MKG127 is pleased to present Strength In Numbers, an online exhibition of new and recent work by:

Micah Adams, Alan Belcher, Adam David Brown, Bill Burns, Michael Dumontier, Dave Dyment, Sara Graham, Instant Coffee, Laura Kikauka, Kristiina Lahde, Gwen MacGregor, John Marriott, Roula Partheniou, Liss Platt, Geoffrey Pugen, Brian Rideout, Jayce Salloum, Monica Tap, Joy Walker and Laurel Woodcock

On Dec. 31, 2019, Chinese authorities alerted the World Health Organization of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China, with an unknown cause. On January 11, MKG127 opened an exhibition of new work by Geoffrey Pugen. The Weather Room included images of cities completely devoid of people. These prescient images of an imagined future would soon become a reality. First called 2019-nCov, Canada’s first case of the virus is reported on January 25. By February 9, the virus surpassed the world wide death toll of the SARS epidemic of 2002/3. On February 15, MKG127 opened The Garden and the Bay by Micah Adams. The Bay in the title makes reference to the Hudson Bay blankets depicted in the canoe on Canada’s original Silver Dollar coin. These are the blankets that many believe spread the smallpox virus through Indigenous communities during the 17th century fur trade and colonization.

On March 11 MKG127 mailed out a postcard for our next exhibition, With Flowers by Michael Dumontier scheduled to open on March 21. On the same day,  the World Health Organization declared COVID -19 (named Feb.11) to be a pandemic. As gallery openings and art fairs continued to be postponed or cancelled, we quickly realized that we would not be hosting a reception on March 21. On March 17, Ontario was declared a state of emergency with orders to close schools and non-essential businesses. On Saturday March 18, we announced that we would be closed to the public until further notice. On the same day we received notice that Frieze New York in which we were scheduled to participate during the first week in May was cancelled.  

At the time of this writing we would have opened and closed Dumontier’s With Flowers and have a week left in our featured exhibition for the Contact Photography Festival, Generator by Sara Graham (PDFs of both exhibitions are available by request). We hope to present these exhibitions in the not too distant future.

We have just participated in a virtual version of Frieze New York and next week we will be participating in another new model of an art fair hosted by the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA).

Now, after hosting 130 exhibitions in our physical spaces, MKG127 is hosting our first virtual exhibition, Strength in Numbers. Gallery artists were invited to participate and could include new or recent work. Some of the artists that chose to participate have elected to speak to the work and/or the current situation while others have let the work speak for itself. For the time being, this is how we are able to present exhibitions but we hope we can see you in the gallery or at an art fair again soon.