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CANADA / Toronto / MOCA: Félix González Torres
by Modem
© Modem

until Sunday July 31 2022

MOCA Toronto
MOCA Toronto
158 Sterling Rd. Toronto ON Canada
Toronto
Canada

Summer will be the first solo exhibition in Canada of acclaimed conceptual artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957–1996). Spanning exceptional works on loan from major institutions, the exhibition generates questions surrounding our complex relationship to place: the social and natural landscape. Physically, the exhibition draws on the energy of an ever-changing atmosphere.

Up until his death from AIDS-related illness, Gonzalez-Torres rigorously produced artwork, writing and exhibitions that remain influential today. In a brief period of time, he became well known for his mass-produced objects imbued with the personal; placing light strings, stacks of paper, piles of candy, lettering and beaded curtains in poetic and politically charged ways.

Invested in destabilizing authority and fixed meanings, he extended the full responsibility of presenting and sharing his artwork to owners, authorized exhibitors and the viewer, ensuring its significance would change with time and for each individual.

The exhibition acknowledges the conditions of the current pandemic, drawing a connection to the manner in which Gonzalez-Torres saw a way for his work to survive the fluctuating, restrictive and tragic terms of his epoch.

Presented on the third floor of the museum, viewers will encounter some of the artist’s most well-known ephemeral works, such as his self-portrait, “Untitled,” 1989, on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago and the San Francisco Museum of Art, as well as “Untitled” (Public Opinion), 1991, a candy work on loan from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. These and other works will shift over the duration of the exhibition; they can be moved, consumed, crossed and reinterpreted endlessly.

© Modem