Skateboards

Artists skateboards (some produced posthumously) by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bill Burns, Larry Clark, Nan Goldin, Keith Haring, Mike Kelley, Harmony Korine, Yayoi Kusama, Faith Ringold, and Christopher Wool. 

Bibliography

 

Tomorrow is the last day to see the MKG127 summer group exhibition Bibliography, which features novels, math books, textbooks, phone books, matchbooks and more, by Dean Baldwin Lew, Alan Belcher, Adam David Brown, Bill Burns, Michael Dumontier, Dave Dyment, Liza Eurich, Sara Graham, Instant Coffee, Laura Kikauka, Kristiina Lahde, Jason Lujan, Gwen MacGregor, John Marriott, Luke Parnell, Roula Partheniou, Geoffrey Pugen, Jayce Salloum, Monica Tap, Joy Walker, and Laurel Woodcock.

Press release: 

"The format of the book has proved remarkably resilient in the face of breakthroughs in other technologies. Its early demise has been predicted continually – with the advent of cinema, television, the personal computer and the e-book reader. Even the phonograph was once cause for alarm, as evidenced in Octave Uzanne’s short story from 1894, The End of Books:

“If by books you are to be understood as referring to our innumerable collections of paper, printed, sewed, and bound in a cover announcing the title of the work, I own to you frankly that I do not believe (and the progress of electricity and modern mechanism forbids me to believe) that Gutenberg’s invention can do otherwise than sooner or later fall into desuetude as a means of current interpretation of our mental products.”

Bibliophiles needn’t have worried. While the death knell rang throughout the last century-plus, the codex held steady. Today physical books still outsell their electronic counterparts four-to-one. Sixty-eight percent of readers between the age of 18 and 29 prefer printed volumes, suggesting the trend is not drifting downward.

This exhibition celebrates the multi-faceted form of the book with a wide array of treatments, from foregrounding text, typography, the page, the title, or the cover, to using the form of the book as context for content."

For more information, visit the MKG127 website, here. 

Bibliography

 

My relationship with gallerist Michael Klein can be traced back to our shared love of books and records. We met when he would come to Art Metropole on Friday nights, for Cocktails. He had worked there a decade or so before me, and left to raise his two children. 

Once they were old enough, he decided to open his own commercial gallery, and invited Roula and I to join the roster. At the time (reductively) I made records and she made books. The three of us are also in Bookclub together, a group of ten artists, authors, publishers and curators who collect artists’ publications (the others members are Micah Lexier, Bill Clarke, Paul Van Kooy, Wendy Gomoll, Derek Sullivan, Sarah Robayo Sheridan, and Dereck McCormack). 

In 2018, MKG127 hosted a show called Record Shop, in which artists such as Sonny Assu, Deanna Bowen, Geoffrey Pugen, Marla Hlady, Christof Migone, Eleanor King, Jacob Whibley, Michael Dumontier, Suzie Smith, Instant Coffee, Jeffrey & Humphrey and Laura Kikauka presented work made with “record shop materials”, such as posters and playlists, and the vinyl record itself (it’s “material and sentiment”). 

Five years later, the gallery follows up with an exhibition about books. Titled, Bibliography, the show explores various formal and conceptual investigations into the form of the folio, the codex, etc. It opens today at 2pm. 

My contribution is the size-as photo above, titled Nothing To Infinity. 

For more information, see the press release below or visit the gallery website, here. 

July 8 – August 19

Opening Saturday, July 8, 2-5 PM

MKG127 is excited to present Bibliography, a group exhibition including new and existing works by gallery artists including:

Dean Baldwin Lew, Alan Belcher, Adam David Brown, Bill Burns, Michael Dumontier, Dave Dyment, Liza Eurich, Sara Graham, Instant Coffee, Laura Kikauka, Kristiina Lahde, Jason Lujan, Gwen MacGregor, John Marriott, Luke Parnell, Roula Partheniou, Geoffrey Pugen, Jayce Salloum, Monica Tap, Joy Walker, and Laurel Woodcock.

