Revered Canadian artist Vera Frenkel is showing a new video installation, As If by Chance, at Art Toronto (Oct. 23 – 26) with gallery two seven two. Art Toronto takes place at The Metro Toronto Convention Centre, North Building, 255 Front St. West. This new work was made possible thanks to an artist’s residency at Charles Street Video in Toronto; CSV will also be launching a special version of the installation at a later date.
The title of this two-channel video and digital print installation alludes to an inter-generational card game, evidence of which was found by police after a Toronto art centre was closed by the City. Designed by the centre’s founder, Natasha (surname unknown), the game invited players young and old to choose card designs they liked from a special pack spread before them. Then, turning their cards over, they would discover from the words on their backs – one word on each card – what they were invited to paint. Footage that remained after the centre’s closure also included instances of children and elders describing in detail what they had created, as if by chance.
A forthcoming single-channel version of As If by Chance will be distributed by Vtape, where it will join Frenkel’s many other well-known and significant video works.
This Is Your Messiah Speaking editioned!
In related news, Vera Frenkel and Vtape are pleased to announce that her crucial, widely exhibited 1990 two-channel installation This Is Your Messiah Speaking is now available in an edition of three for acquisition for permanent collections. This is Your Messiah Speaking has been exhibited on the huge public Spectacolor Board in London’s Piccadilly Circus, and at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), National Gallery of Canada, Serpentine Galleries (London, UK), Art Gallery of Ontario, Images Festival (Toronto), Canada House (Canadian High Commission, London, UK), Struts Gallery (Sackville, NB), and in the Toronto subway, among other venues.
Image credits: home page & top: As If by Chance, by Vera Frenkel (2025); bottom: This is Your Messiah Speaking, by Vera Frenkel (1990)