February 6, 2018, Kleinburg, ON – For the fifth consecutive year, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection is partnering with Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, the world’s largest photography event, and will be a premier site for the Festival. The McMichael is pleased to present the exhibition …Everything Remains Raw: Photographing Toronto’s Hip Hop Culture from Analogue to Digital, featuring visual works—many of which have never been publicly displayed—of Toronto-based photographers in the 1990s and early 2000s who captured the essence of hip hop culture. The exhibition runs from March 3 to October 21.
“…Everything Remains Raw excavates the works of film photographers whose archives of images were essential to the growth of Toronto’s hip hop communities in the 1990s, and unequivocally critical to imagining an expanded notion of Canadian art and culture we are only now beginning to celebrate and enjoy two decades later,” said Dr. Mark V. Campbell, guest curator of the show and founder of Northside Hip Hop Archive.
Photographs by Craig Boyko, Michael Chambers, Stella Fakiyesi, Demuth Flake, Patrick Nichols, Sheinina Raj, and Nabil Shash portray the growth, vibrancy, creativity, and influence of the hip hop scene that Toronto has fostered since the 1980s. Depicting scenes of highly stylized trendsetters and dynamic performances, these ingenious analogue photographers engaged with urban communities and supported the rise of hip hop artists like Michie Mee and Maestro Fresh-Wes. Their photographs are not only artistically poignant but portray images of black life that deviate from the common, and often misrepresented, stereotypes. The photographers, guided by a sense of rawness and fearlessness, employed creative shooting techniques that defied the status quo.
The exhibition consists of three sections—Write Now: Intro to the Esoteric, Not Now but Right Now, and Emanate—highlighting the many aspects of hip hop culture including rhyming, breakdancing, graffiti, and DJing. Write Now: Intro to the Esoteric will feature three mesmerizing graph murals that each measure eight feet high by twelve feet wide, illustrating how the urban environment is both a canvas for visual exploits and home to a hip hop community. In this gallery the murals will remind viewers of how public space is creatively utilized by graffiti artists while commenting on our connections to land and space.
In Not Now but Right Now, visitors will be immersed in photographs depicting scenes of live performance, portraiture and innovative conceptual works. The stage is where hip hop came alive, as artists connected with their fans and honed their craft, erecting moments of joy in now disappeared live music venues. The images in this gallery are evidence of excessive styling, a hallmark of hip hop’s boldness in fashion, marketing and visual aesthetics.
Emanate captures how magazines and visual art documented, archived, and made hip hop accessible to its growing global fanbase. Prior to the internet and smart phones, magazines like Word, Urbanology, Mic Check and Peace! were outlets for photographers to showcase their art, sources whereby fans learnt about emerging artists and read album reviews, and most importantly, “disseminated the ideas and consciousness of Toronto’s growing hip hop community,” added Campbell.
“This show will be particularly relevant to a younger audience,” said Dr. Sarah Stanners, Director of Curatorial & Collections at the McMichael. “That said, the visual culture of hip hop has a long history and will appeal to someone in their early forties just as much as someone in their early twenties.”
“Like Mark Campbell and I, virtually all the photographers in this exhibition belong to a generation that was exposed to new music through mixtapes and MuchMusic, yet also caught the wave of digital technology,” added Stanners. “Artists who have recorded or responded to hip hop in a meaningful way tend to be creatively ambidextrous—successfully navigating commercial, fine art and even musical careers, as this exhibition reveals. My hope is that …Everything Remains Raw reflects the fact that hip hop culture is a multidimensional and expressive force.”
Moreover, …Everything Remains Raw brings to life the spirit of hip hop and recognizes its significance as part of Canada’s cultural fabric. It sheds light on the role of photography in documenting the growth of hip hop from its inception as a fad in the suburbs of Toronto to this global cultural phenomenon.
If you would like to speak with exhibition curator, Dr. Mark V. Campbell or to request high-resolution images of the artworks in this exhibition, please contact: Daniela Travierso-Galati at dtravierso-galati@mcmichael.com or 905.893.1121 ext. 2210.
PUBLIC PROGRAM
Live Art by Beddo
Sunday, March 4
1 to 4 pm
Included with gallery admission.
To celebrate the opening of …Everything Remains Raw: Photographing Toronto’s Hip Hop Culture from Analogue to Digital, Beddo, a Toronto-based visual artist who uses a unique combination of graffiti, comic book and traditional fine art, will offer a live art demonstration within the exhibition spaces. Discovering his passion for art at a very young age, Beddo found inspiration in his city of Toronto. From the visuals of street art and neighbourhood comic book shops to the rhythms of hip hop and reggae culture, and the movement on the ball courts in the parks, his artistic vision was born. DJ Mark Ricketts will provide a pulsating musical background for this unique event.
*THE ART OF CANADA is an official mark of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
About the McMichael Canadian Art Collection
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is an agency of the Government of Ontario and acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, and the McMichael Canadian Art Foundation. It is the foremost venue in the country showcasing the Group of Seven and their contemporaries. In addition to touring exhibitions, its permanent collection consists of over 6,000 artworks by Canadian artists, including paintings by the Group of Seven and their contemporaries, as well as First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists. The gallery is located on 100 acres of northern landscape and hiking trails at 10365 Islington Avenue, Kleinburg, north of Major Mackenzie Drive in the City of Vaughan. For more information: mcmichael.com.
About Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival
CONTACT fosters and celebrates the art and profession of photography with an annual Festival in May and year-round programming in the CONTACT Gallery.
CONTACT, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1997, is generously supported by Scotiabank, Nikon Canada, Pattison Outdoor Advertising, La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso, Vistek, Dentons Canada LLP, Toronto Image Works, The Gilder, Transcontinental PLM, 3M Canada, Waddington’s Auctioneers and Appraisers, Four By Eight Signs, Beyond Digital Imaging, Steam Whistle Brewing, Art Toronto, The Gladstone Hotel, The Globe and Mail, NOW Magazine, CBC Toronto, and Canadian Art.
CONTACT gratefully acknowledges the support of Celebrate Ontario, the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, the Ontario Arts Council, The Government of Ontario, Partners in Art, Street Art Toronto (StART), Canada Council for the Arts, the Howard Webster Foundation, Goethe-Institut, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, and all of our funders, donors, and programming partners.
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Media Contacts:
Daniela Travierso-Galati
Media Relations and Communications Coordinator
McMichael Canadian Art Collection
905.893.1121 ext. 2210
dtravierso-galati@mcmichael.com
Nick Foglia
Director, Communications, Marketing and Sales
McMichael Canadian Art Collection
905.893.1121 ext. 2265
nfoglia@mcmichael.com