Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival Unveils 2024 Lineup

Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival has revealed highlights of the 28th edition of its annual citywide event spanning the month of May 2024. Established and emerging artists will present lens-based works in exhibitions, public art installations, and commissioned projects at museums, galleries, and public spaces across Toronto. The preliminary list of artists featured across the Core Program includes:

Julianna A.S.

Frances Cordero de Bolaños

Bushra Junaid

Kosisochukwu Nnebe

Alishah Ahmad

Andrew Dadson

Natasha Katedralis

Abraham Onoriode Oghobase

Sara Angelucci

Kiri Dalena

Jane Jin Kaisen

Oluseye Ogunlesi

Nuits Balnéaires

Danielle Dean

Gelare Khoshgozaran

Andrew James Paterson

Anne Balneg

Inyang Eissen

Jake Kimble

Ron Siu

Dexter Barker-Glenn

Adama Delphine Fawundu

Shaya Ishak

Bronson Smillie

Lorna Bauer

Alanna Fields

Kourtney Jackson

C. Rose Smith

Arielle Bobb-Willis

Glenn Gear

Anu Kumar

Ivetta Sunyoung Kang

Sandra Brewster

Meghan Harder

Zun Lee

Eve Tagny

Felicia Byron

Nelson Henricks

Kirk Lisaj

Ho Tam

Ernesto Cabral de Luna

Timothy Yanick Hunter

Ken Lum

Clarissa Tossin

Rosana Cade

Vid Ingelevics

Kardell McAfee

Emiliya Volchenko

Andrea Chartrand

Shaya Ishak

John Macfie

Ryan Walker

June Clark

Kourtney Jackson

Umber Majeed

Yuwen Wang

Delali Cofie

Siena-heesoo Jang

chris mendoza

Werner Wolff

The 2024 Core Exhibitions and Public Art Installations present lens-based and mixed-media works by artists and photographers exploring topics including anti-colonial practices, community-building, Afro-futurism, crip liberation, ceremony and revolution, and personal and collective memory, addressing violent gaps in historical archives.

Preview of selected 2024 CONTACT Festival projects

Gelare Khoshgozaran | To Be the Author of One's Own Travels

CONTACT Gallery | 80 Spadina Ave, Ste 205 | April 26 - June 15

+ Billboards at College St & Dovercourt Rd | April 22 - May 31

Curated by Heather Canlas Rigg

Gelare Khoshgozaran is an undisciplinary artist and filmmaker whose work engages with the legacies of imperial violence manifested in war, militarization and borders. They use film and video to construct peripheral narratives that seek to redefine existing constructions of "home" as a means of approaching new conceptualizations of belonging. Khoshgozaran will present two films at CONTACT Gallery, and related work on billboards in Toronto. Khoshgozaran has presented their work internationally, with recent and upcoming exhibitions at Delfina Foundation, Images Festival, EMPAC, MASS MoCA and the Hammer Museum.

Presented by CONTACT. Billboards supported by PATTISON Outdoor Advertising.

Alanna Fields

Billboards at King St W & Strachan Ave

May 1 - 31

Curated by Luther Konadu

U.S. artist Alanna Fields salvages photographic traces of Black queer life from the 1990s and earlier, focused on the mundane moments that usually fall into the margins of sensationalistic mainstream narratives of queer life. Fields' upcoming project will expand her practice of scouring archives and embellishing found photographs, drawing upon images from the 1960s and '70s. Examining the notion of "staining," with its multifaceted implications to the history of photography, Fields extends the concept to the framing of worldviews through the application of layered colour, complicating and impeding a "straight" reading of the images and of history. Presented by CONTACT. Supported by PATTISON Outdoor Advertising.

Kiri Dalena | Erased Slogans & Birds of Prey

Billboards at Lansdowne Ave & Dundas St W/College St

May 1 - 31

Curated by Su-Ying Lee

Filipina artist Kiri Dalena will present images from two projects on billboards. In Erased Slogans (2008-ongoing), the artist intervenes into photos made under the Ferdinand Marcos regime's declaration of martial law (1972), when newspapers were shut down and protest actions declared illegal; Dalena's digital erasure of the pictured protest signs alludes to the silencing of dissenting voices. In Birds of Prey (2020-22), Dalena further scrutinizes photographic violence and the production of race as tools of the colonial project, reflecting on the twenty-year period of Filipino resistance under competing Spanish and American colonial claims (1898-1947), when the U.S. government made thousands of ethnographic images of Filipinos. Presented by CONTACT. Supported by PATTISON Outdoor Advertising.

