If they ruled the world…

If York’s visual arts and art history graduate students ruled the world, what would it be filled with?


You have a chance to find out. Catch their exhibition If I Ruled the World, opening today and running to July 19, at The Red Head Gallery, 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 115, in Toronto.


Read information about the opening reception in Today @ York.


Here is an overview provided by the Faculty of Fine Arts:


Some of the artists taking part in If I Ruled the World are recent graduates while others are entering their final year in the Visual Arts MFA program. All of them have rich portfolios of work that inform their current engagements.


Their work in turn is answered and supported by alumni and current students in York’s Master of Arts Program in art history, many of whom are completing graduate curatorial work. The collaboration takes the form of a catalogue of essays and artist introductions available for the exhibition.


If I Ruled the World is a wishful statement, a frustrated utterance, a point-of-view. Fourteen artists come together to question the notion of ruling and discuss the Cartesian idea of the individual in current social and political contexts. Themes of childhood nostalgia, utopic and dystopic visions, disconnection and menace are explored in depth.



This joint venture presents the first such group show and reflects the larger realities of changing curatorial practices. The “world” these individuals inhabit is one of communication and interconnection: no longer the divide between the artist and curator, but rather, an appreciation, an understood awareness and an embracing of the lack of borders.



The artists: Laura Calvi, Kim Dorland, Denniston Ewan, Adrian Fish, Justina Gardiner, Francis Henne, Maria Hupfield, Peter Kingstone, Randall Koroluk, Munya Madzina, Ellen Shattuck, P. Roch Smith, Doris Sung and Scott Waters. The art history collaborators: Jennifer Anderson, Jen Armstrong, Margot Berrill, Jen Dale, Cynthia Foo, Gloria Kim, Tara Marshall, Rick Nixon and Rosalynd Ronson.



If I Ruled the World is supported by York University’s MFA (Visual Arts) and MA (Art History) graduate programs, the Red Head Gallery and Print Three.


For more information on the exhibition phone 416-504-5654, check the Web site at http://www.redheadgallery.org/upcoming.html or e-mail art@redheadgallery.org.