Friday, April 26, 2019 to Saturday, June 1, 2019
Organized by Patrick Cruz
Featuring FCG Board Members:
Jamie Faye Ryan & Ruth Skinner, Co-Presidents
Alexandra Jaworiwsky, Vice President
Michelle Beckett, Secretary
Abby Vincent, Treasurer
Ramolen Laruan, Vice Treasurer
Lydia Santia Programming Chair
Alayna Hryclik, Technical Director
Mitra Shreeram Fundraising Chair
Paulina Szczesny Residency Chair
Nicole Rutberg Community Partnerships Chair
Sarah Feehan, Member at Large
The etymology of the word "board" can connote various subjects that can recall a space of collectivity - a platform or as a verb i.e. “come alongside.” In this context, the definition is expanded and translated as a performance and a collaborative project that will take form as a group exhibition consisting of works made and contributed by Forest City Gallery's Board of Directors. In preparation for this exhibition, I have conducted studio visits with each member of the board to either present a pre-existing work or present new work that loosely ties to the thematic of the exhibition.
Boardroom examines the political framework, social role and aesthetic structure of creative and administrative labor and the strategies deployed through the production of culture within artist-run spaces. In turn, I invited the Board of Directors of Forest City Gallery as participants, collaborators, and artists in this project as a means of decolonizing and examining their ascribed roles within the schema of cultural spaces and artistic production in Canada. Through this creative exercise, I am performing as the curator of the exhibition to position myself as the interlocutor and catalyst to reimagine power relations and inquire aspects of bureaucracy related to notions of artistic freedom.
Boardroom aims to problematize the often-complex relationships negotiated between institution and the public, artist and curator, inclusivity and exclusivity and, solo and group show configurations. The temporal demarcation and symbolic collaborative gesture not only reveal the practices of cultural producers who work behind the institution; it also enables a shift in engagement between the public and Forest City Gallery's Board of Directors to directly engage and converse with the public through an exhibition, publication and a community townhall gathering. Most importantly, this conceptual project lends itself to FCG’s goals to strive as an alternative art venue that focuses on community engagement, open access and an ongoing dialogue with community members, partners and cultural workers.
Patrick Cruz (b. 1987, Manila, Philippines) is a Filipino-Canadian artist and organizer workingbetween Toronto, Canada and Manila, Philippines. Cruz studied at the University of thePhilippines Diliman and received his BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and anMFA at the University of Guelph. Driven by folk sentiment, his multi-disciplinary practice isinformed by his interest in cultural hybridity, the project of decolonization, and the paradoxicaleffects of globalization. Cruz is the founder of Kamias Special Projects, an artist run space inQuezon City, Philippines that hosts the Kamias Triennial; an educational week-long event thatserves as a platform for cross-cultural exchange. In 2015, Cruz won the national title for the 17thannual RBC Canadian Painting Competition.Solo and group exhibitions include, 1 st Manila Biennale (Manila, PH); An Assembly of Shapes,Oakville Galleries (Oakville, CA); Titig Kayumanggi (Brown Gaze), Plug In ICA (Winnipeg, CA);Archeological Apathy, 8eleven (Toronto, CA); Low Class Minimalism and the GentrifiedAmateur, Projet Pangee (Montreal, CA); Lessons in Diplomacy, Art informal (Manila, PH);Quarantine of Difference, Wil Aballe Art Projects (Vancouver, CA); Bulaklak ng Paraiso (Flowerof Paradise), Centre A (Vancouver, CA); Other-Portraits, Stride Gallery (Calgary, CA); SurvivalGuide, Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton, CA); and, something like fire dancing, Susan Hobbs(Toronto, CA); Welcome to Sax island, Or Gallery Berlin (Berlin, DE) & Radiation, Art Center ofChulangkorn (Bangkok, TH).