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Divergences et réciprocité- Flowers, Warriors, Beasts, Hands

Divergences et réciprocité- Flowers, Warriors, Beasts, Hands

Friday, May 19 , 12 a.m. to Sunday, Jun 11 , 5 p.m.

All 4 members of the Torma-Zsako family are invited by Projet Casa to show recent and older works.

The family is from Hungary and first settled in Hamilton, Ontario. They then moved to Baie-Verte, New Brunswick.

Anna sometimes refers to herself as the great appropriator in the family since her panels often represent her embroidered or collaged versions of Istvan’s sculptures or of drawings Balint and David did when they were children. Other connections also amplify how daily life and artistic practices are intertwined. For example, it is poignant that Istvan keeps bronze figures cast by his children when they were young amongst his own sculptures, not separately, because they are indeed kin. David’s source material frequently comes from his parents’ gardens. And in 2008, Balint wrote in NY Arts Magazine about how their “artistic relationship is an intangible connection of shared aesthetics and experiences that is always in the background and directs [their] hands no matter how far [they] may be from each other.” While each artist works individually, Flowers, Warriors, Beasts, Hands is an opportunity to witness how family relationships – at once quotidian, material, emotional, and subjective – are a base for building and developing distinct yet intersecting artistic practices.

Anna Torma graduated with a degree in Textile Art and Design from the Hungarian University of Applied Arts, Budapest in 1979. Particularly known for her large-scale hand embroidered hangings, she also introduces drawing, collage, appliqué, and found materials into her textile works. She is the winner of the 2020 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts – the Saidye Bronfman Award. Her works are regularly exhibited nationally and internationally and are part of the collections at the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum of Craft and Design New York, Foreign Affairs Canada, the Owens Art Gallery, and the Mint Museum of Craft and Design. 

Istvan Zsako is a sculptor and painter who studied at the University of Fine Arts in Budapest, finishing with Honors in 1984. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including a scholarship to study in Italy and the Derkovits Award (a prestigious Hungarian arts award). His professional practice spans over forty years and his sculptures have been exhibited across Europe and Canada. He is also known for his tape measure series and his vibrantly coloured experimental paintings. He and Anna Torma live in Baie-Verte, New Brunswick.

Balint Zsako received his BFA from Toronto Metropolitan University and currently lives in Los Angeles. The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art organized a traveling exhibition of his works entitled Drawings from the Bernardi Collection that was also accompanied by the artist’s first monograph. Balint’s works were featured in Sarah Polley’s film Take This Waltz and appear in Phaidon’s Vitamin D2 drawing anthology (2013). He was long listed for The Sobey Award, Canada’s largest art prize (2014), and is featured in Jason Schmidt’s Artists 2 photographic survey published by Steidl (2015). His picture book Bunny & Tree will be published in 2023 by Enchanted Lion Books.

David Zsako received a BFA in photography from NSCAD University in Halifax in 2006. His photographic assemblages are a combination of the photo realistic, the abstract, the figurative, and the baroque. They investigate such themes as hegemony, violence, sustenance, life, death, rebirth, and interpretation of beauty. His sculptural practice is a new direction in this ongoing research into the tensions between the beautiful and the grotesque, and into the interplay of creation, destruction and re-creation. He lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Curator :

Kirsty Bell, Teacher of Modern Languages and Literature Department, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick.

Projet Casa is open :

Thursday and Friday : from noon to 7 PM

Saturday and Sunday : From noon to 5 PM

4351 de l’Esplanade

Date and Time

Friday, May 19 , 12 a.m. to Sunday, Jun 11 , 5 p.m.
Free

Location

4351 Esplanade Avenue, Montreal, QC