Liz Magor Being This 2012 Cardboard boxes, paper, textiles and found materials.Image courtesy Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver
"Stuffy" is what you could call Surrender, the Liz Magor exhibition that opened on the weekend at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Stuffy not in the sense of being straitlaced, but in the sense of being full of stuff – boxes, blankets, garments, coverings, containers, materials "real" and "synthetic."
Winnipeg-born, Vancouver-based Magor, at 67, is getting the solo showcase as part of her winning the $50,000 Gershon Iskowitz Prize last year for outstanding lifetime contributions to Canadian art.
Surrender's artful juxtapositions – the exhibition is devoted mostly to sculpture and installation work – are distinguished by a sincerity and rigour rooted more in the nitty-gritty of art-making than any act of intellection (although Magor gives you plenty to think about regarding identity, history and memory). Through Nov. 29 in Toronto.