URBAN MYTHS: Sybil Goldstein

In Koffler301, our new gallery space, we celebrate the legacy of Sybil Goldstein, one of the founding members of Toronto’s ChromaZone Collective, curated by David Liss. URBAN MYTHS offers a rare opportunity to encounter the full breadth of Goldstein’s vision and includes many artworks never seen by the public until now. Since her unexpected passing in 2012, her work has been held in storage by her family in Toronto. In this unique viewing experience, visitors will have the opportunity to take home one of her original artworks once the exhibition closes. Details to come. 

“By bringing her long-hidden pieces into public view, the exhibition not only honours Goldstein’s remarkable legacy but also reaffirms her place within the cultural history of Toronto and the wider artistic movements that shaped her generation​,” says Liss. 

Sybil focused on urban culture, people on street corners and in offices going about their daily lives, as well as the interiors of bars, subway stations, and malls; the city’s skyline; and parks, forested areas, and abandoned spaces. Many scenes were populated with mythological creatures: angels, maenads, satyrs, putti, and ghosts.​ Across expansive surfaces of canvas, paper, or small studies on board, her energetic line, and ​her  sometimes impatient and rough brushwork reveals an artist striving to capture the fleeting movements and moments surrounding her.

She was a founding member—alongside Andy Fabo, Oliver Girling, Rae Johnson, H.P. Marti, Tony Wilson​ and Brian Burnett —of ChromaZone Collective (1981–86) that organized exhibitions and events united by their embrace of a figurative Neo-expressionist tendency emerging internationally.

For media inquiries please contact Melissa Than mthan@kofflerarts.org.