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EXHIBITION: Moving right along

October 15, 2015 - October 25, 2015

Artist(s): Nicolas Fleming
Curator(s): Shani K Parsons and Oana Tanase

Moving right along is the first solo exhibition of work by Nicolas Fleming in Toronto. Appropriating the visual language and syntax of design-build practices, Fleming’s new artworks and site-specific installation transform the exhibition space, exploiting the inherent imperfections and irregular marks characteristic of construction sites to challenge the white cube environment in which they are situated. Constructing a room within a room, the artist’s sculptural gestures within the installation include curved walls and the representation of a fountain which bursts through the ceiling, its shiny finish reflecting the bright neon lighting illuminating the space.

Revealing or even glorifying the labour invested in the construction process, Fleming questions the accepted notion of pragmatism in construction work and creates an enigmatic theatre of fluid perspectives, both seductive and disturbing. Yet the overall effect, incorporating subtle touches of colour and texture, paradoxically recalls peaceful, temple-like places where the viewer may envision or experience acts and states of ritual, solitude, and duration.

Co-curated by project space Director Shani K Parsons and TYPOLOGY’s first Resident Curator, Oana Tanase, Moving right along will be accompanied by an exhibition catalogue featuring an original curatorial essay and interview with the artist, plus full documentation of the site-specific installation.

Programs, Events, and Public Art

Exhibition Opening and Catalogue Launch
Thursday, October 15th, 2015
6:00 – 8:00 pm: Please join us for a public opening reception and edition launch with the artist.

Publications

Moving right along: Nicholas Fleming. Exhibition Catalogue.

Critical Distance Centre for Curators (CDCC) was founded in 2013 under our former name, TYPOLOGY. Established as a not-for-profit space devoted to curatorial and artistic experimentation, we devoted our first three years to providing opportunities for curators and artists to mount fully realized exhibitions within a critical framework. In 2016, we relaunched under our new name (CDCC) with a new Board of Directors and a commitment to meet the need, voiced by local and national curators, for a truly vital curatorial community—one that both supports emerging and underrepresented curators, and advances curatorial practice and inquiry. Moving right along took place in CDCC’s exhibition space in 2013 under our former name, TYPOLOGY, and was co-curated by CDCC’s Founding Director, Shani K Parsons, and Oana Tanase. TYPOLOGY Projects was originally located at 180 Shaw Street, No. 302, Artscape Youngplace, Toronto.

Image: Nicolas Fleming, We’re still standing (detail), 2015.

About the Curator(s)

Oana Tanase

Oana Tanase is a Toronto-based independent curator and visual arts researcher. She hold a doctoral degree from the National University of Arts Bucharest, with a thesis discussing the documentary practices in recent art.  Her projects investigate contemporary art and its display strategies, including issues around the nature of representation in the 21st century, knowledge production, and its institutional framework. As a contributing editor for various cultural magazines, she is questioning the social /community function of contemporary art and architecture. 

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Shani K Parsons

Since the mid-90s, Shani K Parsons has pursued a multidisciplinary practice focused on exhibition-making — initially through the lenses of architecture, urban planning and public arts administration, then installation, graphic, and environmental design, and most recently through research, writing, curation, and collaboration. She is the Founding Director of Critical Distance Centre for Curators (CDCC).

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About the Artists

Nicolas Fleming

Nicolas Fleming holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Studio Arts from Concordia University and a Master’s Degree in Visual Arts from University of Quebec in Montreal, and currently splits his time between studios in Montreal and Toronto. He has shown his work in several artist-run centers and galleries in Canada including Trois Points, McClure, and UQAM galleries in Montreal, and Axeneo7 in Gatineau, Quebec and has presented temporary outdoor sculptures internationally in Kassel, Germany, and Mexico City.

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