On Guard
Photo By: KPA
The Art Gallery of Mississauga is holding its annual auction in the Square One Mall on April 27, 2018 [1]. For a few days, potential bidders can view the works in an enclosed space in the mall. Understandably, they are cautious of visitors (all?), and have a guard in place.
More information is available on the AGM's website as well as in the preview catalogue also linked on the AGM Facebook page and with a (pdf) link here.
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MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR | CURATOR Mandy Salter
Director | Curator
MA, ISA
Welcome to our signature fundraiser of the year! All proceeds raised at the AGM’s Benefit Art Auction support free access to our award-winning exhibitions and critically recognized programming, allowing us to deepen our connections to the community. I extend my most sincere thanks to our Platinum Sponsor Square One Oxford Properties for their aligned commitment to community, as well as to all of our public and private funders and sponsors. Thank you also to the generosity of the AGM’s community, contributing artists, curators, and the incredible staff who produce this event, as well as to the AGM Board and volunteers for their passionate commitment.
The AGM proudly supports a changing calendar of community-engaged outreach programmes and contemporary art exhibitions featuring regional, national and international artists. Our philosophy supports the transcending of traditional disciplinary boundaries by fostering community and providing platforms where alternative modes of thought are supported and activated in tangible ways.
We continue to embrace our FIRST NEW NEXT mandate as a strategy for programme and growth. The AGM embraces diversity, inclusivity and collaboration, with a focus on supporting artists and cultural producers from Indigenous, newcomer and youth communities. Given the issues of limited space and resources we are presently facing, I invite you all to join us in the achievement of future goals, which include expanding upon our engagement initiatives and growing the AGM’s facility. Our intention is to become more deeply integrated, involved in and relevant to our constituent communities, with an increased focus on socially-engaged arts projects that involve skill sharing and co-creation with community! I extend a hand of thanks and invitation to you all in joining us on this important path. Let’s walk together to ensure that the AGM’s continued growth appropriately supports and further reflects the diversity and size of our community! Our intention is to become more deeply integrated, involved in and relevant to our constituent communities, with an increased focus on socially-engaged arts projects that involve skill sharing and co-creation with community!
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MESSAGE FROM THE CURATOR OF CONTEMPORARY ART
Kendra Ainsworth
The Art Gallery of Mississauga’s Benefit Art Auction has always been a major cultural (and social!) event on the Mississauga calendar, and this year we’re thrilled to take things up a notch with our new location and partnership with Square One! The AGM has been incredibly fortunate to find such a generous and supportive partner, and we look forward to sharing this bigger, bolder event with our visitors, members, supporters, sponsors, donors and volunteers.
All proceeds of the Benefit Art Auction go directly back into the innovative, inspiring and engaging exhibitions and public programs for which the AGM has become known; growing the success of this event will allow us to expand our offerings of free workshops and events, to keep gallery admission free, and to build an even more stellar regional and national reputation for Mississauga’s only public art gallery. With our commitment to accessibility, inclusivity, and to supporting the work of historically underrepresented artists, the AGM plays a crucial role in helping to inspire and foster the next generation of informed, critical, compassionate and creative citizens.
My sincere and heartfelt thanks to the incredibly generous artists who have contributed work to the auction this year. We are so lucky to have the support of so many amazingly talented people. Representing a wonderful cross-section of emerging and established practices of regional, national and international renown, I am certain that the works available this year offer something for everyone. Bid enthusiastically in support of this wonderful institution I am so proud to represent, and go home with something beautiful!
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MESSAGE FROM GUEST CURATOR | Ali Adil Khan
Syed Iqbal
Portrait of Ali Adil Khan
Acrylic on canvas
ART FOR ART’S SAKECanada is home to 2 million people of South Asian origin, broadly defined as those originating from the Indian sub-continent, comprising of countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. They form the second largest pan-ethnic group in Canada after European-Canadians. Mississauga in particular has a large South Asian diaspora.
People immigrating from non-Western cultures often face difficulty integrating to life in Canada, and artists are no exception, with their art considered not “Canadian” enough. They often struggle with isolation, lack of support and acceptance, and yet still pursue their artistic passions. I have struggled with the notion of labelling art as “Canadian art” or “South Asian art” even though I have been a strong proponent, supporter, and collector of art created by artists of South Asian backgrounds. Art is art regardless of country of origin! If their art does not belong to Canadian mainstream art, the question arises–what is mainstream Canadian art? And does it not have room to accept diverse creative perspectives? Surely the work of any artist practicing in Canada reflects in some way the environment they inhabit.
The AGM’s Benefit Art Auction, now in its 15th year, raises funds for exhibitions and programming, research and learning that showcase just how diverse Canadian art is and can be, and support artists whose practices have often been neglected. I am pleased to have been invited to curate a selection of work for this auction that is not only rich in its diversity but connected to the local, important works by internationally renowned artists from Mississauga, Toronto, Burlington, Port Hope and Oakville. As you preview these works, I hope you will feel that their work is no less Canadian than that of their Western-European counterparts. Masterpieces by artists are looking for homes– make sure you take one home today.
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1 The Art Gallery of Mississauga Benefit Art Auction Catalogue