WHAT IS COLLECTIVE CITY?
Collective City traces the history of artist generated galleries and collectives that operated as alternative exhibition venues in Toronto from the late 1980’s to the present day. This project shows, over the course of several short videos and transcripts, how a movement that started as a group of renegade artist collectives exhibiting their work in temporary spaces eventually evolved into the sustainable artist collective galleries we are familiar with today.
The history of Canada is in many ways a story of collectivism. From the earliest pioneer settlements, to the formation of labour movements, farm organizations and even our health care system – people in this country have had to work together as a form of collective protection against changing economies. Nowhere is this truer than in the visual arts community. The Group of Seven, Painters Eleven, General Idea, Chromazone, the explosion of collectives and ‘pop up’ shows in the 1990’s and the collectives that exist today are all prime examples of visual arts collectives.
The artwork that these groups produced couldn’t have been more different. But what they all understood was that exhibiting your work outside the traditional gallery spaces required a different approach and a desire to band together.
By the late 1980’s, the artist collective movement in Toronto appeared in reaction
to the lack of galleries and exhibition opportunities at the time as well the narrow
curatorial focus that governed the galleries and institutions of the day. A new
generation of artists were forming collectives that were incredibly varied. Whole
exhibitions dedicated to site-specific installation would appear at the same time
as a curated show of new abstraction in painting. And all of these shows were
created by artist’s collectives with very few resources.
This explosion of pluralism coincided with an economic downturn in the late 80’s
and early 90’s, which allowed artists to negotiate cheap rent for warehouse and
office space in the city’s downtown core. Start-up costs came from selling limited
collection art works or organizing launch parties where donated beer from
Ontario’s earliest craft brewing companies was sold to pay for lights and invitations. The spirit of this scene was very much do-it-yourself.
By the mid 90’s, these types of “one-off” exhibitions became quite frequent and
were gathering larger crowds and more attention. The arts sections of major
newspapers and art magazines regularly reviewed these exhibitions. This new
scene became a means of empowerment for artists and helped create a shift the
artist/curator/dealer dynamic. Our objective is to document this phenomenon by
allowing the artist’s involved to tell the stories of their projects.