Spectacle + Artifice engages contemporary photo-based practice through the work of established and emerging Canadian artists Robyn Cumming (Toronto), Janieta Eyre (Toronto), Natascha Niederstrass (Montreal), Carlos & Jason Sanchez (Montreal), Reece Terris (Vancouver), and Elena Willis (Montreal). Once used for impartial documentation, today the camera is a tool of manipulation where truth and fiction mingle, where narrative structures are nuanced and reflected back through the aesthetics of performance. The exhibition features works by artists who engage new technologies, traditional photographic practice, and elaborate staging to achieve imagery that is for some outrageous and for others extraordinarily subtle. Through the inclusion of multiple works by each artist, a dialogue is constructed within their individual practices and across the spectrum of their shared discipline. Although distinguished by content and aesthetics, these artists invoke spectacle and artifice. Where their works intersect and diverge -- what is literally depicted and what is perceives as real -- is punctuated by what is explicitly captured by the artists' lens.

Dawn Owen's profile page