Derek Sullivan
Evidence of the Avant Garde Ex-Library
Toronto, ON and Sackville, NB: Umbrella Projects and Art Metropole, 1984
[unpaginated], 26.5 x 19.7 x .07 cm, softcover
 
Umbrella Projects, in partnership with Art Metropole, is thrilled to announce the launch of Evidence of the Avant Garde Ex-Library by Derek Sullivan.
 
In this new artist book, Sullivan revisits Art Metropole’s 1984 Catalogue Evidence of the Avant Garde Since 1957, a seminal book and exhibition on distributed art practices (artworks that require wide circulation to fulfill their intent). Referencing a copy purchased from a library book sale, Sullivan produces hand-drawn facsimiles of the original pages with added interruptions of other distributed objects and artefacts such as prisms of light, pollen, metro tickets, and pamphlets. In reproducing these moments, the drawings examine the poetics of circulating artworks and the content that they pick up along the way.
 
Derek Sullivan (b. 1976, Richmond Hill, Ontario) studied at York University (BFA 1999) and the University of Guelph (MFA 2002). His solo exhibitions include The Booklover at the Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina), Albatross Omnibus at The Power Plant (Toronto), The Missing Novella at the Oakville Galleries (Oakville), Bulletin Board at Whitecolumns (New York) and More Young Americans at Kiosk (Ghent, Belgium). Sullivan has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including BNL MTL 2012 (Montreal), Where do I end and you begin at City Art Centre (Edimburgh) and Blue times at Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna). His books, prints and editions have been published by Paul & Wendy Projects (Toronto), Art Metropole (Toronto), Boabooks (Geneva), NSCAD Lithography Workshop (Halifax), Printed Matter Inc. (New York) and Bywater Bros.(Toronto). Sullivan has been nominated five times for the Sobey Art Award, including being shortlisted in 2012. He is an Associate Professor (Sculpture/Installation) at OCAD University, and lives and works in Toronto and Tamworth, Ontario.
 
Umbrella Projects is a collaboration between Struts and the Owens Art Gallery.