Thom Sokoloski curates ALL THE ARTISTS ARE HERE

ALL THE ARTISTS ARE HERE a project by Thom Sokoloski

Every year Art Toronto welcomes visitors to the fair with a commissioned project or curated exhibition.  This year, curator and artist Thom Sokoloski has been invited to create a work that celebrates the artists whose work is represented and exhibited at the fair.  As visitors ascend the escalators they will be greeted by over a thousand portraits of artists.

ALL THE ARTISTS ARE HERE is large-scale installation that explores the visual impact of all the artists exhibited at Art Toronto 2013. Each artist is represented by a red-framed black and white photographic portrait which they or their gallery participated in selecting.

While the galleries display the artwork of artists from all over the world, ALL THE ARTISTS ARE HERE brings the represented artists together as a group by offering Art Toronto and the viewing public the impact of all of their portraits in a suspended, larger than life optical work.

Interactively, ALL THE ARTISTS ARE HERE allows engagement with both the artwork and the artists through the use of an everyday device, a smartphone. Searching for and registering a connection with the artists and their works by scanning a legend of associated QR-Codes provides a personal relation that can be bookmarked, used during the art fair and taken home.

HANDS ON WITH THE ARTISTS

As part of ALL THE ARTISTS ARE HERE, Thom is collaborating with Jenny McCowan to design and lead an arts education program, entitled HANDS ON WITH THE ARTISTS. It will invite a collective of at-risk and art high school students to participate in realizing a large-scale installation and experience Art Toronto first-hand. From workshops in conception and production of their own initiatives to the install of ALL THE ARTISTS ARE HERE, all the students will have the opportunity to learn, practice and apply new skills in art making, explore the galleries and artistry at the fair and leave with a new awareness of the contemporary art world.

About Thom Sokoloski

Thom Sokoloski is Toronto based artist and curator. His large-scale works are sculpturally driven temporal explorations which negotiate space, participation and perception, and how they converge in the process and presentation of art. (www.thomsokoloski.com)

Thank you to Pitko and Deserres logos for their assistance in realizing this project.

Image Credits:

Rendering by Thom Sokoloski/Jeff Lei

Thom Sokoloski