ArtwordBlog

Libby Hague has created an avalanche over in the west end, Lansdowne and Wallace. Made mostly of paper, rolled, crumpled, teased and piled, it tumbles and roils, filling one end of a shoebox-shaped space, threatening to inundate a tiny village, also made mostly of paper.

The offthemapgallery (OTMG) is as alternative as it gets. It’s in the wrong part of town, down a lane, back behind a yellow storefront, in an unheated, uninsulated garage. In director/curator/owner Antonia Lancaster’s words, “it is not government funded, not a cooperative, not an artist run centre, not a rental space, and not a dealership”.

What is it, then? It is a place where artists can do what they want while the idea is still fresh, without waiting for the applications to be processed. Where they have complete control over an environment, even if that environment can be a little frigid at certain times of the year.

Antonia’s gallery opened in April 2000 in more conventional surroundings (the fifth floor of the 80 Spadina arts building) as a place where Antonia could work and show a “sequential body of work” over an extended period of time — two and a half years as it turned out. In those days it was named, with eponymous candour, the “Antonia Lancaster Gallery”. In April, 2003, Antonia renamed the space and opened it to other artists. Artists were invited “to experiment, to do new work, resulting in perhaps a new and exciting avenue of expression for them.” When they’re finished, they are then given the opportunity to curate.

The new policy was inaugurated with an exhibition curated by Rupen, a kindred spirit who operates the Available Light gallery in the store-window that fronts his house on Adelaide Street, just west of Portland. Entitled “Front Room”, the show featured artists who had in common that they had hosted public art shows in their living rooms.

In October, 2005, after 16 shows, Antonia moved out of 80 Spadina and into the garage at Lansdowne and Wallace. She asked Rupen again to curate the transition show. A long-time cyclist and anti-autoist, Rupen assembled a group show of bicycle-related works entitled “Life in the Bike Lane”, inaugurated by “The Green Bike Convoy”, a bicycle parade from the old premises to the new.

Irony, wit and whimsey are all in the OTMA mix, but what makes it all work is that the artists have been around for awhile, and are committed to making the work matter. And after all, if there is no funding and nobody’s really paying attention, you might as well do something wonderful. Otherwise, why bother?
www.offthemapgallery.com