Nuits Balnéaires | United in Bassam

BAND Gallery @ Meridian Arts Centre, 5040 Yonge St

April 25 - May 25

Curated by Mariah Coulibaly

In his 2021 series The Power of Alliances, Ivorian artist Nuits Balnéaires explored the symbols, roles, and relationships of the N'Zima Kotokô people's seven great families. Based in Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast, the artist's multidisciplinary approach blends contemporary perspectives with traditional themes. In our post-pandemic era, as we reckon with how to navigate social and physical environments, his work offers vital teachings on living harmoniously, emphasizing respect and mutual appreciation. Through striking and vibrant visuals, Nuits Balnéaires aspires to "a deeper spiritual connection," weaving narratives that evoke community and a sense of belonging. Presented by Black Artists' Networks in Dialogue in partnership with TO Live and CONTACT.

Julianna A.S., Delali Cofie, Kourtney Jackson | Shedding Heaviness

Gallery 44: 401 Richmond St W, #120 + Studio 1616: 1616 Dupont St

March 28 - June 1

Curated by Aaron Jones & Timothy Yanick Hunter

Shedding Heaviness is an allusive observation on the passage of life, spirituality, the body, and our inner self. Through their distinct and divergent approaches to photography, sound, and installation, Julianna A.S., Delali Cofie and Kourtney Jackson experiment in describing these etheric, intangible states. The three artists prompt us to consider the in-between and the outer self while also reflecting, embracing, and exploring the unknowable. Presented by 1616G44 in partnership with CONTACT.

Jane Jin Kaisen | Burial of This Order

Gallery TPW, 170 St. Helens Ave

May 2 - June 22

Curated by Noa Bronstein

Burial of This Order operates at the intersections of funerary ritual, political protest, and carnivalesque performance. This exhibition centers on Kaisen's titular video installation, in which we are invited to follow a procession of social actors who have gathered to ceremoniously bury a world order built upon hierarchy and division. The video builds towards a moment of revolutionary fervor when the procession-moving through an abandoned resort on the South Korean island of Jeju-refuses to complete the burial and instead overthrows and dismantles the scaffolding of the prevailing order so that other realities can be imagined into being. Presented by Gallery TPW in partnership with the Danish Arts Foundation, and CONTACT.

Ken Lum | Scotiabank Photography Award

The Image Centre, 33 Gould St

May 3 - August 3

Curated by Gaëlle Morel

The exhibition, comprising seminal series along with new works, celebrates the career of Canadian artist Ken Lum. Winner of the 2023 Scotiabank Photography Award, Lum is internationally known for his conceptualist approach, particularly his various signature series of photographic portraits paired with concise, slogan-like texts. The artist's humoristic and impactful practice investigates the relationship between language and representation in the public space. By doing so, Lum critically challenges social hierarchies and dominant narratives related to identity, class, and gender, always at play in capitalistic and postcolonial societies. Organized by The Image Centre, presented by Scotiabank, in partnership with CONTACT.

Felicia Byron | Harvest - Blue Prints and Magnitudes

Tangled Art + Disability (vitrines), 401 Richmond St W, S-124

May 1 - July 19

Drawing inspiration from Gwendolyn Brooks' 1983 poem Paul Robeson, Felicia Byron's exhibition makes space for us to be "each other's harvest." As a visual storyteller and world builder, Byron weaves together community portraits with an Afro-futuristic vision of collective crip liberation. Reimagining comfort and safety through multitudes, she bridges the gap between a crip collective future and the resilience of community in the present. Using cyanotype-printed textiles and video elements, her immersive work enables transformative encounters with the vibrant landscapes of crip futures. Presented by Tangled Art + Disability in partnership with CONTACT.

Umber Majeed

Trinity Square Video, 401 Richmond St W, Ste 121

April 19 - June 1

Curated by Karina Iskandarsjah

This exhibition focuses on Umber Majeed's ongoing research project Long Live Trans-Pakistan, a multimedia, world-building experiment and investigation that exposes the corrupt, absurd, and violent actions of a Pakistani housing development company "Bahria Town." Presented by Trinity Square Video in partnership with CONTACT.

New & Continuing CONTACT Programs

In addition to highlighting the expansive slate of artists showing in this year's Festival, CONTACT is pleased to announce preliminary details about ongoing and new programming initiatives:

THE PHOTOBOOK LAB

Based at CONTACT Gallery, The Photobook Lab champions photobooks through a year-round reading room and bookstore, and a suite of public programs. Established in 2019, The Lab is a new initiative being nurtured to grow into a rigorous and playful leader on photobook publishing, experimentation, and exchange. For the 2024 Festival, The Lab will feature a roster of programs and new photobooks on the shelves.

