THE power plant, toronto canada

director (1993-1997)

The Power Plant years crystallised around a vision of contemporary art that spoke to both local and international audiences. Working alongside Chief Curator Louise Dompierre, whose foundational work had shaped the gallery's identity, we developed a program that challenged conventional boundaries while deepening audience engagement.

Ground-breaking exhibitions defined this period: the pioneering survey of General Idea's collective practice, Anish Kapoor's sculptural interventions, and our collaboration with the Art Gallery of Ontario on Michael Snow's work. Group exhibitions captured zeitgeist moments—from 'Press Enter: Between Seduction and Disbelief' to 'The Age of Anxiety' (1995), exploring Japanese contemporary art. 'Digital Gardens: A World in Mutation' and 'The American Trip' (1996) investigated emerging territories, while 'Fast Forward' illuminated Korea's vibrant art scene, and 'Hypermnesiac Fabulations' introduced Toronto to rising British artists including Tracey Emin.

Solo exhibitions by Janet Cardiff, Kiki Smith, Yasumasa Morimura, Spring Hurlbut, Peter Bowyer, Will Gorlitz, Susan Schell, and Steve Reinke enriched our program. This dynamic period saw unprecedented support from benefactors and corporate sponsors, enabling innovative educational initiatives alongside our exhibition program

Steve Pozel’s time at The Power Plant was a formative period in his career and it instilled a deep appreciation for the power of art to inspire, provoke, and challenge.

THE power plant, toronto canada

Featured below, a modest selection presented from the more than 50+ exhibitions presented during Steve Pozel’s tenure as Director at The Power Plant (between 1993 and 1997).

General Idea's Fin de siècle Exhibition

(March 5 – April 18, 1993)

One Year of AZT exhibited together with the work One Day of AZT, 1991

Challenging both the art world and the world at large, General Idea (1969–1994) remain some of the most influential artists to have emerged from Canada. Together, Felix Partz (1945–1994), Jorge Zontal (1944–1994) and AA Bronson (b. 1946) invented a ground-breaking practice that spanned twenty-five years.

Approved in 1987, AZT was the first drug in the United States to treat those with HIV and delay the onset of AIDS. AZT had significant side effects and was extremely toxic. AA Bronson noted the personal significance of the work, as Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal were diagnosed with HIV in 1989 and 1990, respectively: “Our life was full of pills, our apartment was full of pills … so they became part of our work,” he said. Here, the artists have created plastic capsules that represent the antiretroviral drug AZT (azidothymidine). The installation is comprised of 1,825 pills, corresponding to the exact amount of Partz’s annual dosage. 

Ann Hamilton: a round

(May 7 - Sept 6, 1993)

Ann Hamilton’s installations are complexly structured environments designed to provoke somatic responses and wide-ranging metaphorical associations. For a round Hamilton stacked over a thousand stuffed canvas body forms, lying them horizontally, one on top of another.

These genderless figures, modelled on wrestling dummies but evoking Egyptian mummies, created what curator Louise Dompierre described as ‘a womb-like environment.’ The installation invited visitors into an intimate dialogue between movement and stillness, living bodies and their representations.

The Michael Snow Project

(March 11–June 5, 1994)

Four simultaneous exhibitions: Exploring Plane and Contour, Around Wavelength, and Presence and Absence: The Films of Michael Snow, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Embodied Vision, The Power Plant, Toronto. The Michael Snow Project was a daunting mega multi-media show of this Toronto-based artist's experimental films, sculptures, paintings, photos, foldages and collages held at The Art Gallery of Ontario and The Power Plant. Michael Snow's early years, was presented at the Art Gallery of Ontario and was a wide-ranging show curated by Philip Monk. Louise Dompierre curated the Embodied Vision exhibition of works from 1970 to 1993.

ANISH KAPOOR Survey exhibition

(Nov 19, 1993 – Jan 2, 1994)

This North American tour, curated by Lynda Forsha for the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, marked a significant moment for the Turner Prize winner. Kapoor, who moved from Bombay to London in the early 1970s, maintained a unique connection to Toronto through his parents' residence. The exhibition demonstrated his masterful exploration of form, space, and material that had already earned him the Premio Duemila at the Venice Biennale.

selection of EXHIBITIONS - THE POWER PLANT 1993 - 1997

  • Naked State (March 5 – April 18, 1993)

    Curated by Louise Dompierre - Naked State: A Selected View of Toronto Art explored the work of a younger generation. The exhibition features work by Lois Andison, Michael Belmore, Michael Buchanan, Millie Chen, John Dickson, Michael Downing and Dancefront, Michelle Gay, Catherine Heard, Greg Hefford, Karen Henderson, Marla Hlady, Francis LeBouthillier, Teresa Marshall, Janet Morton, Carl Skelton, Max Streicher, Corneil Van der Spek, and Robert Windrum.

