The Arts Junction: Press-Release: Visual Art Ignites the 2008 Junction Arts Festival

Toronto Junction Arts Festival 2008 Website Screenshot by artjunction.blogspot.com

Screenshot: Junction Arts Festival 2008
Credit: junctionartsfest.com

Media Information – For Immediate Release
Please retain for events listings

Visual Art Ignites the 2008 Junction Arts Festival: Juried Art Exhibition, Galleries and Installations

Toronto, ON, August 11, 2008 – The 2008 Junction Arts Festival (September 3 to 7), produced by the Junction Forum for Art & Culture, features a multi arts extravaganza like no other and the visual art presentations, the motivation to originally begin the 16th annual celebration, will launch the events on Wednesday, September 3 and will continue throughout the five day event to Sunday, September 7.

Now attracting 150,000 visitors annually, the 2008 Junction Arts Festival is set to throw the party of the year as the Junction celebrates its centennial of becoming the City of West Toronto in 1908.

Beginning on the Junction Arts Festival’s opening night, Wednesday, September 3, the 2008 Juried Art Exhibition will display work from over 70 visual artists, as selected by the 2008 Juried Art Exhibition Committee (Rhonda Nolan, Carmen Victor and Colleen Johnston), and will be presented in traditional settings at two Junction area galleries; Urbanscape Gallery (2959 Dundas Street West) and the Academy of Realist Art (2968 Dundas Street West). Both galleries will host an opening night public reception from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., and will be open throughout the five-day festival, Wednesday to Sunday (for gallery hours please visit www.junctionartsfest.com).

The Juried Art Exhibition pieces this year were submitted based on three categories of choice; photography, sculpture or painting/drawing, and the artists have studied in a number of disciplines at respected institutions the world over or are self-taught.

The work will be judged by three Toronto professionals (Mary Kainer, Toronto School of Art; Juan Carlos Martinez, Academy of Realist Art; and Persilia Caton, CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival) and the winners will be announced on September 3 during the opening night celebrations at the Junction Arts Festival launch party in the Junction City Square (2960 Dundas Street West at Pacific Ave.) at 9:00 p.m., with the first prize being a one-year scholarship to the Academy of Realist Art (a $7,500.00 value).

States fine art instructor and 2008 Juried Art Exhibition judge Juan Carlos Martinez, "There is such a wide range of styles, media and content on display this year that it will make judging them a particular challenge. What is certain, however, is that the wide range of imagery will be pleasing for visitors and make the show dynamic and engaging for the public and artists alike."

And back as a popular feature over the five-day festival, 10–15 Junction area (reputed as an artistic hub) shops, galleries and venues along Dundas West will act as impromptu galleries, which will host, show and sell artwork by visual artists. Detailed information on impromptu gallery artists, exact locations and hours will be available soon at www.junctionartsfest.com.

Additionally, a number of shops will host multimedia, performance art, sound and video indoorinstallations by such artists as Chris Flanagan and Jennifer Wardle.

As well, the Junction Arts Festival presents two outdoor art installation artists this year; Junction visual artist Robert Hilts and Nathalie Quagliotto.

Robert Hilts’ work, designed as a mediated pavilion and specially erected for the festival with the spirit of the Junction’s centennial celebration in mind, will create an immersion sculpture; one that disassembles common thoughts and experience about our material and social culture as it relates to community. It will be built using materials found in Junction residences, industry or commercial spaces, and will be conceived as a streetscape of building interiors that the public can step into to gain framed views and experience a manipulated sense of the historical industrial processes and working methods used in the Junction over periods of time. It will also provide dispatches of the entertainment and household lifestyles of the area.

Nathalie Quagliotto’s installation, Maturity Correlation, is a swinging sculpture. It displays two swings that are faces together and thus construct the relation of the same object that faces itself to become hazardous. It challenges the viewer’s perception of sculpture by creating an urge to intersect childhood temptation with mature remoteness. Two people can make this participatory sculpture function to it’s full potential if they trust each other to correlate and synchronize their swinging together.

PLEASE NOTE: For more information, specific and detailed artist/venue placements, artist biographies and gallery hours and locations visit the festival web site regularly at www.junctionartsfest.com.

The 2008 Junction Arts Festival will take place along one kilometre of Dundas Street West between Keele Street and Quebec Avenue, and will feature free fun and creativity in eight distinct categories; the Visual Art Exhibitions (starting Wednesday, September 3), the Movieola Movie Night (Thursday, September 4), and the outdoor Live Music Stages, the Dance/Street Performance Artists, the Poetry Peepshow, the KidZone, the Green Village, and the Historic City (during the weekend street closure on Saturday, September 6 and Sunday, September 7).

Visit the Junction Arts Festival website regularly for more details and updated schedules of all events at, www.junctionartsfest.com.

The 2008 Junction Arts Festival will be supported by title sponsor the Junction Business Improvement Area, and Department of Canadian Heritage Anniversary program, Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, Toronto Arts Council, NOW Magazine and insidetoronto.com.

The Junction Forum for Art and Culture (JFAC) is an arts presenting organization whose main project is the annual Junction Arts Festival. JFAC was incorporated as a non-profit group in February 2004. The people who make up the Board of Directors of the Junction Forum for Art and Culture are dedicated cultural producers, artists, residents, business owners and politicians all of whom are connected in some way to the Junction.

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For media information, artist biographies and interviews please contact:
Laurie Lockhart,
Publicist
2008 Junction Arts Festival
Tel: 416-988-2530
Email: gtmessage@sympatico.ca
Web: www.junctionartsfest.com

For general information, please contact:
Junction Forum for Art & Culture,
2008 Junction Arts Festival
Tel: 416-767-5036
Email: junctionartsfest@bellnet.ca
Web: www.junctionartsfest.com
Councillor Bill Saundercook (Ward 13, City of Toronto), JFAC Chair

links:
Press Release: David Usher Headlines the 2008 Junction Arts Festival

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