Background

Private Thoughts/Public Moments stems from collaborations between the AGO and the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI). In 1998 a sub-committee from the two organizations met to develop programming initiatives for the AGO, one of which was the initiation of the Artist-in-Residence program. This program was designed to establish a mentoring relationship between a recognized international artist and local emerging artists, and to explore issues of social identity and accessibility in the context of the museum. Sutapa Biswas was selected as artist-in-residence and was invited to Toronto in April 2000 to work with members of SAVAC toward the development of workshops and a public presentation. As curator of Private Thoughts/ Public Moments, Biswas selected the artists for the exhibition from proposals submitted in response to the work she initiated during her visit in April. An untitled video installation by Biswas was exhibited at the AGO in the spring of this year.

Neena Arora
Neena Arora is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design (1993). She works in sculpture/ installation, photography, video and performance. She has participated in numerous exhibitions and performance events over the past eight years. She is currently a member of the SAVAC Steering Committee.

Rachel Kalpana James
Rachel Kalpana James is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design (1993). She has exhibited her photography, mixed-media and sculpture/ installation work at various galleries in Toronto. She has also organized art festivals and curated visual art exhibitions. Currently, she teaches at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Asma Arshad Mahmood
Asma Arshad Mahmood was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1963. Trained as a painter, she has continued her practice in Pakistan, Colombia and now in Toronto. The Peep is her first installation piece.

Meera Sethi
Meera Sethi received her B.F.A. from York University, where she is currently completing her M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies. She has exhibited in various group exhibitions in Toronto and is currently on the editorial board at Fuse magazine.

Sutapa Biswas
Artist/Curator Sutapa Biswas lives and works in London, U.K. She was educated at Leeds University, the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London University and the Royal College of Art, London. Biswas has exhibited her work as an artist internationally over the past 15 years. Recent exhibitions include collaborations with: Yale Centre for British Art, and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, University Museum of Ethnography, Norway and the 1997 Havana Biennial, Cuba.

Public Programs

Discussion Panel
Private Thoughts/Public Moments

November 18th
“I am Canadian”. Who defines what is Canadian? In art, the Group of Seven? In history, white Engligh-speaking immigrants? A FREE Education Forum at the AGO. 1:00p.m. Henry White Kinnear Education Theatre Art Gallery of Ontario (Tours by the artists commence at noon in Weston Hall - with pay-what-you-can-admission). SAVAC presents a FREE public discussion with educators Michelle Mohabeer, Sharene Razack and Yvonne Singer. Educators, students and members of the public are invited to engage with the site-specific interventions in the Private Thoughts/Public Moments exhibition and develop historical and theoretical frameworks through which to view the exhibition.

This project is presented in cooperation with:

SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Collective) is a nonprofit organization mandated to promote and facilitate the expression of contemporary visual arts by artists of South Asian descent. SAVAC provides a framework for the production, presentation and dissemination of Diasporic South Asian art.

The British Council

mybindi.com

Special thanks to the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, and the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London Institute, for their kind support in this project.

Contemporary programming at the Art Gallery of Ontario is generously funded by The Canada Council for the Arts.

Art Gallery of Ontario
317 Dundas Street W,
Toronto, Ontario,
M5T 1G4
www.ago.net
tel. (416) 979-6648