The Art Museum at the University of Toronto Presents Vision Exchange : Perspectives from India to Canada
February 2 – March 23, 2019

The Art Museum at the University of Toronto is pleased to present Vision Exchange: Perspectives from India to Canada from February 2 – March 23, 2019 at the University of Toronto Art Centre. Vision Exchange presents the work for 20 internationally recognized artists based in India and Canada.

Vision Exchange includes works by Ashim Ahluwalia, Sarindar Dhaliwal, Atul Dodiya, Gauri Gill, Tanya Goel, Shilpa Gupta, Sunil Gupta, Jitish Kallat, Reena Saini Kallat, Amar Kanwar, Bharti Kher, Divya Mehra, Akbar Padamsee, Jagdeep Raina, Raqs Media Collective, Dayanita Singh, Umrao Singh-Sher-Gil, Vivan Sundaram, Thukral + Tagra, and Rajesh Vangad.

Highlights include: the cartographer’s mistake by Sarindar Dhaliwal, where the artist renders a map of the Indian subcontinent using marigolds to indicate the lines of Partition. Dhaliwal’s use of marigolds to depict the borders and territories of her native land lends a curative gesture to the otherwise destructive consequences of this history; and Points of Departure by Bharti Kher, a framed series where the artist uses bindis, paper and maps, each of which date to around the time of Partition, 1947. Swirling with vibrancy, the historical implications of these documents are thrust into an engagement with present-day geographies, planetary migrations and border politics.

Vision Exchange: Perspectives from India to Canada takes its title from Akbar Padamsee’s “Vision Exchange Workshop” (VIEW), initiated in Delhi and Bombay from 1969 until 1972 to promote interdisciplinary collaboration amongst painters, sculptors, photographers, writers and filmmakers and engage with the international avant-garde.

As a special project in tandem with Vision Exchange, the Art Museum will present a one-night installation of Divya Mehra’s inflatable sculpture of the Taj Mahal, on view throughout The Night of Ideas, February 2, 7pm-2am in Hart House.

Curated by Catherine Crowston and Jonathan Shaughnessy, three overlapping tenets inform Vision Exchange: the reframing of historical narratives from non-Western perspectives; the foregrounding of issues of sovereignty, shifting borders and relationships with the land; as well as themes of exile, migration and diasporic realities. These interweaving curatorial interests were not established in advance, but rather discovered through rich encounters with the artists and artworks, and the perspectives they share. In the original spirit of VIEW, these perspectives are offered to foster a multifaceted dialogue, international in scope, rooted in histories of place, as these continue to resonate sharply in the present.

Also, on the night of the reception, Vision Exchange curators Jonathan Shaughnessy and Catherine Crowston will introduce the exhibition, followed by a conversation with Indu Vashist and Toleen Touq of SAVAC, curators of the P. Masaram exhibition at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery.

Vision Exchange: Perspectives from India to Canada
February 2 – March 23, 2019
University of Toronto Art Centre, 15 King’s College Circle
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 2, 2019 from 5-7pm
Extended hours from 7pm – 12am as part of Night of Ideas