Toronto’s preeminent month-long festival each May presents an outstanding roster of established and emerging Canadian and international lens-based artists.
Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival announced highlights of the 26th edition of the city-wide event spanning the month of May 2022. Canadian and international artists will present lens-based works in exhibitions, site- specific installations, and commissioned projects at museums, galleries, and public spaces across Toronto. The preliminary list of artists includes Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Farah Al Qasimi, Lara Almarcegui, Claudia Andujar, Deanna Bowen, Sandra Brewster, Jorian Charlton, Kota Ezawa, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Sasha Huber, Mahtab Hussain, Onyeka Igwe, Vid Ingelevics & Ryan Walker, Brendan George Ko, Kwasi Kyei, Kadine Lindsay, Andréanne Michon,Tyler Mitchell, Esmaa Mohamoud, Suzanne Morrissette with Clayton Morrissette, Gisela Motta & Leandro Lima, Aïda Muluneh, Shirin Neshat, Bidemi Oloyede, Oluseye, Frida Orupabo, Rajni Perera, Vivek Shraya, and Ilene Sova. Projects by artists rescheduled from 2021 include Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács, Wendy Coburn, and Alberto Giuliani.
CONTACT presents work by a diversity of acclaimed and emerging artists, documentary photographers, and photojournalists in locations across the Greater Toronto Area. Each year, the Festival expands to reach many different communities and reflect the work of not only local artists, but also artists who bring an international perspective to the city. Themes addressed in 2022 reflect many of the ongoing conflicts and global unrest of the present day. Subjects include the state of the environment and the impact of humanity and geopolitics on climate change; Black culture and identity; effects of and responses to colonialism and systemic racism; and perspectives on land, borders, intergenerational knowledge, and histories.
CONTACT continues to center BIPOC voices through projects that confront local and global realities to broaden knowledge and stimulate conversation. The Festival aims to provide opportunities for meaningful dialogue by fostering creative engagements between contemporary artists and the eminent local and international curators of our time, whose critical perspectives amplify the power of photography and bring new perspectives to the public discourse. Curators participating in the 2022 Festival include: AXIS Curatorial (Noor Alé & Claudia
Mattos), Tairone Bastien, Chris Boot, Roya DelSol, Anique Jordan, Sara Knelman, Andrea Kunard, Zun Lee and Sophie Hackett, Courtnay McFarlane, Memory Work Collective, Gaëlle Morel, Crystal Mowry, Michèle Pearson Clarke, Sarah Quinton, and Mark Sealy, among many more.
“We are pleased to offer a preview of the exciting line-up of participating artists, with some projects remaining on view beyond May. We look forward to working with the artists, many of whom will create site-specific works for our Core exhibitions and outdoor installations. The CONTACT team is also thrilled to welcome back many of our longstanding partners and sponsors who continue to support one of the world’s top photography festivals,” said CONTACT Executive Director Darcy Killeen.
Tyler Mitchell is an African American photographer who works in fashion, documentary, and art photography, as well as film projects, which include autobiographical topics and themes of identity. Mitchell refers to his practice as a “Black utopic vision, in which the young Black men and women around me look dignified, are presented as a community, and also ask the tough questions in terms of: what are the things we’ve been historically denied?” Mitchell’s exhibition in three parts, sited at distinct locations across the city, represents his first solo exhibition in Canada.
Mitchell made history by photographing Beyoncé for Vogue’s September 2018 cover—the first Black person to do so in the magazine’s history. He is part of a new generation of image-makers reshaping the lens through which we see culture. Mitchell’s presentations are curated by British curator and cultural historian Mark Sealy, whose focus is photography’s relationship to social change, identity politics, and human rights.
Tyler Mitchell
CONTACT Gallery | Metro Hall | Toronto
Billboards Curated by Mark Sealy
May 1 – June 30, 2022
Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival 2022
https://scotiabankcontactphoto.com/
