her Bathhouse series, for instance, shot for the May 1975 issue of Vogue — as well as her more personal works.
When Turbeville died of lung cancer in 2013, The New York Times obituary stated that she “almost single-handedly turned fashion photography from a clean, well-lighted thing into something dark, brooding and suffused with sensual strangeness.”
On Feb. 21, Birkhofer and Eve Townsend will give a tour of the exhibition at The Image Centre, and on March 21, Photo Elysée Director Nathalie Herschdorfer will talk about the show and share stories about her book, Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage. Copies will be available for purchase at the event and a book signing will follow the talk.
Marcy Friesen, “Be Strong,” 2022, digital photograph, edition of three, 23" x 30", displayed as digital image (image provided by the artist, courtesy of Fazakas Gallery)
If You Prick Me, Do I Not Bleed?
A needle can inflict pain. But it can also repair. That's the premise behind a powerful new exhibition at the Art Gallery of Regina on now through March 30. If You Prick Me, Do I Not Bleed? features the work of artists Stacey Fayant, Marcy Friesen, Melanie Monique Rose, Hanna Yokozawa Farquharson, Mindy Yan Miller and Marcus Miller. They use embroidery, felting, beading, lacemaking, quilting and tattooing to explore the “optimistic act of repairing...Through their stitches, artists in the exhibition invite us all to mend and heal relationships with the past, the self, others, and the environment, shaping a resilient social fabric.” A series of events are planned around the exhibition, including a live skin-stitch tattooing on March 16 with Fayant, who invites people to learn more about Indigenous cultural tattooing traditions as community gatherings and acts of healing.
Jin-Me Yoon, “Untitled 5 (Long Time So Long),” 2022, inkjet print, 55" x 44" (courtesy of Jin-Me Yoon and Two Rivers Gallery)
Humour and Art Meet in New Exhibition
Humour as a tool to talk about identity, environment and other conversations — that’s the subject of Knock Knock, on Feb. 2 to April 7 at Two Rivers Gallery in Prince George, B.C.
The group show includes works by Wei Li, Ken Lum, Brendan Lee Satish Tang, Diana Thorneycroft and Jin-me Yoon.
For more than a year, the gallery team has been seeking out artists who use humour to address issues of identity in their works, “in particular, those who explore the role of humour in illuminating the complexity and twist and turns of identity in Canadian society,” says Ehsan Mohammadi, Two Rivers Gallery's curator.
The exhibition’s name, Knock Knock, refers to the idea of a closed door “and the possibility of it being opened following an often-amusing exchange,” he adds.
“It serves as an invitation to initiate a conversation that can evolve into deeper discussions. These artists’ works delve into the experience of being an immigrant to Canada, challenge the audience’s viewing experience, contemplate memories and address the social, historical, and narrative foundations of the nation and the terms of inclusion.” ■
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