Reviews
Sunday May 6 & Monday May 7, 2012
10am – 5pm 

Curators and directors, art dealers, publishers and photo editors are brought together for two days during CONTACT to do portfolio reviews for established and emerging artists, with a focus on documentary, photojournalism or photo-based art practices. 

This is an important event for artists with projects at advances stages of development who are seeking opportunities for publishing and exhibiting nationally or internationally—as well as looking for guidance on conceptual approaches or career development advice.

Portfolio Night
Monday May 7, 6pm-8pm
Artists and photographers participating in the two day event are given the opportunity to share their work in an open forum with reviewers and invited local professionals. This exclusive, informal gathering concludes with the announcement of the Portfolio Reviews Exhibition Award winners.

The registration fee is $200 for 4 reviews.
Deadline is April 15. 

Location
The Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen St. W. Toronto

The 2012 reviewers Include:

Alexa Becker, Acquisitions Editor, Kehrer Verlag Publishers, Heidelberg
Melissa Bennett, Curator of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton
Myrabelle Charlebois,  Art Producer, Leo Burnett, Toronto
Song Chong, Curator, Milk Gallery, New York
Bridget Coaker, Picture Editor, Guardian and Observer; Director of Photography, Troika Editions, London
Jacques Doyon, Editor and Publisher, Magazine Ciel Variable, Montreal
Sophie Hackett, Assistant Curator, Photography, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Karen Irvine, Curator and Associate Director, Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago
Michael Itkoff, Founding Editor, Daylight Magazine, New York
Min-Jung Jonsson, Director of Exhibitions, Fotografiska, Stockholm
Stuart Keeler, Curator & Director of Programmes, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga
Brian Morgan, Art Director, Walrus Magazine, Toronto
Bonnie Rubenstein, Artistic Director, Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Toronto
Denise Wolff, Editor, Book Program, Aperture Foundation
Paul Wombell, Independent Curator, London

One artist will be awarded with a solo exhibition presented at the CONTACT Gallery. This award, chosen by a jury of international professionals in the field of photography, recognizes outstanding work presented at CONTACT’s annual Portfolio Reviews. The program was created to support and advance the careers of talented emerging photographers.

A special thank you to The Gladstone Hotel, Vistek, and Toronto Image Works.

Guillaume Simoneau was born in 1978 in Lévis, Québec and currently lives and works in Montreal. He began his studies in art after completing a diploma in applied science. Today, his work centers mostly on transitional spaces within universal themes. His most recent body of work, Love and War was shortlisted for both First Book Award and European Publishers Award For Photography. The series was also headlining the Daegu Photography Biennale in Korea this past September curated by Karen Irvine from the MoCP Chicago. Simoneau is currently working on the publication of Love and War with Dewi Lewis publishing in the UK. The publication is scheduled for 2013.

 www.simoneauguillaume.com

The CONTACT Gallery will be presenting an exhibition of Simoneau's photographs in January 2013.  

Image: Guillaume Simoneau, Canadian Marine jacket, Kennesaw, Georgia, 2008.

Jesse Louttit - No Roads  
Toronto Image Works Gallery
January 19 – February 16, 2012
 

Jesse Louttit is a photographer who lives and works in Toronto. His large format landscape images often reveal the traces of human existance in the environment. His work has been featured in PDN, Applied Arts and Report on Business and has been exhibited at Pikto and the Boiler House for CONTACT 2011. The Harbourfront Centre will be presenting a series of No Roads in the Photo Gallery from January 28 to April 15, 2012. 

Jonathan Taggart - The Friction of Distance: The Lillooet River Valley 
CONTACT Gallery
January 19 – February 16, 2012
 

Jonathan Taggart is a photographer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and a founding member of the Boreal Collective of Canadian photojournalists. His photography has been exhibited internationally, has been featured in the New York Times Lens Blog and Applied Arts Magazine, among others. He was nominated for the National Magazine Award (Photojournalism, 2010) and PDN30 (2012), and is a three time Ontario Arts Council grant receipt. Taggart spends his volunteer time as a photography instructor at Vancouver’s Urban Native Youth Association.

Read more→

Alex Kisilevich
Toronto Image Works Gallery
February 23 – March 4, 2012
Opening reception Thursday February 23, 5 – 8pm

Alex Kisilevich is a photo-based artist living and working in Toronto, Canada. He is a recent graduate of the MFA program in Visual Arts at York University and holds BFAs in Music and Photography from York University and OCAD University, respectively. Kisilevich’s photographs have been featured in publications such as Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward and BlackFlash Magazine. His work has been exhibited internationally and was recently shown in a solo exhibition during the Lianzhou Photography Festival 2011 in China. Kisilevich is represented by Angell Gallery in Canada.

Henrieta Haniskova
I Am Elvis
The CONTACT Gallery
January 31 to March 5, 2011

Henrieta Haniskova was born and raised in socialist Czechoslovakia. Settling in a new home across the ocean at the age of 19, she spent her first paycheck on a used Olympus SLR. What started out as a hobby Haniskova studied at the Toronto School of Art, Ryerson University and assisted a number of commercial photographers in Toronto. Currently working as a commercial photographer, she has traveled the world with her camera. Her photographic project documenting 50 Elvis Tribute Artists in Collingwood has received much acclaim. In 2008 her work was a Featured Exhibition at the CONTACT Photography Festival. The same body of work earned her 3rd place in the Lucie Awards, New York and will be published in the Canadian Geographic this summer. For more information, visit: www.henrietahaniskova.com