Exhibit: Past and Present Collide at MOCCA!

MOCCA's Three Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival Exhibits Reviews

May is not only home to the May Two-Four long weekend and Mother's Day, but it also kicks off Toronto's summer festival season with one of my favourite art festivals - Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. If you have never heard of CONTACT, don't worry you are not alone. One of the main reasons I started The Purple Scarf was to not only learn more about my favourite city in the world but to also share why Toronto is my favourite city. So let me start off by telling you that Scotiabank CONTACT Photography festival is the LARGEST Photography Event in THE WORLD. That's right THE WORLD and it's right here in our own backyard!

113, 2012 by Maria Robertson

Over the next few weeks over 1500 photographers and artists, from across the globe will be displaying their work not only in galleries and museums, but coffee shops, cafes, and even retail stores. Toronto itself becomes one large gallery!

Universal Montreal Snow Window, 2009 - 2014 by Ryan Foerster

Magenta Hurricane Printing Plate with dell flowers, 2012 - 2014 and unrecognizable universe, 2007 - 2015 by Ryan Foerster

062414D, 2014 and 14Y, 2011 by James Welling

MOCCA is the first CONTACT venue I visited and as always it did not disappoint. The first of the three exhibits at MOCCA is Part Picture. It displays work by several artists that incorporate photography with other artistic mediums. The result is spectacular.

Mourning Wall, 2000 by Ellen Carey

111, 2012 by Mariah Robertson

Dingbat (14), 2014 and Dingbat (2), 2013 by Chris Wiley

The second exhibit is called Past Picture: Photography and the Chemistry of Intention. It is an impressive display of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century photographs from The National Gallery of Canada. "The photographs on view represent key aesthetic and philosophical sensibilities of some 150 years of photographic production." Some of the photographs were just amazing!

Lighting Fields 138, 2009 and Lighting Fields 119, 2009 by Hiroshi Sugimoto

After Noomi, 1993 printed 1994 by Gary Schnieder

Past Picture Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Exhibit

Articles of Glass, before January 1844 by Wiliam Henry Fox Talbot

The third exhibit consists of two large mural size photographs, one located in MOCCA's courtyard on the side of a building and another in MOCCA's lobby. The photographs were taken by Korean-artist Jihyun Jung and depict scenes of demolition of low-rise apartment buildings. They are very symbolic to what is happening to MOCCA'a West Queen West home. The building is getting demolished to make room for.... can you guess?.... that's right...condos! This is sadly the last CONTACT exhibit to be held at the Queen Street home.

Demolition Site 01 Inside, 2013 by Jihyun Jung

Demolition Site, 2013 -2014 by Jihyun Jung

I highly recommend a trip down to MOCCA to visit these spectacular exhibits. Part Picture and Past Picture are both running until May 31, 2015 and Jihyun Jung: Demolition Site courtyard mural is on display until August 31, 2015. This is the first of several CONTACT exhibit posts I will be sharing over the next several weeks, so please come back for more CONTACT reviews and info.

P.s!: In addition to Exhibitions, there are also large installations throughout the city and public events and lectures! Please visit CONTACT for more info!

P.s,

Melanie!