Mercer Union deals with the challenge of the summer group show this summer by staging a five-part cycle of small groups shows within a growing group show that culminates at the end of this week with the last three artists being introduced to bring up the final tally to fifteen participants (if we count the collective VSVSVS as one being [and since they contributed one work, why shouldn’t we?]). I spent far too much of my recent visit trying to reconstruct the order of accumulation by isolating individual works on the gallery map and then imagining them as they would have been seen during an earlier week. In retrospect (of my visit, not the entire exhibition), I will argue that this is not a good way to appreciate the show. The best way would have been to come back week to week right from the opening to get a sense of how the interaction between the pieces develops. The only other option is to take the exhibition as given and join in on the conversation – for conversation amongst all the participants, from artists to curators to viewers to the works themselves, is they way in which the curator Georgina Jackson would like you to think about this collection. The title, Taking [a] part, is addressed to all, including you. 
Cecilia Berkovic, Woman of Tomorrow (detail), 2014, plexi mounted latex prints
In a group situation (like a party, for example), I gravitate to shared points of reference and people with a sense of humour. Not surprisingly, I connected first with Cecilia Berkovic’s reproductions of feminist and lesbian empowerment buttons. First of all, they were addressing me directly and second, they were funny. They sat at one end of a spectrum with their modicum of form (circles) dominated by their political message. Around the middle of this spectrum was VSVSVS’s articulated table structure whose formal innovations troubled its functional intent. And then, far enough away that I felt I needed a formal introduction, there were Sarah Nasby’s PVC shapes on metal display grids. What they had to say to Brian Rideout’s painting of the interior of a drawing room takes a bit more more time to suss out, so plan to stay a while if you want to pick up all the threads amongst the speakers here. 
Paul Wackers
A quieter party can be found at Narwhal Contemporary in their relatively new space on Dundas West, just around the corner from the Morrow Street galleries and within walking distance of the St. Helens Avenue contingent (where Clint Roenisch just opened his first show in this new location). The three artists on display are all very different and, once again, you’ll have to decide if you want to make the effort to tie them all together or be happy having a tete-a-tete with just one. While Matthew Feyld’s simple cipher-like paintings might have absorbed my attention in another context, and Alvaro Ilizarbe’s routed brain mazes are good for a laugh, it was really only Paul Wackers with his odd assortment of intentionally primitive ceramics and perversely discordant paintings who I wanted to get to know. My first question to him would be how he knows when a piece of pottery is unfinished enough to fire. This judgement is trickier than one might think and in it sits the balance of a work’s ability to trigger imagination without giving the game away. My second question would be if he’d cringe at my describing his canvases as possessing a non-annoying hipster aesthetic, not unlike a good mix-tape. By this, I’d explain, I mean that transcendence isn’t the object; the paintings are happy to evoke the pleasure of bringing together an assortment of things. They are, in this way, little group exhibitions of their very own.
Mercer Union: http://www.mercerunion.org/
Taking [a] part continues until July 26.
Narwhal Contemporary: http://narwhalcontemporary.com/
View Point Geon continues until August 16.
Terence Dick is a freelance writer living in Toronto. His art criticism has appeared in Canadian Art, BorderCrossings, Prefix Photo, Camera Austria, Fuse, Mix, C Magazine, Azure, and The Globe and Mail. He is the editor of Akimblog. You can follow his quickie reviews and art news announcements on Twitter @TerenceDick.
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Taking [a] part at Mercer Union | View Point Geon at Narwhal Contemporary
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