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AKA Gallery presents: KAREN TAM ON ROCK GARDEN OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, September 12, 7:00 pm ARTIST TALK: Saturday, September 13, 2:00 pm WHERE: 424 20th Street West Main Space Exhibition: To inaugurate its newly enhanced space, AKA Gallery will present On Rock Garden, a simulated Chinese Restaurant created by Montreal-based installation artist Karen Tam. The gallery space and building, once owned by Toon’s Kitchen, will fittingly play host to Tam’s fifth-anniversary of the Gold Mountain Restaurant franchise across Canada. Aside from Tam’s humorous use of mimicry, her project also serves as a cultural critique. Tam grew up in a restaurant-owning family and views the Chinese restaurant as “a metaphor for an imaginary China, imagined by the West as a place recreated by the Chinese in the West.” Tam’s work looks at cultural identify and authenticity, and has dealt with the history of the Chinese diaspora, especially its close connection to the emergence of Chinese restaurants and cuisine in North America. Since receiving a BFA from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Karen Tam has exhibited her work in Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom and the United States. She has participated in residencies across Canada, as well as the Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom and the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin. In 2006, Tam was awarded the Joseph Stauffer Prize from Canada Council for the Arts for most outstanding visual artist. She has also received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec, and Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs eet L'Aide a la Recherche, Quebec. Recent activities include solo and group exhibitions: LAB7.3:Pagoda Pads (2007) at Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; REDRESS Express at Centre A, Vancouver; Orientally Yours (2007) at The Souther Alberta Art Gallery; Portraits d'artistes, a Conseil des arts de Montreal initiative; and Karen Tam at CUE Art Foundation in New York. Please join us as we celebrate our new facility and inaugural exhibition! For more information, contact:
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AKA Gallery and PAVED Arts Grand Re-Opening Exhibitions and NEW FACILITY Launch
Friday, September 12, 2008. 7-10PM
FREE PUBLIC OPENING AND LAUNCH: 7 – 10 pm
AFTER PARTY: 11:00 – 2:00 am
424 20th Street West
Following three years of renovations, and drawing on significant public support and thousands of volunteer hours, AKA Gallery and PAVED Arts will reopen their new, enhanced 20th Street facility to the Saskatoon public on Friday September 12th. This auspicious occasion marks the launch of a multifaceted facility with capacity to facilitate, exhibit and promote dialogue around contemporary art in all media and showcasing artists from Saskatoon and across the country. The new facility provides long-term stability, improved public profile and accessibility, and enhanced facilities for our exhibition and production programs.
AKA Gallery and PAVED Arts & New Media are celebrating their Grand Re-Opening with inaugural exhibitions including the work of artists Karen Tam, The User, Shane Clintberg, Amalie Atkins, Leeane Berger, Charles MacLeod and Jon Jones.
AFTER PARTY begins at 10pm in our event space and will include music by local musicians the Fifty-Sixers, Ze and the Boyfriends, Burden of Truth Kids and Mr. Mister Kincaid.
The After Pary Event has been sponsored by Underdog Music and CFCR Community Radio 90.
Main Space Exhibition:To inaugurate its newly enhanced space, AKA Gallery will present On Rock Garden, a made-up Chinese Restaurant created by Montreal-based artist Karen Tam. Our new facility, once owned by the infamous Toon’s Kitchen, will fittingly play host to the fifth installment of the Gold Mountain Restaurant franchise across Canada. Aside from her humorous use of mimicry, Tam’s project also serves as a vehicle for cultural critique. Tam grew up in a restaurant-owning family and views the Chinese restaurant as “a metaphor for an imaginary China, imagined by the West as a place recreated by the Chinese in the West.”
Front Entrance: Following on site-specific works by Clark Ferguson and Linda Duvall, the final installment of Site & Subject, Shane Clintberg's “Untitled” (Floor Mat Project), premieres in the front entrance space of PAVED Arts and AKA as part of the grand reopening. Site and Subject was conceived and co-curated by Cindy Baker and Timothy Dallett to provide contemporary artists with a venue to reflect on recent transformations of Saskatoon's urban space. The residency that Calgary-based artist Clintberg undertook in 2007 involved concerted research into the recent history of the Riversdale neighborhood, and manifests itself as a series of floor mats bearing quotations drawn from the local media in Saskatoon.
design by Troy
Gronsdahl