On the Road is the brainchild of five of Winnipeg’s Artist-Run Centres: Platform: centre for photographic + digital arts, aceartinc., Video Pool Media Arts Centre, La Maison Des Artistes Visuels Francophones, and Urban Shaman: Contemporary Aboriginal Art.

This project is dedicated to the dissemination of contemporary art by cultural producers to diverse communities in Winnipeg and Manitoba in July of 2010. We wish to promote equal access to art and the organizations from which it is disseminated. Thus we are committed to bringing contemporary art to people who have limited access to it due to geographical barriers.

A 1976 Air Stream Trailer will be the shining, silver heart of On The Road, a rip-roaring contemporary art project led by architect Lancelot Coar. Branching from the trailer will be a huge, spidery, fiberglass and fabric frame that will, with community participation, morph into beautiful and strange structures to house a temporary art space. Within the structure we will showcase videos by Manitoban artists, lead art making workshops, and performances by The Abzurbs, a group of mayhem music makers. Each community is warmly invited to help raise the structure and make it their own for the duration of On The Road’s stay.

July 1: LAUNCH PARTY @ La Maisons des artistes visuels (219 Provencher Blvd)
July 2: Urban Barn @ Kenaston Blvd + McGillivray
July 16 + 17: St. Claude, Manitoba
July 20, 21 + 22: Peguis, Manitoba
July 24 + 25: Victoria Beach, Manitoba
July 30: Central Park, Winnipeg
July 31: CLOSING PARTY @ aceartinc. + The Raw Fur Parking Lot (290 McDermot Ave.)

For further information please contact Natasha Peterson, Project Coordinator, at ontheroad.coordinator@gmail.com or 204.942.8183

Follow the project online: http://ontheroadenroute.blogspot.com/

On The Road is generously funded by Winnipeg Arts Council’s Audience Development Grant as well as the Visual Arts Assistance Program through Manitoba Culture, Heritage, and Tourism.

Exhibition
20 May - 26 June 2010

Opening Reception + Performances
Thursday 20 May, 7;30PM sharp!

Panel Discussion
Thursday 24 June, 7:30PM

PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts is pleased to present the exhibition, Ritualiz’d, featuring Winnipeg-based artists: Leah Decter, Michael Dudeck, and Freya Bjorg Olafson.

Curated by J.J. Kegan McFadden, this coming together of voices is meant to comment on aspects of the past, present, and future of ritual, its place in contemporary society, and what role, if any, the photographic and digital arts play in its presentation and understanding.

LEAH DECTER is an interdisciplinary artist currently living in Winnipeg, Canada. With a background in installation and sculpture her practice has evolved to include video, photography, public intervention and performance. Incorporating cultural and personal iconography, elements of the everyday, and the considered use of a wide vocabulary of materials as integral conceptual components, Decter’s work is rooted in intersections of human experience and social/political issues. She has exhibited widely in Canada, most recently at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and her recent work has exhibiting in the US and toured internationally. She is currently working on several ongoing projects that explore the complexities of human relationships with place through a lens of the contemporary and historical and is undertaking an MFA in New Media at Transart Institute in Linz, Austria. <www.leahdecter.com>

MICHAEL DUDECK is an interdisciplinary multimedia artist and shaman whose works deal with the complicated relationship between humans and nature with undercurrents of gender, identity, and sexuality. His work has been included in School for Young Shamans, curated by AA Bronson for John Connelly Presents (New York City); and in February 2009, Dudeck’s Parthenogenesis [a solo exhibition with accompanying artist book] was simultaneously presented by Pari Nadimi Gallery and Art Metropole in Toronto. <www.michaeldudeck.com>

FREYA BJÖRG OLAFSON is an interdisciplinary artist who works with video, audio, and performance. Her work has been presented and exhibited nationally as well as internationally. Over the last year Olafson created a new performance, AVATAR, which was debuted at the nuna (now) festival in 2009. She combines her finesse in movement with the directness of her performance art, video and theoretical studies from the University of Manitoba School of Art and her subsequent completion of a Master of Fine Arts Degree in New Media from the Transart Institute / Donau Universitat in Krems, Austria.<www.freyaolafson.com>

image: C. Simonite, video still.

Exhibition: 01 - 15 May 201

Opening Reception: Saturday 01 May 7PM

PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts is pleased to present the University of Manitoba Thesis in Photography and Video graduation exhibition, lensbefriends, featuring work by Dayna Danger, Kelly-Jo Dorvault, Brynna Stefanson, Neena Fontaine-Ellis, Fabiola Marabotto Cancino, Christopher Simonite, Vallencia Tjen.

Please join us for the opening reception Saturday 01 May at 7PM, refreshments will be served.