SUSTENANCE | Artist Mentorship Residency

CONTACT's newest initiative, SUSTENANCE will extend the Festival's support of lens-based artists living in the Greater Toronto Area through a mentorship-based residency. Each year, the program will provide one Toronto-based artist with an honorarium and guidance from a mentor of their choosing. Designed to create space for the continued development of an artist's practice, the program's focus is on process, research, and dialogue without the expectation of an exhibition. This program acknowledges the difficulties of maintaining an art practice in a city with precarious and inaccessible housing and studio rates, and the importance of continuous, nourishing eco-systems of support. The inaugural SUSTENANCE resident will be announced in early February 2024. (*Currently by invitation only.)

CONSTELLATION | Public Art Guest Curator Program

Through CONSTELLATION, CONTACT invites local and international curators to program public art installations as part of the Festival. This program decentralizes the Festival's curatorial role, allowing for a plurality of voices, perspectives, and communities to take shape and hold space throughout the city. CONSTELLATION curators in 2024 include Mark Sealy (London, UK), Luther Konadu (Winnipeg, MN), and Su-Ying Lee (Toronto, ON). Past guest curators include Sara Knelman (Toronto, ON) and Gaëlle Morel (Toronto, ON). (*Currently by invitation only.)

Festival Curators

Participating curators featured in the 2024 Festival include:

Shannon Anderson

Marina Dumont-Gauthier

Bryce Julien

Vicky Moufawad-Paul

Ryan Rice

Jutta Brendemühl

francesca ekwuyasi

Parker Kay

Aamna Muzaffar

Mark Sealy

Noa Bronstein

Chris Finn

Luther Konadu

Philip Leonard Ocampo

Paul Seesequasis

Laura Carusi

Carla Garnet

Andrea Kunard

Shuraine Otto-Olak

Emmy Lee Wall

Anthony Cooper

Timothy Yanick Hunter

Su-Ying Lee

Sarah Parsons

Kate Whiteway

Mariah Coulibaly

Karina Iskandarsjah

Scott McLeod

Danica Pinteric

Frances Dorenbaum

Aaron Jones

Gaëlle Morel

Alex Rand

with graduate students of the Film + Photographic Preservation and Collections Management program at Toronto Metropolitan University; with more to be announced in 2024.

Preliminary List of Festival Partners

CONTACT's 2024 Core Program of Exhibitions and Public Art Installations are developed through collaborations with partners across Toronto and beyond, including:

A Space Gallery

Goethe-Institut Toronto

PHOTO Australia (Melbourne)

Aga Khan Museum

Harbourfront Centre

the plumb

Art Gallery of Mississauga

Hunt Gallery

The Power Plant

Artspace Gallery

The Image Centre

Prefix ICA

BAND Gallery

John B. Aird Gallery

Pumice Raft

The Bentway

Joys

Stephen Bulger Gallery

Blackwood Gallery

McMichael Canadian Art Collection

Tangled Art + Disability

Blouin Division

Mercer Union

Towards Gallery

Capture Photography Festival (Vancouver)

National Gallery of Canada

Trinity Square Video

Critical Distance Centre for Curators

Olga Korper Gallery

United Contemporary

Daniel Faria Gallery

Onsite Gallery

Waterfront Toronto

Davisville Subway Station

Pattison Outdoor Advertising

Westin Harbour Castle Conference Centre

Dianna Witte Gallery

Paul Petro Contemporary Art

Xpace Cultural Centre

Galerie Nicolas Robert

Paved Arts & AKA Artist-Run (Saskatoon)

Zalucky Contemporary

Gallery 44 & Studio 1616

Peel Art Gallery, Museum + Archives

Gallery TPW

Additional partners will be announced in the coming months.

About Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival

CONTACT fosters and celebrates the art and profession of photography with its annual Festival across greater Toronto in May and year-round programming in the CONTACT Gallery. CONTACT presents lens-based works by acclaimed and emerging artists, documentary photographers, and photojournalists from Canada and around the world. The curated program of Core Exhibitions and site-specific Core Outdoor Installations featuring works by local and International Artists, presented in collaboration with major museums, galleries, and artist-run centers, are the heart of the Festival. These are cultivated through partnerships, commissions, and new discoveries, framing the cultural, social, and political events of our times. CONTACT presents a wide range of programs including lectures, talks, panels, workshops, and symposia during the Festival. The Open Call Exhibitions are community-generated, independently organized exhibitions presented at unique venues throughout the city. Please check the CONTACT website for updates.

CONTACT, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1997, is generously supported by its title sponsor Scotiabank, and Scotia Wealth Management, as well as 3M Canada, Beyond Digital Imaging, BIG Digital, Four By Eight Signs, Pattison Outdoor Advertising, Toronto Image Works, The Gilder, Transcontinental PLM, and Waddington's Auctioneers and Appraisers.

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Photo: Alanna Fields, Close Your Eyes and Remember, 2021, from the series Mirages of Dreams Past. Courtesy of the artist.

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