Saturday, June 2, 2012

Michael Caines + Balint Zsako at Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects Opening June 7, 6-9PM

Please join us for the opening reception of Michael Caines, Bad Manners on Thursday, June 7, 6-9PM, at Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto.



Michael Caines, Ebony & Ivory (Black on Black, White on White) (detail)
2012, oil on canvas


Bad Manners

In Bad Manners, Michael Caines’ new exhibition of paintings and drawings, the artist attempts to negotiate images drawn from politics, pop songs, painting history, and post colonialism, among other important ideas that begin with the letter P. Influenced by Jürgen Habermas's Wiki entry, and books he intends to someday read by Public Sphere theorist Michael Warner, Caines observes to his own passive over consumption of media images, and his depressing inability to effect change in either the world or himself.

Caines cannot really be blamed for his failure to generate meaning or value, living as he does in the midst of an unresisting consumer culture where ideas mix together like poorly made 711 Slurpees. Perhaps the viewer can take comfort in either a shared sense of failure (this would be a kindness), or a smug sense of moral and intellectual superiority. Either way, the public may rest assured that all is as it was before, and will continue to be so, ad infinitum.

Michael Caines has participated in a number of artist residencies, including the Bemis Center, the Millay Colony, and the Santa Fe Art Institute. Among other awards, he has received Avery and Chalmers Fellowships. Caines' first solo exhibition in New York, “Perfect Happiness”, took place in December of 2010 at Mulherin Pollard Projects. “Wild/Tame”, a selection of animal/human themed work from the past ten years of his practice, was exhibited at the Art Gallery of Peterborough in 2011. His satirical book of drawings, “Revelations and Dog” launched in March 2011 in New York at Mark Batty Publisher.



Balint Zsako, untitled (the continent)
2012, ink and watercolour on paper


Please note that Balint Zsako’s exhibtion, Appetite, runs from June 7- 31 and an opening reception with the artist in attendance will take place on Friday, June 22, 6- 9 PM.

Appetite

Balint Zsako's work filters the disparate elements of contemporary art through the language of figurative painting. His work imagines performance art recorded using Indian miniatures, land art described by medieval illumination, conceptual art acted out by the figures on a Greek vase or installation art transcribed into Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Most of the narrative elements center on themes of bodily functions, human interactions, sex and death and are held tightly in place by strict considerations of geometric balance and color relationships.

Balint Zsako was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1979 and immigrated to Canada with his family in 1988. Since graduating with a B.A in Fine Arts from Ryerson University in Toronto, he has exhibited internationally. Additional works have been featured in The New Yorker Magazine, Harper's Magazine, The Walrus Magazine, Poetry Magazine and the New York Times Magazine. A travelling exhibition of his drawings was organized by the MoCCA in Toronto and is accompanied by the artist's first monograph.

KATHARINE MULHERIN CONTEMPORARY ART PROJECTS
1082 + 1086 Queen Street West, Toronto, Canada

June 7-24, 2012
Gallery Hours:
Thursday to Saturday 12-6 PM,
Sunday 1-5 PM,
or by appointment

To view works in this exhibition, see
http://www.katharinemulherin.com/default.asp?Exhibit=Upcoming&location=to

Please direct all inquiries to Katharine Mulherin at 416.993.6510 or email info@katharinemulherin.com.

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