The Complete Unknown.
Artwork by:
Bonerkill
Britta B.
Topher Kong
Sofy Mesa
William Andrew Finlay Stewart

With a critical essay by: Ekow Stone

Curated by Marjan Verstappen

Situated in Regent Park - a renewed neighbourhood, busily adapting much of its identity, Topher Kong, William Andrew Finlay Stewart, Britta B., Ekow Stone, Sofy Mesa, and the Bonerkill collective explore the experience of living amongst all this renewal. They have grown up in, currently live, or work in Regent Park, and have witnessed its recent facelift. Although they approach this site through a multiplicity of material approaches and critical lenses, the strongest connections are the questions posed: “how do we live here?” "how do we be become artists here?"

The Complete Unknown was curated in response to The Rebel Zone, a collection of posters, film, photographs and audio documenting how a previous generation answered the question of how to be an artist. It involved moving to a crumbing, neglected area of downtown Toronto, starting a series of businesses supporting the artistic community, eating in dirt-cheap restaurants, and watching as property values rose, and the downtown as colonized by the middle class.

The questions are not new, though time, geography and economics change how they will be answered. This exhibition celebrates the heritage of Toronto’s artist-run culture, and seeks strategies for it to blossom in the new street plan of Regent Park.

YTB Gallery is generously supported by The Daniels Corporation and Toronto Community Housing. YTB would also like to thank The Toronto Arts Council for funding which made The Complete Unknown possible