Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965–1980 maps the diverse, centripetal and eccentric manifestations of Conceptualism as its premises were enacted, hybridized and inflected by the particular local and geographic needs and interests of urban arts communities. Presenting works in a diversity of media by over seventy Canadian artists, many of them internationally renowned, this is the first major exhibition documenting the many manifestations of Conceptual Art in Canada.

The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in Halifax became a centre of international conceptual art activity from 1969 to 1980. While there were also instances of conceptual art in other Atlantic Canada areas, particularly in Sackville and Moncton, New Brunswick, the concentration at NSCAD resulted from administrative and pedagogical initiatives intended to bring students into contact with the most advanced contemporary art of the day. The main outcome of these initiatives was the establishment of such programs as The Mezzanine Gallery (1970-73), the Lithography Workshop (1969-76), The Press (1972-87; relaunched in 2002) and the Visitors Program (1969-present), which provided opportunities for international artists to visit, show and/or produce work at NSCAD. Such activities fostered a deep and enduring conceptual orientation at NSCAD, but there were also of great importance for the people who participated in them. For example, it was at NSCAD that Lawrence Weiner had his first solo show of conceptual art in 1969, Dan Graham made some of his earliest video works in 1975, Lucy Lippard delivered the lecture in 1969 that would become the basis for her touchstone book on conceptual art, Six Years (1973), and Joyce Wieland produced her iconic lithograph, O Canada, in 1970. These are among the many conceptual art works and events that will be included from Altantic Canada in Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965-1980.

—Jayne Wark, Guest Curator

The exhibition continues at the other University of Toronto Galleries: Justina M. Barnicke Gallery (St. George), University of Toronto Art Centre (St. George), and Doris McCarthy Gallery (Scarborough).