Events > Book Launch

30 May 2009

Book launch for Balint Zsako's Drawings from the Bernardi Collection

Artist
Balint Zsako
Publisher
Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada
Time
1 pm - 3 pm

Art Metropole is pleased to host a launch for Balint Zsako: Drawings from the Bernardi Collection published by the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA) (Toronto) to document the exhibition of the same name presented in Febraury 2008. Included in this monograph is an essay and interview with the artist by respected writer and University of Guelph Research Chair in Art Theory and Criticism Robert Enright. Please join us on Saturday May 30, 2009 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM to celebrate. The artist will be present to sign copies of the book.

Acclaimed for his lavish figurative narratives of anthropomorphous creatures, this publication is the first large sampling of Zsako’s watercolour paintings in reproduction. This book contains 88 full page colour presentations of works included in the exhibition; primarily from the collection of Roy Bernardi.

As David Liss, Artistic Director of the MOCCA, states in the introduction: With his adept command of ink and watercolour he possesses an extraordinary ability to tap his fluid and expansive imagination in ways that are at once playful, humorous, disturbing and even sinister. To a great degree he has invented his own mythologies; modern day, poetic folktales that feature human/animal/plant/machine hybrids embodying a remarkable of experience, of the cycle of life: birth, growth, entropy, death.


Balint Zsako was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1979 to a sculptor father and a textile artist mother. The family immigrated to Canada in 1988 after spending two years living in West Germany. He now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Balint Zsako received his B.A. in fine arts (photography) from Ryerson University, Toronto. His works in mixed media, painting, drawing, photography and sculpture have been exhibited in Hungary, England, South Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada and the US.

The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto organized a traveling exhibition of his watercolors entitled Drawings from the Bernardi Collection that is also accompanied by the artist’s first monograph.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA), formerly known as the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), is a museum and art gallery in Toronto, Ontario. It is an independent, registered charitable organization.

The museum, originally known as the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), was founded from the former Art Gallery of North York in 1999. In 2005, MOCCA relocated to a repurposed textile factory in the West Queen West Art + Design District in downtown Toronto. The City of Toronto government funded the half-million-dollar renovation of the building.

At its former location on Queen West, the museum functioned as a hub for creative exchange and played a critical role in shaping the city’s contemporary art scene. Through a commitment to collaborative partnerships with leading like-minded artists, organizations, institutions, and festivals from Toronto and further afield, MOCCA connected the city to a national and global network of peers.

MOCCA featured the work of over 1,100 Canadian and other international artists, hosted 200+ exhibitions, and welcomed 40,000 annual visitors. As the lease on Queen West wound down, the need to move provided an opportunity to seek a larger space that could accommodate the museum’s ever-growing aspirations and significance.

In September 2018, the museum was moved to the Tower Automotive Building.
In 2016, the museum changed its name to the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA). In September 2018, MOCA moved into a 55,000 square foot facility in a renovated former factory in the Lower Junction district.9 The museum received funding from the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund. –Wikipedia
Images

1: Kelly Palmer with guest, Balint Zsako, jaspal Riyat, Michael Steckey, Rosemary Heather.
2: Crowds discussing and enjoying the wares and company.
3: People shmoozing.
4: Jordan Sonenberg, Melanie Zanher and Kelly Palmer.
5: Rosemary Heather, Arella Vent, Balint Zsako.
6: David Salazar with a couple of guests, Jennifer Murphey.
7: Guest, David Liss, Natalie Matutschovsky.
8: Balint Zsako happy to sign his newly minted drawings.

  1. Book launch for Balint Zsako’s Drawings from the Bernardi Collec
  2. Book launch for Balint Zsako’s Drawings from the Bernardi Collec
  3. Book launch for Balint Zsako’s Drawings from the Bernardi Collec
  4. Book launch for Balint Zsako’s Drawings from the Bernardi Collec
  5. Book launch for Balint Zsako’s Drawings from the Bernardi Collec
  6. Book launch for Balint Zsako’s Drawings from the Bernardi Collec
  7. Book launch for Balint Zsako’s Drawings from the Bernardi Collec
  8. Book launch for Balint Zsako’s Drawings from the Bernardi Collec
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