everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything at MOCCA

I never got around to reading the wildly popular Douglas Coupland debut novel, Generation X, but he has stayed on my radar over the years with subsequent novels (that I didn't read). So when I heard he had a contemporary art exhibit open in Toronto at both the Royal Ontario Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art I figured, THAT I could do. (I visited MOCCA on this day, but here's a exhibition review of the joint display at the ROM)

Admittedly, Coupland draws inspiration from pop art icons such as Andy Warhol and Roy Liechtenstein. This exhibit is a colourful, fun, and quirky display, mostly using found and collected materials arranged in ways that made me feel like I was viewing the cluttered contents of the artist's mind and his impressions and conscious thoughts on Canadian identity.

His paintings were influenced by, and in some cases direct homages to, iconic Canadian artists like the Group of Seven; reduced to mere shapes and colours. Although they looked nothing like their inspired landscape images they could still be identified with their emotive "canadian-ness"; the Canadian connection with nature and her wilderness. 

As you make your way out of MOCCA there is a #GrowingUpUtopian family photo album. It is being made up of photos submitted to Twitter relating to Canadians' optimistic moments from their childhood. The end result I image to be one great, big, happy, Canadian family album.

There was a second gallery space that had an unrelated LED billboard with a statement that made me giggle with it's trueness. 

You can catch everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything at the

Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art until April 19, 2015

(admission by donation)

and at the Royal Ontario Museum until April 26, 2015

(admission free with general museum admission fee)

If you'd like to learn more about Douglas Coupland check out the Artsy website. It provides visitors with his bio, over 30 examples of his work, exclusive articles, as well as up-to-date Coupland exhibiton listings. The page even includes related artists and category tags, plus suggested contemporary artists, allowing viewers to continue exploring art beyond Coupland.

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