trans/FORM @ MOCCA

Georgia Dickie’s “Smoking Gun Sculpture I” (2012)

This summer the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art is set to host, trans/FORM– an exhibition featuring Toronto based artists, curated by the gallery’s director, David Liss.

trans/FORM showcases a variety of work by eight local artists, who, despite their disparate media preferences, do share a bond through a common materialist perspective. In this sense, trans/FORM upholds a “New Aesthetic” mandate in that, as the show’s title suggests, these artists aim to primarily stress the material and physical processes that are involved in making visual art. While trans/FORM’s main point of issue is centered firmly on the materiality of the highlighted work, and not it’s narrative or conceptual meanings, each of the show’s artists employ starkly different mediums and thematic sources, some of which hone in on, most obviously, materiality, but also physicality, scale and presence.

Georgia Dickie’s “None Genuine without This” (2012) sets the tone for trans/FORM. Not only is this work the first displayed installation upon entering the gallery doors, but, the piece also manages to literally evoke the artist’s material process and fabrication techniques in that the work is entirely comprised of objects that inhabit Dickie’s studio.

Sasha Pierce’s “Cycle” (2011)

trans/FORM is a playful show structured on the principles of experimentation and change. Some of the show’s standout pieces include Sasha Pierce’s “Cycle” (2011), a heavily textured and intricate painting that takes on the feeling of a textile, and Hugh Scott-Douglas’s 2012 panel, “Untitled”, a laser cut and gessoed linen that similarly plays up materiality and plays off of visual expectations.

trans/FORM runs until August 12