Etude to Asylum

press release

April 21, 2015, Toronto
For immediate release

RKG presents
ISTVAN KANTOR: ETUDE TO ASYLUM – degenerate art 
May 5 – June 6, 2015 
Media conference Monday, May 4, 2pm 
Opening reception / performance Friday, May 8, 2015, 6pm
Exhibition curator: Robert Kananaj

ETUDE TO ASYLUM is an Istvan Kantor state. Although since 2005, Kantor has created large installations and performances in contemporary art and media art centres in Germany, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and most recently in China, for the past decade in his own country Istvan has had some of his work accessible only from his open studio/garage based in Toronto - except when he has perpetrated unofficial, illegal events with no support. Last year Istvan Kantor reclaimed his fame in New York by splashing his blood on the wall of the Jeff Koons Retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. 

Istvan Kantor has chosen to mark his return with ETUDE TO ASYLUM at RKG. A select number of as yet unseen, recent works combine adapted and modified objects, extended mash-up graffiti, video projection, archival material and performance. “Alienation in progress”, the over-institutionalized corporate-governed art world, is the subject explored during this exhibition. 

Expelled from university and tagged anti-social, Kantor fled Hungary in 1976. He obtained political refugee status in Paris and shortly after immigrated to Montreal. There he initiated Neoism in 1979. His rebellious ideas and daring artistic activities attracted wide reactions, pro and con, resulting in the formation of an International Neoist Network and also a constant conflict with the authorities. In the early 80’s, Kantor moved his Neoist Headquarters from Montreal to New York and declared himself “Self-appointed leader of the people of the Lower East Side.” He openly challenged institutional rules and corporate gentrification of the arts. Forced back to Canada by criminal charges, Kantor moved his HQ to Toronto in 1991. Here he created a family with partner in crime, Krista Goddess, and raised three children: Jericho, Babylon and Nineveh. With unceasing determination, he has continued his mission, culminating with his ban from the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario. In spite of all however, in 2004 he received the Governor General’s Award at which point the media called him a “demonic artist” who “elevated vandalism to high art.”