Petra Collins
Pacifier
CONTACT Gallery
80 Spadina Avenue, Suite 205, Toronto ON M5V 2J4
April 29 – June 24, 2017
Reception: April 29, 2–5pm

April 29, CONTACT Gallery opens Pacifier, an exhibition of recent photographs by Petra Collins, on view as a primary exhibition during the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. The photographs in Pacifier were taken over the year of 2016 and portray Collins’ family in Toronto and Budapest, Hungary. At the entrance to the gallery is a large photographic mural featuring Collins’ sister Anna and a friend on a Toronto street, with this image serving as an introduction to a series of intimate photographs in Collins’ childhood home and the current family residence. Displayed alongside these photographs is a series created during Collins’ recent return to Budapest, where she produced portraits of family members including her grandmother, her sister and mother, and cousin. In these photographs, Collins draws on her interest and involvement in fashion, dressing her family in a mixture of Gucci and their own clothes.

Jackie and Anna (rainbow tear) (2017), a public project by Collins commissioned for the festival in conjunction with Pacifier, is now on view through June 30, consisting of an image from Collins’ recent 24 Hour Psycho series installed as a public billboard at 460 King Street W.
 

Anna and Kathleen (Rainbow), 2016. Courtesy of the artist and CONTACT Gallery.

Little Prince (Palko), 2016. Courtesy of the artist and CONTACT Gallery.

Nagymama and Lace, 2016. Courtesy of the artist and CONTACT Gallery.

Anna and Anya (Hungary), 2016. Courtesy of the artist and CONTACT Gallery.