Winter 2020 exhibition season

On view from January 25 to May 10, 2020, The Power Plant is pleased to present four solo exhibitions by Canadian and international artists. Solo exhibitions by Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa (Guatemala/Canada) and Dawit L. Petros (Eritrea/ Canada) join exhibitions by Naeem Mohaiemen (Bangladesh/USA) and Rashid Johnson (USA), on view since Fall 2019.

Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa: Asymmetries

Curator: Lauren Barnes
Assistant Curator: Justine Kohleal 

Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa produces sculptures, performance works and paintings that draw on literature, Latin American history, folklore, contemporary conspiracy theories and childhood memories. Referring to traumatic or tragic events—in particular Guatemala’s civil war (1960—96), which forced Ramírez-Figueroa and certain members of his family to immigrate to Vancouver as refugees in the 1980s—his works are imbued with a playful, sometimes dream-like quality. Using both sculptural objects and his body, Ramírez-Figueroa creates scenarios and installations that bring to light unbalanced power relationships in the history of Guatemala and beyond.

Dawit L. Petros: Spazio Disponibile

Guest Curator: Irene Campolmi
Assistant Curator: Amin Alsaden, Nancy McCain & Bill Morneau Curatorial Fellow

Dawit L. Petros presents a new body of work that underlines the unexplored links between colonization, migrations and modernism. Spazio Disponibile—Italian for “Available Space”—scrutinizes historical gaps in European memory, particularly that of modern Italy. Alluding to vacant advertising sections that appeared in Rivista Coloniale, a widely circulated early 20th century magazine and the official organ of the Italian colonial project, the title is also a reference to the colonial gaze that viewed the lands of Africa as “available space” to occupy and exploit. Composed of a multimedia installation of serigraphs, photographs, sculptural works, a film and soundscape, the works highlight the ties between the contemporary resurgence of nationalism in Italy and a suppressed colonial past.

Naeem Mohaiemen: What we found after you left

Curator: Lauren Barnes

Naeem Mohaiemen’s multi-part exhibition, What we found after you left, continues with the films Two Meetings and a Funeral (2017) and Afsan’s Long Day, The Young Man Was: Part 2 (2014), as well as accompanying “footnotes,” which further expand on the films’ themes. Mohaiemen’s work across films, installations and essays excavates historical moments via fiction, documentary and archives, overlapping micro stories and macro histories. Mohaiemen’s overarching investigation into the various ways in which the political left attempted to implement socialist utopia(s) during the Cold War era is ultimately rooted in a hope for a future international left.

Rashid Johnson: Anxious Audience

Curator: Lauren Barnes
Assistant Curator: Amin Alsaden, Nancy McCain & Bill Morneau Curatorial Fellow 

Rashid Johnson’s Anxious Audience continues the artist’s first solo presentation in Canada with a monumental site-specific commission for The Power Plant’s Clerestory. Since 2015, his output has encompassed representational works entitled Anxious Audiences. For The Power Plant, Johnson developed an ambitious new work in this series that envelops visitors amongst an accumulation of portraits incised into a mixture of West African black soap and wax, which sits atop white tile panels. Reflecting a sense of collective unease, this crowd of faces emerges through a process of “drawing through erasure” into the viscous black surfaces. 

Working in tandem with our Winter exhibitions, our public programs provide numerous opportunities for visitors to engage with thought-provoking perspectives and insight. Please visit www.thepowerplant.org for more details.

Winter 2020 Presenting Sponsor: The TD Ready Commitment

Support for Asymmetries includes Lead Donor: Hal Jackman Foundation; Major Donors: Phil Lind & Ellen Roland; Support Donors: Catherine Barbaro & Tony Grossi, Bita Doagoo & Mazyar Mortazavi, Fonds Hamelys, Jill Homenuk, Liza Mauer & Andrew Sheiner; Supported by Panasonic. 

Support for Spazio Disponibile includes Lead Donor: Lonti Ebers; Support Donors: Jennifer Grant & David Dattels; Donors: Yvonne & David Fleck, Dr. Kenneth Montague & Ms. Sarah Aranha; International Arts Partner: Instituto Italiano di Cultura; Supported by: Tiwani Contemporary, The A.G. Leventis Foundation.

Support for What we found after you left includes Presenting Donor: Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation; Supported by: Experimenter.

Support for Anxious Audience includes Presenting Donors: Alison & Jim Christodoulis; Lead Sponsor: ProWinko; Support Donors: Jay Smith & Laura Rapp; Donors: Nadine Léonard, Alan & Alison Schwartz; Supported by: David Kordansky Gallery, Hauser & Wirth.

Admission to The Power Plant is all year, all free, presented by BMO Bank of Montreal Financial Group.

Director: Gaëtane Verna

For images, interview requests and more information please contact: media@thepowerplant.org / T 416 973 4949