COUNTERINTELLIGENCE

Unknown artist (attribution revoked from Nicolas Poussin), Augustus and Cleopatra, 17th C. Oil on canvas. Collection of the National Gallery of Canada, purchased 1953.

On now at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery in Toronto is Counterintelligence, an exhibition about intelligence and deception curated by revered Canadian-turned-Berlin transplant Charles Stankievech. Inspired by the events that transpired around the secretive life of Sir Anthony Blunt, a British spy turned Canadian curator, museum director, and art consultant, Counterintelligence examines art in the context of double agents, camouflage, ciphers, decoys, and the ever-pervasive military-industrial complex. 

The list of participating artists is long and cheeky: Dan Graham and Arthur Erickson are listed alongside organizations such as Hizbollah and the NSA. Even freedom-of-information posterboy Edward Snowden is a participant. Winsor Gallery's Dana Claxton will be showing her AIM Series -- a body of work consisting of large-scale reproductions of censored FBI documents concerning the American Indian Movement (AIM). 

Learn more about this fascinating exhibition here

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