Esther Shalev-Gerz
Curated by Mona Filip
April 5 – June 3, 2018 | Koffler Gallery
Hours: Tuesday to Friday 12 PM – 6 PM, Saturday & Sunday 11 AM – 5 PM, Closed Mondays & Statutory Holidays
Spring Opening Reception: Thursday, April 5, 2018 | 6–9 PM | FREE
Internationally recognized for her significant contributions in the field of public art, photography, and video installation, Paris-based artist Esther Shalev-Gerz consistently investigates the construction of memory, history, nature, democracy, and cultural identity. The Koffler Gallery presents Shalev-Gerz’ first exhibition in Toronto, bringing together four video and photography installations that explore memory and migration. Developed through active dialogue with diverse communities, these projects foreground participants’ individual and collective experiences.
With thoughtful, nuanced approaches to collaboration, Shalev-Gerz’s artworks confront the practice of portraiture, considering how it may address contemporary politics of representation. Examining the impact of time and space on identity constructions, places, and (hi)stories, these works record, critique, and expand the understanding of the social role of artistic practice.
Esther Shalev-Gerz (born Gilinsky) was born in Vilnius, Lithuania. Her family moved to Jerusalem in 1957, where she graduated from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. She briefly lived in New York in 1980-1981, and since 1984 she lives and works between Paris and Cortes Island, Canada. In 2010 and 2012 two major retrospective exhibitions respectively displayed ten and fifteen of her installations, first at Jeu de Paume, Paris then at the Musée des Beaux Arts de Lausanne. Space Between Time, her one-woman exhibition at Wasserman Projects, Detroit presented nine of her installations between April and July 2016. She has exhibited internationally in, amongst other places, San Francisco, Paris, Berlin, London, Stockholm, Vancouver, Finland, Geneva, Guangzhou and New York. She designed and realized permanent installations in public space in Hamburg, Israel, Stockholm, Wanas, Geneva, Glasgow and more. She is currently producing her latest permanent art work, The Shadow in Vancouver, Canada. For more information: www.shalev-gerz.net