Vid Ingelevics | Between art & Art

Opening Reception: Thursday, June 27, 5-9pm

Exhibition Dates: June 22 – July 20, 2013

Stephen Bulger Gallery is pleased to announce our third solo exhibition of work by Vid Ingelevics. 

“Between art & Art” is based on observations Ingelevics made during research in the photography archives of public institutions in North America and Europe.  Ingelevics (b. Toronto, Ontario, 1952) examined the historical work of usually anonymous museum staff photographers and noted how they and their work seemed to be situated somewhere between the “art” of photography – usually understood as technical practice - and the “Art” that was often their subject.

In the late 1990s, while working on the exhibition, “Camera Obscured,” which addressed the use of photography in public museums, Ingelevics noted that the uncertainty of the staff photographers’ institutional position seemed to extend to the images they produced.  He was often unable to determine why some images were made or even what their original subjects were. In many cases, little or no information accompanied the images because, at the time of their creation, their meaning was held to be stable, factual and self-evident.  For those who made and used the images, the question of meaning was simply obvious and no meta-data or captioning beyond the barest minimum seemed necessary. 

As years passed and those responsible for the production and use of the images were no longer at the institution, the lived experience that produced a context and sustained a certain understanding of the images dissipated. Ingelevics’ fascination with what now seemed so contradictory – a large format, sharp, highly-detailed image that appeared to be so purposeful, but so oddly arbitrary – led him to attempt the “impersonation” of one of those long forgotten museum staff photographers. From 2000 to 2008 he returned to many of the same institutions and, using similar large format camera equipment, he produced contemporary images of these sites that might have been made years earlier.

Ingelevics is an artist, curator and educator based in Toronto. He has exhibited his art and curated exhibitions across Canada, the U.S. and Europe at both private galleries and public institutions. He is the recipient of various awards, including grants from the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council.  His photographs can be found in private and public collections, including the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa; The City of Toronto Archives, Toronto; the Museet for Fotokunst, Odense, Denmark and the Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland. He is currently an Associate Professor at Ryerson University, Toronto.