YYZ World Tour
YYZ World Tour Poster (1986)
|
YYZ World Tour was a 1986 group exhibition at the Embassy Cultural House organized by members of Toronto’s YYZ Artists Outlet. YYZ was started in 1979 by a group of recent graduates from OCAD University, known then as the Ontario College of Art. Toronto in the 1980s saw YYZ alongside many other artists’ collectives, co-operatives and small galleries spring up near the intersection of Spadina Avenue and Queen Street West. The area was populated mainly by clothing manufacturers, fabric outlets and jobbers. ‘Outlet’ in the gallery’s name was a cheeky wink to the neighbourhood demographics.
It was an era of expansion for the arts, with generous funding available from the Canada Council for the Arts as well as provincial and municipal organizations. In addition, the emergence of artist-run centres in cities across the country allowed for the presentation of major, multi-venue exhibitions. Flexibility, experimentation, and cooperation defined the artist-run network, and this attitude gave rise to artistic production not possible in larger public and private art galleries. YYZ flourished under these conditions presenting “Monumenta”, a riff on Documenta, in 1982. The exhibition, featuring artists working in a diverse range of media, was shown across all centres in the neighbourhood and a highlight of the year. “The New City of Sculpture” followed in 1984 with a curatorial essay included in the recently established “C Magazine.” Another notable exhibition, “The Interpretation of Architecture” from 1986, looked at the overlapping worlds of art and architecture. Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner were good friends of the artist members of YYZ and would often travel from London to visit the exhibitions. Janice Gurney was a member of the board of both YYZ and the Embassy Cultural and had participated in a number of the ECH projects. When the idea was proposed that YYZ Artists’ Outlet’s board of directors show their current work at the Embassy Cultural House in spring 1986 a quick meeting was followed by an immediate agreement to participate. It was a busy time as YYZ was in the process of moving spaces. Despite the ongoing relocation the group of 16 brought a range of work including drawing, painting, sculpture, and film to the Embassy Cultural House. YYZ Artists’ Outlet continues its work and legacy in the present day, operating out of the 401 Richmond Building. You can check out their current activities here. Featured Artists:
|
Selected Works in the Exhibition
Memories from the Participants
Elizabeth Mackenzie:
"In the 1980s, I created room-sized installations by drawing directly on gallery walls (as I did for my contribution to the YYZ World Tour in 1986). The images were based on photographic references and utilized projected images for rendering the large-scale wall drawings. This movement between the reference, the hand-drawn image, the projected image, and the bodily gestures required to produce the wall drawings was (and continues to be) of great interest to me. Something is both lost and gained in these translations."
"In the 1980s, I created room-sized installations by drawing directly on gallery walls (as I did for my contribution to the YYZ World Tour in 1986). The images were based on photographic references and utilized projected images for rendering the large-scale wall drawings. This movement between the reference, the hand-drawn image, the projected image, and the bodily gestures required to produce the wall drawings was (and continues to be) of great interest to me. Something is both lost and gained in these translations."
