Rochester Sculptor Selected for Koffler Gallery Celebration

Cyril Reade is among select group of artists chosen to celebrate gallery’s history and impact

Noted Rochester sculptor and artist Cyril Reade has been selected to participate in a celebration of notable artists who have exhibited at the Koffler Gallery of Toronto, part of the Koffler Centre of the Arts.

The Wrecking Ball, an exhibit and ceremony commemorating the closing of the Koffler’s current space will be held June 18. The event will feature the unveiling of a collective art piece by previous gallery exhibiters, including Reade, and a gathering of the gallery’s best known artists. The Koffler Centre of the Arts’ new artistic complex is scheduled to open in 2010.

“I am extremely honored to be chosen for this celebration of the Koffler given my long history with the gallery and because of the center’s many contributions to art and culture,” says Reade, who also serves as an assistant professor of art history at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Reade’s past work for the Koffler includes the solo exhibition Minyan, presented in 1995, whose outdoor component inspired the creation of the gallery’s outdoor sculpture garden. He will utilize pieces of that work, which is being dismantled due to the gallery’s move, in his portion of the Wrecking Ball project.

“This piece will hopefully serve as a monument to the great work that has previously been presented here while also providing inspiration to future artists and curators,” Reade adds.

Cyril Reade has earned national and international notice both for his artwork and for his scholarly research in the field of art history and criticism. His multimedia installation O Jerusalem has been featured at multiple museums throughout the U.S, and discussions of his artwork have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Aesthetics of Uncertainty, published by Colombia University Press in 2008. In addition, Reade’s book Mendelssohn to Mendelsohn: Visual Case Studies of Jewish Life in Berlin, which focuses on the part art and culture have played in the Jewish community, was released in 2007.

The Koffler is part of Toronto’s Bathurst Jewish Community Centre and is considered a leading promoter of Jewish art, music and culture. For more information on The Wrecking Ball exhibit, visit the Koffler Centre of the Arts Web site.


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