Opening reception: Saturday, April 5, 1-3PM
In 1970, a large piece of raw canvas was hung outside the window of artist Tom Deanâs studio on Saint Laurent Boulevard in Montreal. Measuring 23 feet by 6 feet, the canvas bore gigantic lettering fashioned from glittering blue and gold sequins spelling âGOOD-BYE.â This intervention marked the artistâs very first public presentationâan address of farewell that launched an art career spanning over five decades, exceptional and still evolving. Boundless and expansive, fluidly transcending media, style, space, and norms, Deanâs work continues to challenge conventional categories of artistic production and meaning-making.
Driven by two essential inquiriesâwhy âGOOD-BYEâ then, and why Tom Dean nowâthe exhibition GOOD-BYE revisits the artistâs life in early 1970s Montreal. It brings together a rarely seen body of workâearly conceptual artworks on canvas and in sculptural formsâand archival materials from that period, documenting the artistâs extensive and active engagement with the local alternative art scene and broader cultural milieu.
GOOD-BYE travels back in time to map and remap the vision and ambition projected by the artist at the time, while simultaneously standing in the presentâbehind the passage of historyâto reevaluate and reflect on its significance in todayâs context.
Tom Dean (b. 1947) is a conceptual artist, known for his work in a diverse range of media including sculpture, installation art, performance, drawing, and printmaking. Playing on tensions between the ordinary and mythical, his works reference both everyday objects and classical icons, alluding to the dream world of the psyche and matters of the soul, while always residing in the intensely material world of desire and the body. He received the Governor Generalâs Award for Visual and Media Arts (2001), was selected to represent Canada at the 1999 Venice Biennale, and was honoured with the Toronto Arts Award for Visual Arts in 1996. His work can be found in major collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, MusĂŠe dâArt Contemporain, and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Yan Wu is a curator, writer, and translator whose work explores the intersections of contemporary art, architecture, and public space. She is currently the Public Art Curator for the City of Markham and is pursuing a PhD at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. Wu has co-translated Passages in Modern Sculpture by Rosalind Krauss, Six Years by Lucy Lippard, Rock My Religion by Dan Graham, and Formless by Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss into Chinese. Commissioned by M+ in Hong Kong, she co-translated John Cageâs Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel (2020) into Chinese and contributed the Chinese text for the online exhibition Marcel Duchamp: Lessons for a Creative Life from BoĂŽte-en-valise.
Leila Timmins is the Senior Curator at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery.