ANDREW HARWOOD Séancé

• Exhibition: 13 January - 25 February 2012
• Opening Reception/Performance + Prefix Photo 24_Big Skies Issue Launch: Friday 13 January, 8PM
• Artist Talk with Andrew Harwood: Saturday 18 February, 3PM
• Intermittent Performances by Madame Zsa Zsa throughout exhibition including:
• Friday 3 February, 5-9PM (as a part of First Fridays in the Exchange)
• Saturday 11 February, 2-5PM: canceled
• Saturday 25 February, 2-5PM
• Please call ahead to ensure your place with the Madame.
• To read some press about the show - follow the links:

• CBC
• Uptown
• Digital Media Tree

PLATFORM is very excited to be presenting local Toronto transplant, Andrew Harwood, in his first solo exhibition in Winnipeg. Infamous in the Toronto Queen West scene as an artist and performer (under the stage name Madame Zsa Zsa), Harwood is crafting a new body of work confusing the internationally-renowned history of Winnipeg séance photography circa 1900, and the contemporary queer bar dance circuit. Using a hybrid installation of large-scale photography, video installation, and glue-gun sequin crafts, Harwood's Séancé will be a feast for the eyes and senses!

• PLATFORM is also pleased to host the official Winnipeg launch of Prefix Photo 24 _ Big Skies Issue, featuring portfolios by prairie artists from Winnipeg and beyond.Please join us for the opening reception with performance / readings by Madame Zsa Zsa, the $2 Psychic, and the Prefix Photo launch : Friday 13 January from 8PM to 11PM.

Andrew Harwood is a Winnipeg-based artist, curator, drag queen and writer. Among the first artists to establish a presence in what is now called the Queer West Village Toronto, Art and Design District, his gallery, Zsa Zsa, operated in Queer West from 1998-2005. Andrew was also a founding member of the Toronto Alternative Art Fair International Collective and served as Board of Directors President of A Space Gallery and Board Member of Gallery TPW. He has given lectures on visual art and related topics at the University of Texas, Ontario College of Art and Design, University of Waterloo, Georgian College and at artist-run centres in Ontario and Alberta. His work is held in permanent collections at the University of Guelph, Queen's University, and in private collections. With nearly two dozen solo shows, and twice as many group shows, for his practice Harwood has received support from the Toronto and Ontario and Arts Councils. He relocated to Winnipeg in 2010 and has since been active in the local community, including commencing his graduate studies MFA at the University of Manitoba's School of Art. Andrew Harwood is represented by Paul Petro Contemporary Art.

• Prefix Photo 24 _ Big Skies features portfolios by: Scott Benesiinaabandan and Kerri-Lynn Reeves, Deana Bowen, Evin Collis, Willie Doherty, Kandis Friesen, Don Gill, John Haney, Meghan Krauss, Peter Lynch, Aidan McNeill, Bruce Nauman, Trevor Paglen, Danny Singer, Mungo Thomson, Diana Thorneycroft, and Time and Desire.

• Prefix Photo is an engaging magazine dedicated to contemporary photography and related arts. Characterized by innovative design and outstanding production values, Prefix Photo consists primarily of portfolio and essay sections, providing a complement of intelligent texts and breath-taking visuals. These features are accompanied by newsbriefs which provide information and opportunities for professional photographers, including new technological developments. Each issue of Prefix Photo presents the work of Canadian photographers, both emerging and established, alongside that of their international counterparts. But Prefix Photo is not restricted to images conventionally considered to be "photographic"; its mandate encompasses film, video and digital art. Whether photographic or photo-based, photocollage or photocopied, photogravure or photogram, Prefix Photo seeks to represent the breadth of practices and concepts, old, new, or as yet unimagined, which surround the transformation of light into image. Prefix Photo creates a space in which the notion of photography is open to infinite possibilities of change, development and growth — where photography is, in a sense, "prefixed." Prefix Photo has received numerous awards to date and was named Best New Magazine at the National Magazine Awards in 2002. Published twice annually by Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art in Toronto, the arrival of each issue is announced with a series of celebratory launches in major centres across Canada.

PLATFORM acknowledges the support of its membership, Board of Directors, staff, and partners in presentation. Operating and project assistance for PLATFORM programming is provided by: Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, The W.H. & S.E. Loewen Foundation. Andrew Harwood's work appears courtesy of Paul Petro Contemporary Art.

For more information about this exhibition or other PLATFORM programming, please contact the Centre directly: PLATFORM | 121-100 Arthur Street [Artspace Building] | Winnipeg, Manitoba | R3B 1H3 | 204.942.8183 | www.platformgallery.org