FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art presents
Will Gorlitz: nowhere if not here and Always Already
February 4 – March 28, 2010
Opening Reception: February 6, 2010, 2 – 5 p.m.
Toronto, January 21, 2010 – The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art is pleased to present two exhibitions by nationally renowned Southern Ontario-based artist Will Gorlitz. Will Gorlitz: nowhere if not here, is a comprehensive cross-section of Gorlitz’s paintings that span a period of nearly twenty years, and is organized by the Kitchener – Waterloo Art Gallery, in partnership with Macdonald Stewart Art Centre. Always Already is a new group of paintings conceived specifically as an installation for MOCCA’s project space. Both exhibitions take place at MOCCA from February 4 to March 28, 2010. Please join us and artist Will Gorlitz for the opening reception on Saturday February 6, from 2 to 5 p.m.
Will Gorlitz: nowhere if not here includes seminal paintings, groupings and series selected from a range of Gorlitz’s prodigious and complex practice, exploring densely rich metaphorical subjects that reflect upon nature, culture and technology. To examine the practice of Will Gorlitz is to carefully consider the specific purpose of representation, presentation and interpretation in the world of images and image-making.
Always Already imagines a possible future which was provoked by a recent encounter with an 18th C European allegorical painting by Johann Melchior Roos. The painting was produced in a time when human superiority and stewardship over the natural world was absolutely assumed. However, in our era of environmental crisis, this original meaning has been fundamentally lost. Always Already is a response to this shift.
An artist’s monograph titled Will Gorlitz: nowhere If not here published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press, is available, featuring essays by Bruce Ferguson, Peggy Gale, Jeffrey Spalding, and David Urban.
Guelph-based artist Will Gorlitz was born in Buenos Aires and raised in Winnipeg. He studied at both the University of Manitoba School of Art and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Gorlitz’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in exhibitions including the Shanghai Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Power Plant, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Sao Paulo Bienal. He is a Professor in the Studio Art program of the School of Fine Art and Music at the University of Guelph. Will Gorlitz is represented by Michael Gibson Gallery (London, ON); Birch Libralato (Toronto); and Galerie René Blouin (Montreal)
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All programs and activities of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art are supported by Toronto Culture, the Ontario Arts Council, BMO Financial Group, individual memberships and private donations.