PUBLIC ART: Billboard on Shaw by Ruth Adler

January 19, 2017 - April 30, 2017

Critical Distance is pleased to present the second artist’s project in our newest initiative, the Billboard on Shaw, through which we are providing opportunities, in partnership with Artscape Youngplace, for curators and artists to propose large format printed artworks for the freestanding mural/billboard outside our building on Shaw Street. Lost in Shape is an 8-foot image by Toronto and Tel Aviv-based artist Ruth Adler, to be unveiled the week of January 18, 2017.

As she poignantly states,

“When I cut out the object of a photograph, my intention was to use the cut out object and discard the empty background. But instead I became interested in how the empty background held onto the shape that was no longer there. It occurred to me that this image mirrored my own life and the recent loss of my father.” – Ruth Adler

Lost in Shape is on view at 180 Shaw Street, outside Artscape Youngplace, through January to April 2017. 

Programs and Events
Please join us to celebrate the new billboard on Thursday, January 19th from 6–9 pm
A reception for artist will take place in our third floor gallery at Youngplace and will coincide with the opening of our January exhibition, The Path, The Divide | Brynn Higgins-Stirrup. Koffler Gallery will also open their Winter exhibition featuring Leopold Plotek from 6–9 pm so it will be an art-filled evening at Youngplace this Thursday!

Critical Distance Centre for Curators (CDCC)
Suite 302, Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw Street, Toronto, ON M6J 2W5
See Google map of location


Critical Distance thanks Artscape Youngplace for their generous support of this project.




image: Ruth Adler, Lost in Shape, 2017. 8 x 8 foot billboard at 180 Shaw Street in Toronto’s West Queen West neighbourhood. 

About the Artists

Ruth Adler

Born in Winnipeg, Ruth Adler lives and works in Toronto and Tel Aviv. Her artwork includes paintings, digital works on paper, animation and textiles and has been exhibited internationally since the 1980s. She has had numerous solo exhibitions at Jim Kempner Fine Art in New York and the Lonsdale Gallery inFind out more