James Carl: Do You Know What: a Survey 1990-2008

James Carl caught the art world's attention with an ambitious series of scale cardboard replicas of consumer and household appliances. Since then his interest in replicating objects from the flow of consumer culture has evolved into work such as carving Styrofoam fast-food containers from white marble. This stark juxtaposition of materials resists commentary in favour of confronting the viewer with factual presentations of sculptural objects or their graphic equivalents. This first major survey of works by the Toronto based artist documents exhibitions held at three venues. Each venue focuses on particular aspects of Carl's sculptural and graphic production from 1990 to the present, highlighting the artist's preoccupation with the normal, the moral, and the all-too-common. Co-published with the MacDonald Stewart Art Centre and the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery.