Images: 1. Charles Gaines speaking at Art Toronto 2017. 2. Cannupa Hanska Luger. Artist Portrait by Marco Pavan, 2017. 3. Kota Ezawa. 4. Sandra Guimaraes

PLATFORM is Art Toronto’s original series of lectures and panel discussions from prominent art world figures. Included within PLATFORM are POWER TALKS, a series of lectures organized in partnership with the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery.

Find out what's trending and happening in the international scene from artists, writers and curators and immerse yourself in all things art in this comprehensive line up of talks on the PLATFORM stage.
 

To view videos of talks from previous years, click here.

Talks last approximately one hour and are free with admission. See the 2018 schedule of talks below:

1:00PM / Conversations on an Emerging Market
Presented by Presenting Sponsor, RBC

RBC presents a conversation on collecting, through the lens of supporting the work of emerging artists. This panel brings together artists who founded young galleries exhibiting at Art Toronto. The conversation will investigate strategies they developed that challenge conventional gallery models. The conversation will also investigate the most impactful and direct ways to cultivate and support the work of emerging artists.

Facilitated by Canadian Art, this talk will be moderated by Editor-In-Chief and Co-publisher David Balzer, in conversation with Joani Tremblay, Artist and former Director/Co-founder of Projet Pangée (Montreal), and Davida Nemeroff, Artist and Principal of Night Gallery (Los Angeles).

2:30PM / Art in the Cloud
Presented by C MAGAZINE

Anna Khachiyan presents a talk which functions as a companion piece to her essay Art Won’t Save Us (Open Space, 2018), in which she critiqued the self-congratulatory and ineffectual attempts at “resistance” coming out of the art world and argued that we have more to fear from the uncontested cultural and economic hegemony of tech firms than from any sort of political administration, however unpopular and reactionary it may be. Khachiyan will pick up where she left off, examining the stakes of art’s infatuation with digital platforms and information technologies and asking what part, if any, does art have in posing a political challenge to platform capitalism? Khachiyan is a New York-based writer and co-host of Red Scare, a cultural commentary podcast.

4:00PM / POWER TALKS: Social Engineer, The Artist as Bridge Builder with Cannupa Hanska Luger
Presented by The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery

In a world polarized politically, economically, racially, and sexually we are forced to question our trust. However our trust is the mortar that binds our intelligence. We need one another now more than ever. But, how do we see eye to eye with human groups we don't trust? Enter the artist. If we can subvert the idea art is an object, a noun, then we can reinstate the truth that art is a verb, an action. In developing processes that include society as a medium, the act of making builds communities, connecting people that may not engage with one another to create work together. Thus the role of artist is bridge builder. Cannupa Hanska Luger is a multi-disciplinary artist, working to respond to timely and site-specific issues through social collaboration. Raised on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, Luger is now based in New Mexico.

6:00PM / Isuma Screening and Curator’s Talk
Presented by the National Gallery of Canada

Please join Josée Drouin-Brisebois,Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Canada, Barbara Fisher and Asinnajaq of the Isuma curatorial team for a screening of a recently completed episode of Hunting with My  Ancestors and a discussion about Canada’s participation at the Venice Biennale. The curatorial team will speak about the realization of this exciting project  by the artist collective Isuma, Canada’s official representation for 2019, and the recently reopened Canada Pavilion, following a major restoration.  

1:00PM /  Breaking Ground: New Models of Engaging Audiences
Presented by Show Sponsor, AXA

In a city with a range of museums, galleries and events, how can new communities be engaged, or re-engaged, with the visual arts?

What grabs your attention?  What makes you feel a part of your cultural community?  How do you interact with art? These are some of the questions to which fairs and festivals, museums, galleries and our city representatives devote time, thought, and effort, as they seek to better understand their audiences.  Join AXA for a discussion with participants working in Toronto’s arts and culture sector, as they explore related challenges as well as the creative solutions they are developing to draw new visitors. Discover how by considering the questions above, Toronto’s cultural communities are harnessing audience-building techniques in an exciting and shifting environment.  Speakers include  Emelie Chhangur, Interim Director/Curator, Art Gallery of York University, Jenn Goodwin, Programming Supervisor, Arts & Culture Services, City of Toronto, November Paynter, Director of Programs, Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto and Ilana Shamoon, Director of Programming, Toronto Biennial of Art.

