Now Open: Greater Toronto Art 2024, March 22–July 28.

Thomas Demand, crossbill, 2021, Framed Pigment Print. Courtesy of the Artist. © Thomas Demand, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Courtesy the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery / Galerie Sprüth Magers / Esther Schipper, Berlin / Taka Ishii Gallery

Thomas Demand
& Martin Boyce, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Caruso St John

HOUSE OF CARD

September 16, 2022
— January 8, 2023

The title HOUSE OF CARD refers to the precariousness of Thomas Demand’s practice as a builder. Although architecture generally equates with permanence, Demand explores ephemerality through his use of paper and cardboard. Working with these materials, he is known for producing full-scale models in his studio that recreate notorious, newsworthy or familiar scenes he often sources from media images. Demand then records these recreations on camera through photography or film, while the models themselves are subsequently destroyed. Demand’s final images exhibit no traces of time or the building process; in this way they deliberately create distance in relation to the found images they are supposed to depict.

HOUSE OF CARD at MOCA features a selection of these ‘recreations,’ as well as placing emphasis on Demand’s exploration into architecture, model making and collaborative processes. Throughout the exhibition, we are invited to explore how architecture plays a role in Demand’s practice and how models can act as both a proposition and a memory. At the same time, HOUSE OF CARD highlights the similarities between Demand’s projects and those by other influential artists, architects and designers, namely Martin Boyce, Caruso St John and Rirkrit Tiravanija, as well as the models of practitioners that Demand has photographed as part of an ongoing enquiry titled “Model Studies.”

This site-specific iteration of HOUSE OF CARD, includes a new selection of works, and is based on an exhibition first produced and presented by the Museum Leuven in Belgium in 2020, curated by Valerie Verhack.

Recognized globally for his innovation as a contemporary artist, Demand has won numerous awards for his work and has been exhibited and published extensively. Selected solo exhibitions include The Shutter of History, UCCA Edge, Shanghai (2022); Mundo De Papel, Centro Botín, Santander (2021-22); Mirror Without Memory, Garage, Moscow (2021-22); HOUSE OF CARD, Museum Leuven (2020-21); The Boat is Leaking, The Captain Lied, Fondazione Prada, Ca’ Corner della Regina, Venice (2017); The Modern, Fort Worth (2016) and Pacific Sun, LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (2015). Demand participated in the 50th Venice Biennale (2003) and represented Germany at the 26th Sao Paulo Biennial (2004). HIs work is represented in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa and Tate Modern, London among many others.

Thomas Demand Studio

Max Bilger

Tiziana Krüger

Kristin Kuhn

Julia Reinschüssel

 

Martin Boyce Studio

Scarlett Williams

 

MOCA Exhibition Production

Rui Mateus Amaral

Alex Gregory

Uroš Jelić

Avia Wiseman

 

MOCA Preps

Phu Bui

Corinne Carlson

Maxwell Galley

 

 

 

 

Nadia Kuzmicz

Wyndham Mathiesen

Jordan May

Jack McCombe

Mahshid Rafiei

Dave Ronchka

Robert Ross

 

U of T

Rahul Sehijpaul

Andy Bako

Nur Nuri

Sadi Wali

Reilly Walker

Nikolas McGlashan

 

 

Wallpaper

David Bermann

Ray Graungaard

McWood

Mike Cuttini

Aly Piatkowski

Alyssa Proctor

Ben Carson

Brendan Gilhuly

Cam Howey

Greg Hern

JB Nelles

Johnny Sousa

Josh Hall

Liam Barstow

Rachel Smith

Steph Venerus

Tom Weeks

 

BLOK

Vanessa Eckstein

Crystal Basaez

Chris Jessop

Installation Views
MOCA Visionary
Foundational Partners
Curator's Circle
Contributing Supporters

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