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The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery
Category: Arts & Entertainment Art Galleries Shopping Art Galleries Art Galleries [Edit]
231 Queens Quay WToronto, ON M5J 2G8
Neighbourhood: Harbourfront
(416) 973-4949
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- No
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
5 reviews for The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery
5 reviews in English
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Review from Plank D.
Scarborough, ON
12/13/2009 1 photo
This is a great gallery and is the only one of two galleries in the city that showcases modern art, after the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA). The great thing about the Power Plant is that it takes in artists from around the globe and you are always guaranteed a new experience. The gallery is small but spacious and has a good assortment of rooms that are all used really well. There is an upper level with another large space that also holds a place to sit and relax between your combing through the place.
When you walk in, the staff is there to greet you right away and explain the history of the current artist or artists that currently have their work showing in the gallery. There are also free independent publications about the museum and the art world in Toronto so make sure you pick them up and check them out.
This is truly an artist's museum. I call it that because the gallery almost gives itself over to the work of the artist that sets up shop and the gallery really falls into the possession of the artist. I was lucky enough to see a series of video instillations by Candice Breitz. This stuff was amazing and a real experience to walk into. Each room of the gallery was used for a different piece. As you walked into the sound tight rooms, the sound form the instillations would hit you was you were plunged into a dark space with nothing but the instillation to guide you in. They really transformed the Power Plant into an interesting space with this exhibit, as I'm sure they do for everything that comes through their doors. It's worth checking out. There are also cool lectures going on at this place which are free with admission. Afterwards, go across the parking lot to the Queens Quay Terminal and check out the Museum of Inuit Art. -
Review from Karl R.
Ah, I will always remember The Power Plant for installing a statue of Lenin with his immortal words "Let all things be temporary" spelled out in flowers at his feet. This was shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. Toronto people were up and arms and demanded the Lenin statue be torn down. (Someone eventually snapped off a foot.) The irony escaped them. People largely didn't get the irony back in the early 1990s. Irony had yet to make the leap from art gallery to the faces and torsos of hipsters in the form of ironic mustaches and tshirts.
$6 buys you admission to roughly 3 or 4 gallerias with different installations of modern art. Always something fun and most of the art has boobies or men's winkies. Or winkies being inserted between boobies. Sometimes the art moves. Sometimes there's some interaction. I got to climb a ladder and touch a book.
Guide for seeming knowledgeable about modern art when you're with your slinky date:
- Always note the work is a metaphor for the plight of one or more indigenous people.
- Use the term "hollowed out" when describing the emotional impact of the work.
- Point out some aspect of the piece is a sly wink at the art establishment and the gallery system.
- If the work of art uses a lot of empty gallery space (like just fills one corner with shredded newspaper or a sanitary napkin) or is largely an empty canvas, comment it's very zen. It's the artist's answer to "what's the sound of one hand clapping." The artist is clearly suggesting if a tree falls in the forest, it may not make a sound but it surely makes art.
- If there's a mirror or some reflective surface, comment how the mirror shatters the barrier between art and viewer and brings the viewer into the art, making him/her an integral part of it.
- Note the artist mixes organic and non-organic themes, creating a dissonance that subtly resonates with you. It's a string plucked. It's a note meant to be held until you absorb the next piece in the collection.
- Note, astutely, "cynics will look at this piece and say their five year old could have done it but they never say their five year olds HAVE done it."
- If you can't make sense of something, study the piece for a long time and then comment "I think the artist's playful inconsistency is the message."
- Of the whole experience, claim "It's an antidote to Facebook. It's artists seeking apotheosis, not a Like button."
You will see her nipples that night. Guaranteed. -
Review from WaYnE c.
Maple, ON
7/28/2011
I've been to the Harbourfront Skating Rink before. Never have I known what the building next to it was used for or if it's open to public. I finally found out when I TRAILED what seems like a Summer School group of Children. My thought was that if they can go in, then I'm sure I can too?
Sure enough, I was presented by an Art Gallery-looking environment soon after.
A host was at the Front Desk where I asked for the admission-fee. FREE all Summer you say? How kind of you!
Currently showing New Art from Central and Eastern Europe. FYI, some of the pieces are NOT for the faint of Heart.
A guide was provided to the School Group and she was very friendly and informative.
Various staff are around to assist you as well if you look "Lost in Translation" at times.
It's yours to interpret/explore. First piece that I encountered was shown on a Television mesmerized the giddy Child within me.
Ivan Moudov
14:13 Priority
I just stood there with a smile from one ear to another.
LMFAO would have been inappropriate in this setting.
Never could I have thought Art can be so damn hilarious.
My mental interpretation of Art has somewhat expanded.
Definitely worth more than the price of admission.Listed in: 4+ ****Stars****, Retirement Planning, T.O.urist in Town
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Review from Tracy B.
Toronto, ON
2/6/2009
It's the perfect place to get lost in for a couple of hours! With their cutting edge contemporary artists and the environment that the work is shown in, you get to experience art unlike any other gallery.
It's a non-collecting gallery with four different exhibitions a year, they bring in local and international artists that are big within the industry or up and coming. The works vary in media and it's new and exciting every time!
It's definitely a perfect Saturday afternoon activity. -
Review from Christine T.
8/20/2009
Installation art at a creative crossroad where art meets politics. Don't miss the current work "The Other Night Sky" on display by Trevor Paglan. It blurs the boundaries of classified CIA projects photographed and plotted via astronomy. Attend on a Friday night and enjoy the docent led tours. Fantastic.