2:30PM / FOCUS: California, all weather: three projects in the California landscape
Presented by Art Toronto

There are various Californias, geographical and psychological states that reflect the diversity of the culture. With three projects rooted in the state, this panel will illuminate ways in which the north, south, and desert inspire artistic sensibilities and possibilities. Born in Berkeley, California, Karla Wozniak’s painting practice incorporates the bold colors and sense of light that are so present in the Bay Area, as well as a very particular kind of domestic life available there. Her paintings concentrate on pleasures and ironies of the indoor/outdoor lifestyle. Suné Woods, born in Montreal, completed her MFA studies at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Recently featured in Made in L.A. at the Hammer Museum, her work looks at various notions of intimacy, and the loving and violent interactions that play out in personal and public spaces. She has shot video works in healing mineral hot springs, places of geological and metaphysical relevance in Southern California. Stretching east and south from Palm Springs to the Salton Sea, the Coachella Valley has long been considered a powerful location and sacred indigenous site and home. It is also the site of Desert X, a ‘site-specific biennial’ that debuted in 2017 and will return in 2019 to further investigate the vast, strange, and sometimes contradictory world of the urban desert. Curator Matthew Schum will offer insights into the approach and program to come in 2019.

4:00PM / POWER TALKS: How to Take Apart an Image and Put it Back Together with Kota Ezawa
Presented by The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery

For the past 15 years, Kota Ezawa has transformed historic films, videos, photographs and paintings into digital animations, light box installations, and outdoor sculptures. In this talk, Ezawa will show examples from his ongoing body of work, including his animation of the OJ Simpson verdict, the re-construction of 13 artworks stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and his most current project, a watercolour animation of football players kneeling during the national anthem. Along with his own work, Ezawa will present an introduction to the intersecting histories of animation and image sampling that inspired his practice. Ezawa is represented by Haines Gallery (San Francisco).

6:00PM / Climates
Presented by Lead Partner, Canadian Art

Jayne Wilkinson, managing editor at Canadian Art, moderates a conversation with artists Christina Battle, Kelly Jazvac and Tyler Los-Jones whose work explores Climates, the theme of the Fall 2018 issue of Canadian Art. The panel considers how artists address climate change without resorting to images of weather disasters and catastrophe, and various approaches to working with researchers from across disciplines.

1:00PM / Of National Importance
Presented by the Art Dealers Association of Canada (ADAC)

A recent judgment by the Federal Court of Canada on the interpretation of what constitutes Cultural Property challenges the meanings of “national heritage,” and “national importance.” This roundtable discussion will probe the essence and ramifications of the decision, both for the Canadian art market and the future of national public collections.

Moderated by Gregory Humeniuk, Independent Art Historian, panelists include Julian Cox, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Art Gallery of Ontario, Sharilyn Ingram, Chair, Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board, Jeanette Langmann, Director, Uno Langmann Ltd. Fine Art, Sharon London Liss, President, Art Dealers Association of Canada and Stephen Smart, Retired Lawyer and Art Collector/Consultant.

2:30PM / POWER TALKS: Why Museums does Exist? With Sandra Guimarães
Presented by The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery

Addressing the potential of Remai Modern, this talk will consider questions about the role of museums today–their proximity with the inhabitants of a city, and ability to create a space in which production can occur. Since August 2015, Guimarães has served as Director of Programs and Chief Curator at the Remai Modern, Saskatoon, following 11 years at the Serralves Museum in Porto.

4:00PM / Lines of Inquiry
Presented by the Toronto Biennial of Art

An introduction to the developing lines of inquiry for the forthcoming inaugural 2019 Toronto Biennial of Art and an announcement of the first group of participating artists. The discussion will be led by Toronto Biennial of Art 2019’s Senior Curator, Candice Hopkins and Curator, Tairone Bastien, with special guests.