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The Power Plant is currently open with Fall 2023 exhibitions.

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The Power Plant is now open with Fall 2023 exhibitions.

A limited series of intimate conversations with contemporary Canadian visual artists June Clark, Ken Lum, Rajni Perera, Timothy Yanick Hunter, Michaëlle Sergile, and more premieres October 24!

Neil Price hosting In/Tension episode, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, 2023. Photo by Daria Sposobna.

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The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery is thrilled to announce the launch of its new podcast In/Tension, a limited series of thought-provoking and intriguing conversations with emerging, mid-career, and established visual artists from across Canada. Hosted by writer, educator, and editor Neil Price along with consultant, cultural producer and curator Diane Gistal, In/Tension aims to shed light on the breadth of the Canadian contemporary art scene and provide a platform for diverse and artistic voices to dive deep into their creative intentions and the facets of their practice.  
  
Each of the 30-40-minute conversations features some of Canada’s most prominent and inspiring contemporary artists, including June Clark, Ken Lum, Anna Binta Diallo, Rajni Perera, Léuli Eshrāghi, and more esteemed visual artists working across a range of media. Of the 12 episodes, nine are hosted by Price in English, with the remaining episodes hosted by Gistal in French.  
  
“It has been an extraordinary privilege to host this podcast, which features so many brilliant and remarkable Canadian contemporary artists,” said Price. “I think listeners will come away with a real sense of how these artists engage with diverse histories, identities, and experiences to render artworks that address the human condition in its broadest terms. These conversations are delightful glimpses into the inner workings, ideas, and motivations of our leading artists. I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I have.”  
  
The conversations address topics such as creative exploration and experimentation, displacement, socio-political histories, curation and artistic collaboration, and how these issues subsequently influence and impact their respective work.  
  
“Whether you’re an art enthusiast, student, or artist yourself, we believe you will find value and meaningful insights listening to In/Tension,” said Carolyn Vesely, Interim Director at The Power Plant. “Each episode features some of Canada’s most exciting contemporary artists, from up-and-comers to its most established, all of whom offer compelling perspectives. We can’t wait for listeners to tune in.”  
  
New episodes will be released bi-weekly until February 2024 on all streaming platforms. Learn more about [In/Tension](https://www.thepowerplant.org/whats-on/intension-podcast) and [tune in](https://linktr.ee/ThePowerPlantTO)!  
  
This project is supported by a Digital Now grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.  
  
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The Power Plant releases new podcast In/Tension

Exhibitions by Abdelkader Benchamma and Aria Dean, representing the artists’ first solo shows
in Canada, alongside Anna Boghiguian’s first major exhibition in Toronto.

Anna Boghiguian, The Chess Game, 2022. Installation view first floor, Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2022. Photo: Markus Tretter. Courtesy of the artist ©Anna Boghiguian, Kunsthaus Bregenz. 

The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery is thrilled to announce its upcoming fall season, featuring works by renowned artists from around the globe. The programming includes solo exhibitions from French artist Abdelkader Benchamma, Egyptian Canadian artist Anna Boghiguian, and American artist Aria Dean—the first shows in Toronto for all three artists, and the first in Canada for both Benchamma and Dean. The presentation of Aria Dean at The Power Plant is organized and developed in partnership with The Vega Foundation. The three exhibitions will open on October 13, 2023, and run until January 7, 2024, with free admission to the gallery.  
  
Each artist featured in this season’s programming provides a different generational perspective while engaging with intellectual discourses about time, history, and architecture in their respective work, seeking to decipher new meanings from them. Visitors can look forward to thought-provoking installations, paintings, drawings, and film that ask fundamental questions of humanity, and reflect on topics such as our interconnectedness with our world, revolutionary upheavals, and the role that industrial architecture plays in our lives.  
  
Free public programs will accompany the Fall 2023 season, including artist talks with curators, guided exhibition tours, and creative workshops for children aged 7–12 on select Sundays. Detailed information about all public programs will be announced on The Power Plant’s [Event Calendar](https://www.thepowerplant.org/whats-on/calendar).  
  
“This season’s exhibitions at The Power Plant will offer visitors entry points into what we hope will be meaningful encounters with art, inspiring reflections on the impact of time, history, and artistic creation on our humanity. Through a range of accessible free talks, workshops, and events, everyone will have the opportunity to engage with the powerful work of these three artists for the first time in Toronto.”  
— Adelina Vlas, Head of Curatorial Affairs, The Power Plant  

**Abdelkader Benchamma**  
_**[Solastalgia: Archaeologies of Loss](https://www.thepowerplant.org/whats-on/exhibitions/solastalgia-archaeologies-of-loss)**_  
  
Curator: Noor Alé, Associate Curator  
  
_Solastalgia: Archaeologies of Loss_ will be Benchamma’s first major solo exhibition in Canada, and the most comprehensive to date in North America, featuring existing and newly created works, as well as an immersive, site-specific mural for The Power Plant’s Fleck Clerestory Commissioning Program.  
  
