Picture perfect photography festival

The 2019 Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival launches at the Ryerson Image Centre (RIC) on May 1, 2019.

“What makes CONTACT one of the best photography festivals in the world is not only the incredible scale of the event, but also its democratic and inclusive approach,” said Paul Roth, director of the Ryerson Image Centre. “We’re proud to share in this city-wide celebration of the medium of photography.”

The launch marks the opening of three new summer shows at the RIC, featuring work by artists Moyra Davey, Meryl McMaster and Adrian Raymer.

Moyra Davey: Scotiabank Photography Award

Toronto-born, New York-based artist Moyra Davey is the 2018 recipient of the prestigious Scotiabank Photography Award. The exhibit, the first Canadian retrospective of her work, includes photographs and videos from Davey’s four-decade-long career.

A large projection room will also be dedicated to a suite of Davey’s essayistic films. Early documentary portraits of family and friends will be on display, as well as Davey’s recent series depicting commuters scrawling notes on the New York City subway. Also represented in the gallery will be Davey’s Copperheads series of corroded coins, ongoing since 1990.

For the past 10 years, Davey has folded, taped, and sent many of her prints to friends, gallerists, and museum workers. What began as an expedient way to transport her art evolved into an exploration of photographs as objects of circulation and exchange.

Turning her prints into letters, the artist “realized all the formal potential in this—the folds, stamps, the addressee, and the colored tape creating an abstract pattern on the surface of the photograph.” This exhibition is presented by Scotiabank and organized by the Ryerson Image Centre.

Meryl McMaster: As Immense as the Sky

On view in the University Gallery, As Immense as the Sky is a new body of work by Ottawa-based artist Meryl McMaster examining the overlapping cultures and histories of both her Indigenous and European ancestors. In a series of large-scale performative self-portraits, McMaster interprets and re-enacts patrimonial stories told by relatives, knowledge keepers, and friends.

Wearing designed costumes, makeup, and custom-made props, McMaster’s otherworldly personas pose theatrically at ancient sites of significance to her family in Saskatchewan, Ont. and Newfoundland.

“I came to see these landscapes as immense time capsules of buried knowledge,” said McMaster. “As Immense as the Sky is about walking these ancient paths, experiencing the diversity of panoramas, and learning about my ancestors’ wisdom.” This is the first time this series will be shown in Canada.

On view from May 1 to August 4, 2019, Scotiabank Photography Award: Moyra Davey and Meryl McMaster: As Immense as the Sky are curated by Gaëlle Morel. Both are primary exhibitions of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

Adrian Raymer: Rejects

In Rejects, on view in the RIC Student Gallery from May 1 to June 9, 2019, Adrian Raymer reenacts long-forgotten 35mm colour slides of her grandfather prior to his estrangement from the family, endowing the original images with new histories as she examines the way that context is lost over time.
 
“Through diverse viewpoints and modes of expression, these three artists explore personal stories, and the ideas of lineage and family memory,” said RIC Exhibitions Curator, Gaëlle Morel. “The exhibitions are intellectually-rigorous, visually-striking, and thought-provoking, and they offer visitors the opportunity to reflect on their own place in the world.”

School of Image Arts

Ryerson University’s School of Image Arts also presents two exhibitions during the festival:

• Maximum Exposure is an annual showcase of multidisciplinary work produced by emerging Canadian and international artists studying photography, film, and integrated digital media in the School of Image Arts. The exhibit will be displayed throughout the building at 122 Bond Street from April 27 to May 6, 2019.  
• Suite Hereafter is a survey exhibition of significant works by the late photographer and esteemed Ryerson University professor Douglas Clark, curated by Marcus Schubert. Clark’s practice evolved from classic “street” photography of the 1960s and 1970s into highly personal bodies of work that took the form of lens-based installations. The exhibit will be displayed at Gallery 310, 122 Bond Street (third floor), from May 8 to May 26, 2019.

The Ryerson Image Centre (RIC) is pleased to host the 2019 Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival official launch party, which is free and open to the public, on Wednesday, May 1, from 7 to 11 p.m.
 
Learn more, and find a full schedule of free public programming, including curator tours and talks, by visiting the Ryerson Image Centre website (external link) .