In The News

The National Post features Toronto artist Shary Boyl--her successful career, why she loves Toronto and why she doesn't think she needs to leave the country to be recognized internationally. Boyle's newest show, Flesh and Blood, opens this week at the Art Gallery of Ontario and features over 30 recent works ranging from painting to large-scale installation.

"[Boyle] moves effortlessly between mediums; her work has appeared in comic book anthology Kramers Egot, The Believer, and Francis Ford Coppola's literary journal, Zoetrope. She's collaborated with several musicians, including Peaches, Feist, Jens Lekman and Will Oldham. She's twice been a finalist for the Sobey Art Award (2007and 2009) and last year she won the $25,000 Gershon Iskowitz Prize."

"The exhibition is the brainchild of Louise Dery, Galerie de l'UQAM's director, who has long wished to mount an exhibition of Boyle's work; after she won the Iskowitz, Dery approached AGO about co-hosting."

"After a three-month stint at the AGO, Flesh and Blood will travel to the Galerie de l'UQAM and the Vancouver Contemporary Art Gallery next year. And though Dery would like to see it tour internationally, it is not scheduled at the present time. Even though she's travelled, lived and performed around the world, her (growing) acclaim in Canada doesn't seem to transcend borders, something Boyle wonders openly about: "I do feel a little ghettoized in Canada. I have a hard time getting out of Canada, or even Toronto-specific."

"Boyle thinks her lack of an international breakthrough might be "because I'm so insistent on always branding my own path," refusing to take any of the art world's established routes for making connections, such as through moving to New York, Berlin, or London, or going to any graduate school."

"Boyle prefers to stay in Toronto, where she has a house in the Bloor and Dufferin area and a studio in the Junction. Whether or not living in Toronto and opening up a dialogue internationally are mutually exclusive remains to be seen."

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original source National Post