Welcome to MOCA Toronto’s Spring 2023 Exhibitions
MOCA is excited to present four artists/ collectives who all create very different kinds of installation and sculptural work at scales that engage and envelop the viewer. The exhibitions include numerous new artworks produced specifically to respond to MOCA’s spaces and which draw on a wide variety of physical media from metal to concrete and from recycled consumer goods to plant life.
Across Floors 01 – 02 is the first major survey exhibition in Canada of Canadian-French artist Kapwani Kiwanga, which focuses on the artist’s research into forms of remediation through largescale installations that involve organic materials and methods of filtration.
On the third floor, MOCA shares two exhibitions in dialogue. Susan For Susan’s playful composition of furniture propositions continues MOCA’s commitment to exhibiting artists whose practice bridges disciplines, particularly between art, architecture and design. In the second gallery, UK-based Canadian artist Athena Papadopoulos exhibits two bodies of sculptural work, produced over the last year specifically for the show at MOCA, collectively titled The New Alphabet
Kapwani Kiwanga REMEDIATION
Floor 01 + 02
Feb 24 - July 23 2023
Kapwani Kiwanga creates installation, sculpture and performance as well as video and sound pieces to explore the relationships between historical narratives, systems of power and the use of material within these contexts.
The exhibition is co-organized by MOCA Toronto and the Remai Modern, Saskatoon, where it will be presented in Fall 2023.
For her exhibition at MOCA, Kiwanga presents five new commissions, including a site-specific version of her ongoing sisal installations, as well as flooring and window interventions, alongside key existing artworks, such as an updated series of inflatable vivariums. Through this curated selection, Kiwanga expands on her research into how botany has long held a relationship to exploitation and acts of resistance, and how plant life has and may intervene in the rejuvenation of contaminated environments.
The New Alphabet
Floor 03
Feb 24 - April 30 2023
Athena Papadopoulos’ richly dense sculptural works, made from found materials such as clothing, cushions, plush toys, chains, wigs and textiles, create melodramatic characters that sit on the edge of the glamourous and the grotesque.
For MOCA Papadopoulos has produced two series of sculptures shaped by the isolating experience of the last two years and an ever present concern that these artworks may never be seen. Bones for Time takes disused hospital and wool blankets to trace aspects of the artist’s body, resulting in a variety of alphabetically categorized objects. In Trees with No Sound Papadopoulos’ unwanted furniture, clothing and stuffed objects are transformed into sculptures that reference art history and literature, as well as biblical and religious stories.
Susan For Susan Trade Show Floor 03
Feb 24 - April 30 2023
Employing a visual language that draws on industrial materials and their fabrication methods, the collaborative design practice of John and Kevin Watts, aka Susan For Susan, balances rationale with experimentation to explore the distinction between sculpture and product design. Their presentation at MOCA arranges a set of design propositions for an apartment interior, suspended from a gantry system. Juxtaposing the raw with the polished, the sterile with pops of colour or subtle moments of humour, they imbue playfulness into functional approaches and help humanize the industrial rigour of their objects.
Athena PapadopoulosMore at MOCA
Serkan Özkaya
ni4ni v.3
North End Gallery
Feb 24 - April 30 2023
Serkan Özkaya is a conceptual artist whose work deals with topics of appropriation and reproduction and typically operates outside of traditional art spaces. MOCA is exhibiting Özkaya’s compelling installation ni4ni v.3. This work uses digital technology, combined with a massive mirrored sphere, to create an immersive, site-specific visitor experience that is poignant, reflexive and encourages audiences to explore ideas of time, perception and self within the space.
Seeing the Invisible
MOCA Toronto Sorauren Park + High Park
Oct 01 2022 - Sept 30 2023
MOCA presents the acclaimed augmented reality (AR) contemporary art exhibition Seeing the Invisible in collaboration with the City of Toronto and Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation. The exhibition includes 13 AR works by internationally recognized artists such as Isaac Julien, Pamela Rosenkranz and Ai Weiwei. The route includes locations at MOCA, Sorauren Park and throughout High Park, taking visitors on an exploration of virtual art and nature as the artworks are seen and activated using a mobile app. The entire programme is free. Seeing the Invisible was initiated and organized by the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens in partnership with Outset Contemporary Art Fund.
Coming Up
Additional spring programming includes a new site-specific commission by Matt Nish-Lapidus for the South Stairwell Sound Series; as well as artist talks, exhibition tours, outdoor walking tours of Seeing the Invisible, Free Friday Nights powered by Scotiabank, children’s workshops on TD Community Sundays and a new youth council programme.
Visionary Supporters Gilles & Julia Ouellette Castlepoint Numa
The Price Family Anonymous
Kapwani Kiwanga REMEDIATION
Presenting Sponsor Foundational Supporter
Lead Supporter Richard & Donna Ivey Major Supporter
Contributing Supporter
Larry & Susan Dime Supporter
Liza Mauer & Andrew Sheiner
Serkan Özkaya ni4ni v.3 Major Supporter
Seeing the Invisible Foundational Supporter
Major Supporter
Kiki & Ian Delaney
Contributing Supporter
Andrea Bielecki & Scott McLorie
Tiana Koffler Boyman & Marc Boyman
Photo Credits
Kapwani Kiwanga, Vumbi, 2012, video still. Courtesy the artist, Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris; Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin; Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, Johannesburg, London. © ADAGP, Paris / SOCAN, Montreal (2022).
Kapwani Kiwanga, Maya-Bantu, 2019, sisal fibre, steel. The Moody Center for the Arts, Houston (USA), 2021. © Photo Nash Baker. Courtesy the artist and Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, Johannesburg, London. © ADAGP, Paris / SOCAN, Montreal (2022).
Athena Papadopoulos, TAPPED, 2017. The Smurfette, Installation view, Emalin, London. Courtesy the artist and Emalin, London. Photography: Plastiques.
Susan For Susan, AE - Arch Light, 2019. Courtesy the artist.
Serkan Özkaya, ni4ni v.2 Galerist, 2022. Courtesy the artist and Galerist, Istanbul.
158 Sterling Road Toronto / moca.ca
Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Water Serpent, 2021. Courtesy the artist and Seeing the Invisible.
