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Concept Sketch, ‘Expansion-Contraction’ Install 1
Devon Ostrom, Pat Thompson, Patrick Ellard
2008-2009

Role: Guest Curator

This exhibition was a distillation of the spontaneity, spirit of collaboration, accessibility and social consciousness from which street art has emerged. Housepaint at the Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the ROM was the first exhibition of street art in a major Canadian museum, an open-ended exhibition and experiment. Through the run of the exhibition, every month-and-a-half another street artist was invited to respond and add to the canvas houses from Tent City and the previous art work in the sequence — layering the exhibition with meaning and building organic connections between the works.

The exhibition also included seven months of community programming, lectures, workshops and outreach to sustainable housing stakeholders. At the end of the exhibition, the canvas houses were auctioned for Habitat for Humanity Toronto.

Participating Artists
Starship / Gene Pendon (HVW8)  |  Specter / Gabriel Reese |  Royal / Juan Carlos Noria |  Other / Derek Shamus Mehaffey |  Lease / Lisa Mansfield  |  Fauxreel / Dan Bergeron |  Evoke / Patrick Thompson |  Elicser Elliot |  EGR / Erica Gosich Rose  |  Dstrbo / Dan Buller (HVW8)  |  Case / Ryan Mackeen  |  Cant 4 / Amanda Marie

Participating Organizations
Housepaint Artist Products @ Well and Good | Next | Sketch | Toronto Disaster Relief Coalition | CONTACT 2008 | Dying For A Home: Homeless Activists Speak Out, by Cathy Crowe |  Woolfitts Fine Art Supplies | Manifesto Community Projects | Now Magazine | Luminato |  Habitat for Humanity Toronto | Royal Ontario Museum | Institute for Contemporary Culture \ Subtext: Real Stories