HANDLE WITH CARE

Curated by Emilie Croning & Maria Kanellopoulos

January 31 — February 29, 2020
The Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen Street West, Toronto

Wedge Curatorial Projects is pleased to present Handle with Care between January 31st to February 29th, 2020. The photographic exhibition and site-specific installation brings together the work of Canadian artist Dainesha Nugent-Palache and American artist Adrienne Elise Tarver. Through the artists’ multidisciplinary practices’ Handle with Care explores themes of domesticity, the Black spatial imaginary, histories of displacement, and subsequent boundaries of everyday life. From Tarver’s lush landscapes to Nugent-Palache’s contemporary still lifes, common household objects such as houseplants, figurines, and the Black female body become metaphors for physical passages to the artists’ cultural roots, both known and unknown.

The exhibition brings these two practices together to meditate on the visual and cultural languages associated with the landscape of the tropics as a utopian site of leisure and play, while reflecting on connections between women and domesticized environments. Handle with Care creates space for an important dialogue to simultaneously explore personal, conceptual and historical themes intertwined with Diasporic narratives.

Opening Reception 
Friday, January 31, 7—10pm
The Gladstone Hotel, 2nd floor gallery

DJ-hosted opening event. Artists Adrienne Elise Tarver and Dainesha Nugent-Palache will be in attendance.

Performance Piece & Artist Talk
Saturday, February 1, 1—3pm
The Gladstone Hotel, 2nd floor gallery

The culmination of a three-day workshop with Adrienne Elise Tarver, movement artists Camille Rojas, Nyda Kwasowsky and Danielle Smith “preview” their February 26 performance piece. To be followed by artists Dainesha Nugent-Palache and Adrienne Elise Tarver in conversation with curators Emilie Croning and Maria Kanellopoulos. 

Handle with Care Movie Night: Kathleen Collins’ Losing Ground
Wednesday, February 19, 6—9pm
Paradise Theatre, 1006 Bloor St W

Rediscover Kathleen Collins’ powerful 1982 debut feature film Losing Ground. Exploring feminism and the inner workings of Black lives, the restored classic tells the story of a marriage of two people, both at a crossroads in their lives. Film introduction by Kenneth Montague and post-screening discussion TBC. Co-presented with Paradise Theatre. Free tickets available through paradiseonbloor.com.

Exhibition Walk-Through & Performance Piece
Wednesday, February 26, 6—8pm
The Gladstone Hotel, 2nd floor gallery

Curators Emilie Croning and Maria Kanellopoulos tour audience through Handle with Care. Followed by a performance as movement artists Camille Rojas, Nyda Kwasowsky and Danielle Smith donning wearable pieces by Adrienne Elise Tarver. 

All events are free admission. Presented with the sponsorship of TD Bank Group and The Gladstone Hotel. 

Dainesha Nugent-Palache is a Toronto based artist, writer, curator, and graduate of OCAD University—working primarily in photography and video, often employing the use of performativity. Themes of otherness, identity and representation, in relation to both femininity and the Afro-Caribbean diaspora are often central to her work. Dainesha has exhibited in Canada, as well as internationally (in Finland, Vienna and The United States); she has also been an exhibitor at the AGO at their monthly event 'First Thursdays'. All in all, it is Dainesha’s intent to provide documentation and commentary on twenty-first-century realities through visual narratives, for the sake of posterity.

Adrienne Elise Tarver is an interdisciplinary artist based in Atlanta and Brooklyn with a practice that spans painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and video. She has exhibited nationally and abroad, including solo exhibitions at Ochi Projects in Los Angeles; Wave Hill in the Bronx, NY; Victori+Mo in New York; BRIC Project Room in Brooklyn; and A-M Gallery in Sydney, Australia. She was selected by ArtNet as one of “14 Emerging Female Artists to watch in 2017” and has been featured in online and print publications including Brooklyn Magazine, Blouin Art Info, Whitewall Magazine, Hyperallergic, Ingenue Magazine, among others. She is currently the Associate Chair of Fine Arts at Savannah College of Art and Design’s Atlanta Campus (SCAD Atlanta).  She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and BFA from Boston University. 

Emilie Croning is a Toronto based artist and emerging curator. She received her BFA in Art History & Studio Art from Concordia University (Montreal) and is currently completing her MA at York University.

Maria Kanellopoulos has produced and exhibited contemporary art exhibitions since 2009. She received a BDes from Ontario College of Art and Design University.

TD Global Corporate Citizenship TD has a long-standing commitment to enriching the lives of its customers, colleagues and communities. Through The Ready Commitment TD aspires to link its business, philanthropy and human capital to help people feel more confident - not just about their finances, but also in their ability to achieve their personal goals in a changing world. For further information, visit td.com/thereadycommitment.

The Gladstone Hotel is Toronto’s oldest continually operating hotel. Identifying as an art hotel and LGBT hub since 2005, when local artists came together to transform the original 19th century hotel rooms into 37 unique functional art installation spaces. Inspired by the building’s history and longstanding neighbourhood connections to Toronto’s arts and culture scene, The Gladstone Hotel created an internationally recognized art venue that defies traditional expectations and fosters design and creativity.