FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Toronto Launch of the Publication Amazing Letters, The Life and Art of David Zack
TORONTO, Ont., November 12, 2010 – The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art is pleased to present the exhibition David Zack: Wizard!? Perturber!? Possessed! Letters and other works of a correspondence artist, 1938 – 1995, organized and curated by Istvan Kantor, in MOCCA’s Media/Retail Space from November 13 – December 31, 2010. The opening reception and publication launch with Istvan Kantor will take place Saturday, November 13, 2-5 p.m.
This exhibition surveys Zack’s vital contributions to mail art, performance and other “open source” cultural movements of the 60s, 70s and 80s, focusing primarily on his correspondence novels and the development of the “Monty Cantsin open popstar” concept.
Art and life were permanently inseparable for David Zack (www.ccca.ca/artists/David_Zack). After instigating the Nut-Art movement in San Francisco in the 60s, he moved to Calgary in the late 70s, working as a newspaper journalist. He disappeared in 1995 after having spent five years in a Mexican jail for defrauding the US Government and is rumored to have died in San Antonio, Texas.
Exhibition curator Istvan Kantor received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2004. His 1976 meeting with David Zack in Budapest developed into a life long collaboration that continues to fuel his own Neoist art activities today. Pushing the theatrical, opera-like quality of his performance work through the use of video has gained Kantor international recognition as a contemporary artist. He is also Monty Cantsin – and so are you!
The exhibition at MOCCA marks the Toronto launch of the book Amazing Letters, The Life and Art of David Zack, edited by Istvan Kantor and published earlier this year by The New Gallery, Calgary. Amazing Letters is available for purchase at MOCCA, thenewgallery.org and artmetropole.com.
Links / URLs:
• Read full text press releases http://mocalegacy.webpreview.site/exhibition/david-zack/
• Purchase Amazing Letters, The Life and Art of David Zack online www.artmetropole.com
• Read full text press releases http://mocalegacy.webpreview.site/exhibition/david-zack/
• Purchase Amazing Letters, The Life and Art of David Zack
www.artmetropole.com
Quotes:
• David Liss, Artistic Director & Curator, MOCCA:
“David Zack was an endlessly imaginative, highly influential, yet enigmatic figure and the exhibition and book bring his work, his influence and his era to life. Essential material in understanding and appreciating the history of Canadian and international contemporary art.”
Tags / Keywords:
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, MOCCA, Istvan Kantor, David Zack, mail-art, performance, correspondence, Amazing Letters, The Life and Art of David Zack
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All programs and activities of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art are supported by Toronto Culture, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, BMO Financial Group, the Hal Jackman Foundation, individual memberships and private donations.
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Media Contact Fayiaz Chunara 416.395.7490 fchunara@mocca.ca