Envisioned as a geological epic of our universe, _Solastalgia: Archaeologies of Loss_ is a solo exhibition by French artist Abdelkader Benchamma that conjures enigmatic worlds and elemental forces at the precipice of transformation, evoking a yearning for worlds yet to be. Like an archaeologist, Benchamma unearths symbols across mythologies and legends inscribed by humanity onto the land, sky, and celestial bodies to create an elusive topography of dreams. 

**Anna Boghiguian**  
**_[Time of Change](https://www.thepowerplant.org/whats-on/exhibitions/time-of-change)_** 
  
Curators: Adelina Vlas, Head of Curatorial Affairs, and Noor Alé, Associate Curator  
  
_Time of Change_ maps Egyptian Canadian artist of of Armenian descent Anna Boghiguian’s interest in revolutionary upheavals spurred by political, social, and cultural ideas in the Americas, Europe, and North Africa. Following her vast travels throughout Canada and the globe, Boghiguian draws on her own lived experiences as a diasporic subject, examining the impact individuals have on history and how history impacts individuals. This exhibition presents installations and drawings—some newly commissioned for this exhibition—that reference historical characters and events that have played a role in shaping our modern world.  
  
Commissioned by Kunsthaus Bregenz, Time of Change was originally presented in Venice in the summer of 2022. A highlight of the exhibition is _The Chess Game_, 2022, an oversized chess board with cut-outs of influential historical figures from the last three centuries referencing political ideas and conflicts. For Boghiguian’s first major solo show in Canada, she will add a number of North American characters to the installation

Aria Dean, Abattoir, U.S.A.!, 2023. Single-channel video, sound, colour. 10:50 minutes. Courtesy the artist, Greene Naftali, New York. 

**Aria Dean**  
**_[Abattoir, U.S.A.!](https://www.thepowerplant.org/whats-on/exhibitions/abattoir-usa)_**  
**Organized and developed in partnership with The Vega Foundation**  
  
Guest Curator: Julia Paoli, Executive Director at The Vega Foundation  
  
For its second partnership with The Vega Foundation, The Power Plant will be presenting _Abattoir, U.S.A.!,_ the first Canadian solo exhibition of American artist and writer Aria Dean. The exhibition at The Power Plant is organized and developed in partnership with The Vega Foundation. _Abattoir, U.S.A.!_ surveys the interior of an empty slaughterhouse. In Dean’s animated film, the viewer follows a linear path through an impossible architecture—a seamless combination of nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first-century design elements and non-Euclidean spaces rather than a direct model of an existing building.  
  
Accompanied by an immersive eight-channel score by composer Evan Zierk, the film ruminates on the ways slaughterhouses and industrial architecture reveal modernism’s intimacy with death on conceptual, political, and material levels. _Abattoir, U.S.A.!_ was commissioned by the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, where it was curated by Myriam Ben Salah with Karsten Lund and Michael Harrison and presented in February 2023. The film was co-produced with [The Vega Foundation](https://thevegafoundation.com/).

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The Power Plant opens its Fall 2023 season with solo exhibitions by three international artists

The Power Plant opens its Fall 2023 season with solo exhibitions by three international artists examining time, history, and the social impact of architecture through multi-generational lenses

Passionate philanthropist and executive thought leader joins public contemporary art gallery
as the 15th President and Board Chair

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The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery—Canada’s leading public gallery devoted to contemporary art, ideas and conversations—is excited to announce the appointment of Paul Boniferro as President and Chair of the Board, effective on July 12, 2023. He is the fifteenth President and Chair of the Board to serve The Power Plant since the gallery’s inception on May 1, 1987.  
  
“We are so pleased to have Paul Boniferro as the President and Chair of the Board at The Power Plant. As an executive thought leader, and passionate advocate and supporter of the arts in Toronto, Paul will make a tremendous contribution to The Power Plant,” said Tenio Evangelista, Interim Board Chair at The Power Plant.  
  
In addition to his philanthropy and advocacy for arts and culture, Mr. Boniferro is an experienced labour and employment lawyer with governance expertise and a diverse background in political and public service. He has served on numerous boards supporting a range of charitable causes, including Casey House, Friends of Ruby, Sienna Senior Living, the AECO Innovation Lab Board of Advisors and, since
2022, Luminato Festival Toronto. Many of the artworks in Mr. Boniferro’s collection have been acquired through local non-profit and artists-run organizations, including Casey House’s annual art fundraiser Art with Heart, Artist Project, and Western Front in Vancouver.  

“With his passion and commitment to arts and culture in Toronto, our team at The Power Plant looks forward to working closely with Paul. He will be integral to guiding the processes of selecting board members and a new Director for the gallery in the months to come. We very much look forward to Paul’s contributions to The Power Plant,” said Carolyn Vesely, Interim Director at The Power Plant.  

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Paul Boniferro is an experienced labour and employment lawyer with a diverse background from different sectors, as well as political and public service experience. Most recently, Mr. Boniferro was Ontario’s Deputy Attorney General and was the Senior Crown Law Advisor to the Government on all matters. He also acted as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Ontario Minister of Labour, where he advised the government on changes to the Labour Relations Act, the Workers’ Compensation Act, the Employment Standards Act and the Pay Equity Act. He is also part of the Board of Directors at Luminato, Casey House, Friends of Ruby, Sienna Senior Living, the AECO Innovation Lab Board of Advisors, and the provincial government has appointed him as Transition Supervisory Officer to oversee the Ontario College of Teachers’ transition to a new governance structure.  
  
For all media enquiries, please contact **[media@thepowerplant.org](mailto:media@thepowerplant.org)**

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The Power Plant announces the appointment of Paul Boniferro as new President and Chair of the Board

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Discover The Power Plant Archives

Anna Boghiguian: Time of Change

Time of Change

Abdelkader Benchamma. Solastalgia: Archaeologies of Loss 

Solastalgia: Archaeologies of Loss

Aria Dean: Abattoir, U.S.A.!

Abattoir, U.S.A.!

Now On

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Give the gift of art

Anna Boghiguian, Detail of The Chess Game, 2022. Installation view first floor, Kunsthaus Bregenz,

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Let's play! This season, we are excited to invite visitors to The Power Plant for a series of fun board game sessions. Join us on Thursday, January 4 from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM to play and draw inspiration from the strategic and intricate themes found in [Anna Boghiguian's](https://www.thepowerplant.org/whats-on/exhibitions/time-of-change) _The Chess Game_, 2022. Join the fun!

Game Night

Anna Boghiguian was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1946 and has Armenian roots. She studied political and social science at the American University of Cairo and holds a BFA in fine arts and music from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Since the early 1970s, her art has emerged from various movements around the globe, translating a nomadic experience and gaze into painting and installation, collages and books. 

Anna Boghiguian was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1946 and has Armenian roots. She studied political and social science at the American University of Cairo and holds a BFA in fine arts and music from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Since the early 1970s, her art has emerged from various movements around the globe, translating a nomadic experience and gaze into painting and installation, collages and books. As a travelling artist, she tells of how people and ideas, relationships and goods vary and evolve, sometimes bright and fluid, sometimes bound in inequality and oppression.  
  
Boghiguian's broad insight into literature and worlds of thought makes her art a profound source of contemplation. In 2015 Boghiguian received the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale. Her work has been featured in major solo exhibitions around the world, most recently at SMAK, Gent (2020), Tate St. Ives (2019), the New Museum (2018) and the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg (2018) and in numerous international group shows including the 22nd Sydney Biennale (2020), Castello di Rivoli, Torino (2019), the Museum of Modern Art, New York City (2017) and the dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel (2012).  

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Games Night in the Gallery

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We invite kids ages 7-12 and their families for an exciting creative Power Kids workshop, Swirls on Water!  
  
Following a tour of Abdelkader Benchamma's exhibition, _[Solastalgia: Archaeologies of Loss](https://www.thepowerplant.org/whats-on/exhibitions/solastalgia-archaeologies-of-loss)_, in the Fleck Clerestory, McLean, and Canadian Tire galleries, participants will explore how to use simple yet fascinating techniques and materials to create their very own marbled paper, capturing the beauty of natural patterns. It's a hands-on activity that encourages artistic expression and provides quality family time to make a tangible keepsake and remember your visit. 

Power Kids

Born in 1975 in Mazamet (France), Abdelkader Benchamma lives and works in Paris and Montpellier. Benchamma chooses to work in a sole medium: drawings. 

Born in 1975 in Mazamet (France), Abdelkader Benchamma lives and works in Paris and Montpellier. Benchamma chooses to work in a sole medium: drawings. He adopts different approaches to the drawing process, sometimes moving across a sheet of paper with the meticulous strokes of an engraver, sometimes spreading over a wall with lavish gestures that appropriate the space. The matter escapes from the frame in a form of organic growth. Inspired by literature, philosophy, astrophysics and esoteric reflections, his works create visual scenarios that question our relationship to reality as they probe the frontiers of the invisible.

Power Kids takes place on select Sundays throughout our exhibition seasons and includes a guided tour in or outside the gallery followed by a short creative activity. Each workshop is different, so kids can return throughout the season and be inspired every time.

Power Kids is a series of free creative workshops for children aged 7–12, led by skilled and dynamic artist-educators and inspired by our current exhibitions.


The Power Plant