opening reception: Thursday, October 19, 6 - 8 PM
Five Shapes by Micah Lexier is being presented on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Micah Lexier and Robert Birch’s relationship as artist and dealer. In that time Lexier has presented thirteen solo exhibitions in three different spaces (King St West, The Distillery and Tecumseth) and three different iterations of the gallery (Robert Birch Gallery, Birch Libralato and Birch Contemporary). This is Lexier’s fourteenth exhibition with the gallery.
Working with two dozen different artists and fabricators—including a baker and a writer—Lexier has created an exhibition that highlights the roles that friendship and collaboration play in his work.
Lexier has presented his collaborators with five found geometric shapes to engage with: in the main gallery, he has invited twelve artists to arrange the shapes however they please, and in the back gallery, he's asked six makers to recreate the shapes in their signature materials.
In addition, one artist has painted the shapes on a wall off-site, the documentation of which has been turned into a twelve-page, free newspaper available at the gallery; a baker has turned the five shapes into cookies, complete with colour-matched icing to be served and consumed at the opening; and a writer has contributed a text to accompany the exhibition.
The five shapes which constitute the exhibition are specific and carefully chosen but not meaningful or significant in and of themselves—their role is to inspire action and reaction from Lexier's collaborators.
Five Shapes is being presented with the participation many individuals, including Polly Apfelbaum (New York), Lolly Batty (London UK), Ruth van Beek (Amsterdam), Claude Closky (Paris), Susan Day (London ON), Lindsey Gazel (Toronto), Faye HeavyShield (Standoff, Alberta), Ihor Holubizky (Hamilton), Erris Huigens (Wageningen, The Netherlands), Paul Ramírez Jonas (Brooklyn), Jill Magid (New York), Jonathan Monk (Berlin), Lisa Naftolin (New York), Jocelyn Prince (Providence, RI), José Quintanar (Rotterdam), Joel Robson (Toronto) Kay Rosen (Gary, Indiana), Ricky Swallow (Los Angeles), and Elsa Werth (Paris).