Vince Mancuso is a founding member of Event. Earl Miller
is a professional arts writer based in Toronto. Event celebrates with an
Exhibition Opening, Sat., March 15/97, 2-5 pm, 197 Spadina, 6th Floor,
Toronto. Exhibition continues until March 29.
Dollar for dollar, the Event group has given Canadians some
of its most ambitious painting exhibitions, exhibitions which have always
been independently mounted. Cost-effectiveness and quality are two targeted
goals of a strategy Event members believe will allow them to effectively
play in a competitive international market.
By financing the entire project, the group believes they have validated
their commitment to art. However, skepticism was initially expressed towards
this self-driven and cash-spartan approach. But the results were undeniably
fruitful. Within its first year, Event was attracting gallery-goers,
selling work and raising the interest of art dealers. Furthermore, senior
artists began to notice. David Bolduc, Richard Gorman, and Alex Cameron
were inspired by the free-spirited energy and creative possibilities of
an open forum allowing them to exhibit where and when they wanted to. This
reflected the ambitions of Event's founders, who knew that by hanging
their paintings on the same wall as renowned artists could enrich their
credibility to fuel the momentum of their ongoing shows.
Group members have always been aware that it is not just the level
of work exhibited but the strength of presentation that makes an exhibition
a success. Every bit of ingenuity group members can offer is employed so
they can work competitively with available funds. For instance, Vince Mancuso,
who developed his formal skills in advertising, is aware that the first
step to reach the public is communication by good design: people not only
have to be informed, they have to be inspired. Event, like the Dadaists,
consider promotional print materials works of art in themselves.
Mike Hansen, who has been involved in radio production and broadcasting
for over a decade, arranges media coverage for Event. To create
an evocative, aesthetically pleasing exhibition space, Brian Saby, always
applying his cost saving magic, offers expertise in interior design. After
all, if the viewer is to have the complete experience of viewing art, the
entire gallery environment must be conducive to that experience. Such a
holistic approach reflects Event's core belief that print, venue,
and performance are as essential parts of the creative process as the works
of art.
Event associates envision the total presentation as the essential,
creative vision that drives them. The entire Event process is a creative
organism, always reaching, adapting, responding, and creating itself. Flexibility
best conveys their critical message: the quality of the manufactured object
is illuminated by context.
Emphasis on presentation is intended to enhance another professional
necessity: selling art. Sales buy time and freedom for Event associates
to continue working. The result has been inspired, free, and independent
art-making. While the majority of Canadian artists are just trying to survive,
the Event artists are able to work on significant projects. For
instance, Mancuso has twice travelled to Italy, once to complete a public
commission and, later, to be featured in the N.F.B. documentary film Enigmatico.
Recently, Mike Hansen's paintings were placed alongside those of Guido
Molinari and Claude Tousignant in a major exhibition of Canadian abstraction
at the Mississauga Art Gallery. Brian Saby has begun to exhibit with Thielsen
Galleries in London, Ontario, where Saby now resides. Saby was the impetus
behind Hansen, Mancuso, and Bolduc being invited to join the Thielsen stable.
Given such collective networking, one might be surprised at how diverse
Event artists' work actually is. Event aims to destroy the common
belief that artists are only connected by visual style. Instead, the group
comprises a network of top professionals equipped to work as independents
and to exhibit together simultaneously. This is why involvement is always
changing, growing, fluctuating.
For instance, the upcoming Event exhibition includes, for the
first time, the work of Ed Zelenak, who, over the last three decades, has
assured himself a place in Canadian art history. Further, this exhibit
introduces, but only to Toronto, another established artist, Gerald Pedros.
Coming from Montreal, Pedros is a member of that city's La Raza
group, which like Event, is a collective of dedicated professionals.
Zelenak's and Pedros' international exhibition record reflects Event's
new interest in crossing national boundaries.
Event believes that the future will see Canada not only exporting
goods and services but its culture, as all great trading nations do. Pedros
clearly outlines Event's future "as a time when the world will
sit up and take notice of the visual arts we are producing. We are working
in one of the most civilised countries in the world... in science, music,
and in social values. But what we have to do is lead the visual arts into
the new millennium."
With the involvement of passionate, ambitious artist
such as Pedros and Zelenak, Event has committed themselves to issuing
in a new era of visual art, an era where artists finally shed the stereotype
of being alienated individuals. Event believes artists must begin
to take a visible place in society, through a commitment to doing their
part in raising the quality of life.
The Event group seeks to put art in a theatre that has an audience,
on a stage where only the best survive. The era of theoretically-centred
art, which reached its peak in the Eighties, is coming to a close, so the
time is ripe to just produce the goods and to test them in the global arena.
Event's outward-seeking approach sharply contrasts the committee-driven
realm of government founded art, whose cloistered nature fails to reach
an audience. The passion Event artists feel for the artistic process
is undeniable, which is why they want to create a place for it in society.
As the information era advances, Event must participate in this
new society by showing internationally. The bottom line is simply survival.
Event will continue to utilise all available talents as it has done
in the past and is doing so in the present to continue to cost-effectively
communicate artistic quality.
Art Business Magazine http://www.culturenet.ca/artbusiness
