EXHIBITIONS 

This exhibition celebrates the 2024 edition of Italian Contemporary Art Day by featuring the works of Anna Romanello and Mario Martinelli, two artists who explore symbols, history, and the passage of time.

Romanello’s “Cretti” installation, with its jagged black cracks, baked earth textures, and vivid orange rust streaks, evokes a sense of timelessness and transports viewers to different eras. Her work invites contemplation of place and memory, allowing for a personal journey through time.

Martinelli’s “David’s Shadow”, a monumental wire mesh sculpture created for the 500th anniversary of Michelangelo’s “David”, mirrors the height and form of the original statue, using striking chiaroscuro to bring the figure to life. Both artists masterfully layer materials and play with transparency to create immersive, timeless pieces that transcend traditional artistic boundaries.

The f8 Photography Collective, formed in 2010, hosted its 27^th photography exhibition at the Joseph D. Carrier Gallery, its second at the Columbus Centre. Titled “Artists’ Retrospectives”, it draws from member collections of stunning images produced over many years.

This all-female exhibition features the exceptional talents of Academy of Realist Art alumni, including Fanny Ku, Robyn Asquini, Miriam Rosenthal, Lynne Crouch, Leslie Morgan, Elaine Rakowski, and Debra Repka. These artists skillfully use classical techniques from 18th-century French Academies to create stunning pieces that speak to contemporary audiences.

“Unveiling the Queer Italian Canadian Experience” is a literary and photographic artistic project, a collaboration between Toronto photographer Vincenzo Pietropaolo and Montreal writer Liana Cusmano. The photographs feature queer Italian-Canadian persons in Toronto and Montreal in spaces where their queer and Italian-Canadian identities meet. This intersection is further explored in poetry and poetic prose.

A Photographic Journey of Sicily by Marcello Tarantino

In celebration of Italian Heritage Month 2024, Villa Charities and Viva Vitalità Italiana present a special exhibition featuring the astonishing beauty and magnificence of Sicily through the lens of Marcello Tarantino’s camera.

In this large photographic exhibition, Tarantino explores the length and breadth of Sicily, including Palermo, Catania, and Syracusa—and the smaller but no less charming Ortigia, Noto, and Enna —as well as Ragusa Ibla.

Calabrian-born and raised, Marcello Tarantino hopes to preserve his Italian cultural heritage through his work. He was inspired to travel throughout Italy and photograph the beauty he happened upon as part of his desire to embrace his roots. This was the inspiration for Viva Vitalità Italiana, which he founded in 1998.

This exhibition in conjunction with the Jewish Music Week Festival, explores that many facets of Jewish Music. Influences and inspiration are drawn from 3,000 years of Jewish history, spanning every continent and era, Sephardic, Mizrachi, Ashkenazic and Levantine.

The focus this year is on the ancient Jewish communities of Italy, that began in Rome long before the destruction the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Experience the unique nature of Sicilian influences before the expulsion of 1492, and the explore the renaissance and baroque splendor of Venice captured in majestic synagogue inspired tapestries.

Curators of this exhibit, Melanie Siegel and Ian Leventhal, are represented, alongside, contemporary digital artist; Gina Godfrey, Mixed Media Sculptor: Sara Petroff, Multi Media Painter Matt Pine and Abstractionist Rina Gottesman.

Franco Deleo’s photography is as concerned with the mediums of social practice and painting as it is with the techniques of photography. His focus on collaboration and care, as well as his references to art historical portraits and classical poses are exemplified in two recent bodies of work. Through deep engagement with his subjects, the Italian-Canadian photographer explores tensions of sexuality and tradition, interior and exterior, and vulnerability and strength in his exhibition “Homecoming”. “Homecoming” is part of the Contact Photography Festival.

“Youth, Truth and Imagination”, a collective exhibition that promises to weave a captivating narrative inspired by the lives of fourteen artists. A vibrant exhibit of pure imagination, where stories of everyday life, diaspora, feminism, queer and racial identities transcend into abstract fictitious masterpieces. With a mesmerizing collection spanning painting, paper cuts, sculpture, and textile works, the exhibition explores the boundless depths of creative expression.

The exhibition included works from Kristi Chen, Hayley Chiu, Olivia Di Gregorio, Jana Ghalayini, Joy, Avleen Kaur, Fong Ki Wan, Khadijah Morley, Sasha Q, Moraa Stump, Queenie Xu, Chason Yeboah, Lan “Florence” Yee, and Jason Zante.

A powerful and thought-provoking exploration of the things we hold in our hearts, both positive and negative. The exhibit features 20 artists working with a range of media, each bringing their own unique perspective to this deeply personal and universal theme. Through a carefully curated selection of 60 original artworks, viewers are invited to contemplate the complex emotions and experiences that shape our lives, from the joy and love that fills our hearts to the pain and sorrow that we sometimes carry within us. The collection provides a rich and multi-dimensional exploration of what it means to be human; what drives us, what are our intentions, and what is at the core of what matters.