9210 – Playing Doctor,1992

GeneralIdea Editions 1967 - 1995

Curated by Barbara Fischer
circulated by Blackwood Gallery, U of T at Mississauga
23 January - 13 March 2004
Opening reception Friday, 23 January 2004

Canada's best-known and internationally renowned collaborative team of artists - General Idea's Jorge Zontal, AA Bronson, and Felix Partz - came to international attention for their incisive interventions in the contemporary media environment. Pioneers of conceptual and media-based practices in Canada from the late 1960s on, their 25-year collaboration became a model for artist-initiated activities and successive waves of younger generations of artists. In particular, General Idea perfected the principle of inhabiting the forms of popular and media culture - such as the Beauty Pageant, the store or Boutique, television   talk shows, trade fair Pavilions, famous icons, and even LIFE Magazine - and of bending these to their own needs.

8010 – Liquid Assets,1980

Essential to this undertaking has been the design and fabrication of mass-produced works, including such unconventional mediums for art as postcards, prints, posters, as well as wallpaper, balloons, crests and pins. Rather than just a commercial product, secondary or even subordinated manifestations of more important original works, General Idea editions form an important aspect of the complete work and of the group's broader artistic concepts, such as the notion of the image as virus, and the devaluation of notions of originality, copy-right and artistic genius. The editions provide a glimpse of the development of artist-initiated networks, and they are key to an understanding of General Idea's ironic and critical analysis of the art business, the gallery as a commercial enterprise, and of the role of the media. While two of its members -- Jorge Zontal and Felix Partz -- passed away in 1994 due to AIDS-related causes, General Idea's work continues to be acutely relevant for the imaginative formation of alternative communities, articulations of queer identity, and the question of agency in contemporary consumer culture.  

8702 – AIDS,1987

Organized by the Blackwood Gallery, UTM, General Idea Editions 1967-1995 has been produced with the generous financial assistance of the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation (New York).

9405 – Fin de Siecle,1994

The first comprehensive show of General Idea's editions available to a national audience, the circulation of the exhibition is made possible through the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage, Museums Assistance Program.

Presentation in Winnipeg is funded in part by the Manitoba Arts Council and the Winnipeg Arts Council.