  • SPRING HURLBUT (Feb 5 – April 2, 1995)

    Spring Hurlbut: La Somnolence Curated by Louise Dompierre, Toronto-based artist Spring Hurlbut created La Somnolence (French for sleepiness) as a site-specific work consisting of 137 wrought and cast-iron children’s beds, collected in Canada and France. While Hurlbut evoked the tragedy of anonymous lives lost, and yet despite its dark overtones, it affirmed life and the ability of the human spirit to overcome hardship.

  • THE AGE OF ANXIETY (Sept 22 – Nov 26, 1995)

    The Age of Anxiety, brilliantly curated by The Powerplant’s Chief Curator Louise Dompierre, presented a survey of recent work by nine artists from Kyoto and Tokyo including Taro Chiezo, Teiji Furuhashi, Ideal Copy, Shigeaki Iwai, Yuji Kitagawa, Emiko Kasahara, Yoshiko Shimada, Noboru Tsubaki, and Yukinori Yanagi.

  • ANISH KAPOOR (Nov 19, 1993 – Jan 2, 1994)

    Curated by Lynda Forsha for the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego the survey exhibition was presented at both The Power Plant and National Gallery of Canada while touring across North America. Anish Kapoor was born in 1954 in Bombay, India, and moved to London in the early 1970s to study art. Since then he has lived and worked in Britain, but his parents were based just outside of Toronto. Kapoor represented Britain at the Venice Biennale where he won the Premio Duemila and was also awarded the Turner Prize.

  • Press/Enter (April 21 – June 11, 1995)

    Julia Scher in Press/Enter: Between Seduction and Disbelief. The exhibition was curated by Louise Dompierre and adjunct curators, Derrick de Kerchove and Robert R. Reilly. The exhibition featured work by Sylvie Bélanger, Jim Campbell, Edmond Couchot, Luc Courchesne, Christine Davis, Monika Fleischmann, Catherine Ikam, John Massey, George Bures Miller, Christian Möller, David Rokeby, Julia Scher, and Bill Spinhoven.

  • Digital Gardens (Sept 27 – Dec 22, 1996)

    Digital Gardens: A World in Mutation was curated by Louise Dompierre, featuring works by several leading-edge Canadian and international artists that explored the effect of advanced technology on our living environment. With insight and irony, Doug Buis, Mat Collishaw, Gregory Crewdson, Rosemary Laing, and Janine Cirincione + Michael Ferraro considered the mutations that nature, subordinated to technology, is currently undergoing in fact and in our perceptions.

  • Hypermnesiac Fabulations (1997)

    Curated by Philip Monk with Tracey Emin, Jane and Louise Wilson, Georgina Starr. Four young London artists who were all attracting incredible international attention at that moment in time, were presented in this major exhibition at The Power Plant. Monk explored the development of their individual work and the relationship among them all.

  • Janet Cardiff (Sept 16 – Nov 6, 1994)

    Janet Cardiff: To Touch an exhibition collaboration between Southern Alberta Art Gallery and The Power Plant curated by Joan Stebbins. Janet Cardiff’s first solo exhibition outside of Alberta. The action of passing your hands over the surface of an old carpenter’s table elicited an aural response from audio speakers around the small room. A couple impart their bodily passion while other voices disclosed mysterious dream-like events reminiscent of a cinematic suspense thriller.

  • Digital Gardens (Sept 27 – Dec 22, 1996)

    Digital Gardens: A World in Mutation was curated by Louise Dompierre, featuring works by several leading-edge Canadian and international artists that explored the effect of advanced technology on our living environment. With insight and irony, Doug Buis, Mat Collishaw, Gregory Crewdson, Rosemary Laing, and Janine Cirincione + Michael Ferraro considered the mutations that nature, subordinated to technology, is currently undergoing in fact and in our perceptions.

  • General Idea (March 5 – April 18, 1993)

    General Idea's Fin de sièclewas exhibited in Stuttgart, Barcelona, Hamburg before being shown at The Power Plant, Toronto; Wexner Center for the Visual Arts; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

    Fin de siècle can be read as a self-portrait of General Idea, with the seal pups representing group members Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal, and AA Bronson and alluding to the impact of the AIDS crisis, which had a direct bearing on the artists’ friends and community.