The Art Bank is pleased to lend 'Sowing weeds in lanes and ditches' (1976) from the collection for Liz Magor: Habitude. On view from June 22 to September 5, 2016 at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. About the exhibition: This non-chronological survey will focus on sculpture and installation produced over the course of forty years. The show will emphasize the thematic and emotional range of Magor’s practice. From the mental and physical contexts of retail consumerism to the spaces of the museum to the private, interior worlds of addiction and desire, Magor’s oeuvre has consistently combined a high level of conceptual and procedural rigor with the intense investigation of materials, ranging from twigs and textiles to rubber and polymerized gypsum. The exhibition will alternate in terms of scale, shifting between displays that are monumental and sprawling on the one hand, to intimate and personal on the other. Indeed, it will focus on the richly layered nature of Magor’s practice—extraordinary in its tendency to meld multiple references to cultures of display, compulsion, and consumption, making the case that this visual and emotional richness is one of the reasons why Magor is one of the most intriguing conceptual artists of her generation.
Liz Magor, 'Sowing weeds in lanes and ditches' (1976)
About the artist: Liz Magor was born in 1948 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She studied at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, the Parsons School of Design in New York City, and at the Vancouver School of Art. Her work explores themes such as shelter and hiding, hoarding and consuming, history and survival. She uses sculpture and photography to delve into both natural and developed worlds, and revels in materials that have lost the lustre of their original use or purpose. Magor is the recipient of the Gershon Iskowitz Prize (2014), the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2009) and the Governor General’s Award (2001). In 1984, she represented Canada at the Venice Biennale, and participated in the Sydney Biennale in 1982 and Documenta 8 in 1987. Magor is an associate professor at Vancouver’s Emily Carr University of Art + Design.