Clint Neufeld: Pipe Dreams of Madame Récamier

The Koffler Gallery Off-Site presents the first solo exhibition in Toronto of Saskatchewan-based artist Clint Neufeld, comprising recent sculptural works and light-box vinyl drawings. Starting from personal recollections, Neufeld mines his regional prairie past and relationships with male figures in his life, articulating an investigation of masculine/feminine dichotomy and notions of beauty, labour, and materiality.

For the past few years, Neufeld has been working with mechanical equipment and tools, casting them in delicately painted ceramic, porcelain or wax and staging them on domestic furniture and parlor accoutrements. The fanciful car engines, transmissions, valves, and excavating buckets role-play as dandies and socialites, transposed to materials and settings traditionally associated with fine dinnerware and tea parties. Divested of their functionality and steely power, the fundamental nature of these utilitarian devices shifts as they become strange objects of beauty meant for contemplation.

Engines hold a significant place in the collective memory of our car-centric society, evoking inherited perceptions of masculinity. By altering their materiality, Neufeld subverts their masculine character and the inherent connotations they hold as meaningful cultural objects. Furthermore, the mechanical parts the artist selects predominantly date from the 1950s and 60s, a time when nothing was yet digitally controlled and everything could be fixed with the right knowledge and a few tools. Triggering private associations, the sculptures allow for a moment of unlikely intimacy, becoming vessels of memory connecting personal and collective histories.  

For more information on Clint Neufeld, please visit: http://www.clintneufeld.com/ 



Exhibition Hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 12 – 6 PM

Clint Neufeld: Pipe Dreams of Madame Récamier is generously supported by:
Tamara and Gary Fine | Tippet-Richardson

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PUBLIC PROGRAMS

UP CLOSE WITH ARTIST CLINT NEUFELD
Sunday, January 13, 2013, 4 PM
General Hardware Contemporary, 1520 Queen St. West
Open to Koffler Centre of the Arts Envision Members and New Art Insiders
Meet Saskatchewan artist Clint Neufeld; he works with engines, excavating buckets, and other mechanical equipment to make his lovingly handcrafted sculptures from delicate materials such as painted ceramic, porcelain and wax. Beautiful and meaningful, Neufeld’s objects speak to notions of art making, aesthetics and identity politics on both a national and regional level.

Co-Chairs: Jenn Broadlieb and Martha Simmons
Envision Chair: Jill Reitman

To RSVP: Rachel Anne Farquharson | 416.638.1881 x4016 | rfarquharson@kofflerarts.org 


CERAMIC WORKSHOP WITH CLINT NEUFELD
Monday, January 14, 2013, 10 AM – 3 PM
Prosserman JCC, 4588 Bathurst St.
$75 | To register: 416.638.1881 x4333
Clint Neufeld will provide hands-on insight into the creative process of mold-making for his spectacular sculptures.


ENGAGING WITH CERAMIC PROCESSES IN CONTEMPORARY ART
Monday, January 14, 2013, 6:30 – 8 PM
The Gardiner Museum, 111 Queen's Park
$15 General | $10 Members
The Koffler Gallery and the Gardiner Museum present a panel discussion examining current ceramic-based practices in the context of contemporary art. Panelists include Saskatchewan sculptor Clint Neufeld,  artist and Head of Ceramics at the Sheridan School of Craft & Design Linda Sormin,  and Rachel Gotlieb, Senior Curator, Gardiner Museum,  moderated by Mona Flip, Curator, Koffler Gallery.


CONTEMPORARY ART BUS TOUR
Sunday, February 10, 2013, 12 – 5 PM | FREE
Tour starts at the Koffler Gallery Off-Site at General Hardware Contemporary (1520 Queen St. West), then departs for Blackwood Gallery, AGYU, and Doris McCarthy Gallery, returning to Queen St. West at 5 PM. RSVP by Friday, February 8, 5 PM: 416.736.2100 x44021 or scarte@yorku.ca 

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Koffler Gallery is generously supported by: