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I recently attended the 2016 Aimia | AGO Photography exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). This superb exhibition is hosted by the AGO in collaboration with Aimia, a Canadian based marketing and analytics company, to recognize extraordinary contemporary photography around the world. The show exhibited the four international finalists: Talia Chetrit (USA), Jimmy Robert (France), Ursula Shulz-Dornburg (Germany), and Elizabeth Zvonar (Canada). Although the artistic processes differ from one artist to the next, the reoccurring idea of the human body and how it is perceived was consistent.

The exhibition space is curated beautifully; the work of the 4 finalists flowed rhythmically. The first two artists installed upon entering are Elizabeth Zvonar, her collages of familiar historic masterpieces and Talia Chetrit with her images of the female body. These artists were strategically paired to create an interesting dialogue about the representation of the female figure and the male gaze. Zvonar’s artwork uniquely combines magazine clippings of contemporary pop culture and reproductions of well-known historical artworks. Her photomontages shown in the exhibition speak about the inequities of gender and the female body as a consumable object thus a social norm. One piece stands out when discussing this topic; French Fantasy (2016), shows a faceless rendition of Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque. In this piece, Zvonar takes a feminist stance on the depiction of women, the male gaze, and how the representation of women has always been and still remains unequal in terms of gender. Talia Chetrit takes a far more sensual and personal approach to portray the female body. She often uses herself as the model in her works, and prefers analogue, which contributes in showing the intimate nature of her photography. Chetrit puts the audience behind the lens, gazing at the female subject in various stages of exposure and vulnerability. All in all, the well thought out placement of the works by both of these artists within the same space effectively creates a synergistic movement that speaks about the topic of how the human body is viewed.

Moving into the next space, you will find a collection of photo-based works by French artist Jimmy Robert. In this collection of works exhibited, Robert integrates performance, photography, and sculpture into his practice as he explores and tries to exceed the limitations of two and three-dimensional objects. Metallica (2007) is a sculptural piece that blurs the line between two dimensional, three dimensional, and performance art. The metal sculpture alone resembles a free standing, folded piece of large white paper, and the theatrical component includes a choreographed, Forsythe style dance performed in a slow periodic manner. With this work, Robert successfully crosses the boundaries and adds another dimension to bodies of objects: three-dimensionality to flat bodies, and movement to sculptural bodies. The theatrical performance portion of Metallica was done throughout the opening night at the AGO, activating spontaneously while the two-dimensional and three dimension pieces quietly sit in the space.

In it’s own separate space in the exhibition, the black and white photographs of Ursula Shulz-Dornburg show architecture that has been riddled by time and history, conversing silently with the humans that occupy them. Shulz-Dornburg has travelled to barren parts of Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Georgia, Iraq, Syria, and Armenia to capture these riveting photographs of decaying buildings, bus stops, people, and homes that have all been affected by various historic events, and political power struggles that help shape the past and the present. Shulz-Dornburg’s photos tell a compelling story about the fragmented architecture and the people who use them; the people in these photos somehow seem to provide warmth and sentiment to the otherwise cold and deteriorating land they live on. Moreover, I find the enclosed walls and the space chosen for this particular collection of work to be very fitting, as it offers a sense of privacy and personal space for the viewers to ponder about and reflect on some of the political events that have affected and touched their lives.

The shortlisted artists for the 2016 Aimia | AGO Photography Prize have all shown works that share ideas of how the human body is viewed, used, and affected historically and presently. The flow of the space and the deliberate positioning of artists and their works have not only helped in creating the perfect ambiance, but it has also allowed viewers, like me, to naturally transition from one artist to the next seamlessly.

The Aimia | AGO Photography Prize was founded in 2007 by Aeroplan and the AGO with a mission to acknowledge the best Canadian and international contemporary photographers and their works. Since then, there have been eight winners of the grand $50,000 prize from different countries worldwide. Curators, art critics, fellow artists, and art professors from all over the world choose a long list of artists to be considered for the shortlist. A jury of three, led by the Modern and Contemporary Art curator at the AGO, selects the top 4 artists that demonstrated extraordinary growth in the past five years of their practice, to be shortlisted. One of these exceptional photo-based artists will be chosen, by public vote, to win the coveted cash prize.  The show runs from September 7th, 2016 – January 1st, 2017. Votes can be made during the exhibition (on-site at the kiosk) or through the Aimia | AGO Photography Prize website. Get your votes in fast, as the winner will be announced on November 29th, 2016.