The format of the book has proved remarkably resilient in the face of breakthroughs in other technologies. Its early demise has been predicted continually – with the advent of cinema, television, the personal computer and the e-book reader. Even the phonograph was once cause for alarm, as evidenced in Octave Uzanne’s short story from 1894, The End of Books:

“If by books you are to be understood as referring to our innumerable collections of paper, printed, sewed, and bound in a cover announcing the title of the work, I own to you frankly that I do not believe (and the progress of electricity and modern mechanism forbids me to believe) that Gutenberg’s invention can do otherwise than sooner or later fall into desuetude as a means of current interpretation of our mental products.”

Bibliophiles needn’t have worried. While the death knell rang throughout the last century-plus, the codex held steady. Today physical books still outsell their electronic counterparts four-to-one. Sixty-eight percent of readers between the age of 18 and 29 prefer printed volumes, suggesting the trend is not drifting downward.

This exhibition celebrates the multi-faceted form of the book with a wide array of treatments, from foregrounding text, typography, the page, the title, or the cover, to using the form of the book as context for content.

Artists' Matchbooks: Bill Burns

 

After two weeks of Chess sets there's both a backlog of things to post, and a need for a little break. Posts will resume shortly, with the above works and a focus on Siglio Press, who just announced their new Christian Marlcay title [top] yesterday. 

Record Shop

Record Shop, a group exhibition including work by myself, Sonny Assu, Deanna Bowen, Bill Burns, Roula Partheniou, Geoffrey Pugen, Marla Hlady, Christof Migone, Michael Dumontier, Suzie Smith, Instant Coffee, Laura Kikauka and Eleanor King, opens this Saturday at MKG127 in Toronto.

Posters, playlists and lots of works about the vinyl record, as well as guest playlists by artists, curators and collectors, and an event hosted by Record Club's Paul Butler.

MKG127 is located in Toronto at 1445 Dundas St. West. Hours are Wednesday to Saturday from 12 to 6 PM, or by appointment. For more information call 647-435-7682 or visit the website, here, for more information.

The Bill Burns Show (Part 3)

The third and final iteration of the The Bill Burns Show at MKG127 closes today. For more information, visit the gallery website, here.

DIY opens this Saturday

In 2010, MKG127 began a series of artist-curated summer shows with A-B by Micah Lexier. Group exhibitions by Hugh Scott-Douglas, Germaine Koh and Dean Baldwin followed. This Saturday a show that I organized opens from 2 to 5 pm.

DIY collects the work of nine artists and two collectives whose work refers to, or employs the spirit of "do-it-yourself”. The exhibition includes both new and existing works by Dean Baldwin (Montreal), Bill Burns (Toronto), Instant Coffee (Vancouver), Liam Crockard (Toronto), Michael Dumontier (Winnipeg) , Daniel Eatock (London, UK), Juliane Foronda (Toronto), Kristiina Lahde (Toronto), Roula Partheniou (Toronto), Joe Scanlan (New York City) and VSVSVS (Toronto).



"In Britain, the term DIY is synonymous with home repair. Elsewhere it carries more go-it-alone connotations. The term is over a hundred years old, came into common usage in the 1950s, and defined a subculture twenty years later. Today it’s ubiquitous as both an ethos and a marketing brand, from Ikea to Etsy to Martha Stewart-style Pinterest pages. DIY features fetishized tools of the trade, as well as examples of do-it-yourself projects: from makeshift speakers and skateparks to some-assembly-required coffee, prisons and funerals."

- press release

The exhibition continues until August 20, at MKG127, which is located in Toronto at 1445 Dundas St. West between Dufferin St. and Gladstone Ave. on the south side. Hours are Wednesday to Saturday from 12 to 6 PM or by appointment. For more information call 647-435-7682

(image: Joe Scanlan)

Bill Burns | Hans Ulrich Obrist Hear Us

Bill Burns
Hans Ulrich Obrist Hear Us
London, UK/Toronto, Canada: Blackdog Publishing/YYZ Books, 2015
224 pp., 23.4 x 16 x 3 cm., hardcover
Edition size unknown

Hans-Ulrich Obrist Hear Us features an episodic and humorous autobiography,  illustrations of the artist's work, and texts by Dannys Montes de Oca Moreda, Dan Adler and Jennifer Allen.

On Friday February 12th, from 3 to 4pm, Burns will read from the book at the L.A. Art Book Fair, followed by a conversation with curator and writer Tyler Stallings. Burns and Stallings will speculate on "toadyism and hagiography with particular reference to the artist, the curator, the collector, and the art museum."

For more information on Burns, visit here.