Teeth, Loan and Trust Company, Consolidated: The Trylowsky Collection

September 24 – December 12, 2021

Curated by Patrik Andersson

There are many ways and reasons to collect art. On December 3, 1919, unable to pay his American dentist Daniel Tzanck in cash, the artist Marcel Duchamp made and signed a fake cheque written in the amount of the 115 dollars that he had been billed. The significance of this false Teeth, Loan and Trust Company, Consolidated cheque may be measured both by the fact that the dentist accepted this original copy as payment and that Duchamp valued it so highly that he bought it back from him years later at an inflated price. The title of this artwork has a number of puns embedded in it. Not only does Duchamp ‘Thank” Dr. Tzanck with this work, but the spelling of “check” refers as much to a cheque as it alludes to Duchamp’s obsession with the game of chess.

Continuing in this tradition, Dr. Zenon Trylowsky opened his dental practice on the twelfth floor of the Vancouver Block Building at Granville and Georgia Street in 1996. Like Tzanck Check, the majority of work in Trylowsky’s collection was acquired through exchange — particularly beneficial for artists working independently without a dental plan. In 1997, Trylowsky began collaborating with curator Patrik Andersson who that same year founded Trapp Projects, a curatorial platform initiated to introduce local and international artists which regularly transformed his private office across the hall from his dental practice into Trylowsky Gallery. For this project, this tradition continues with the Griffin exhibiton and an offsite show at the dental clinic, Office Work, which presents work by Kim Kennedy Austin, Ryan Quast and Neil Wedman. These dual exhibitions at the Griffin and the dental office highlight a selection of works from this collection’s 20 year history.*

This exhibition is part of a two-part series, called The Great Exchange. Coinciding with Teeth, Loan and Trust Company: The Trylowsky Collection, eminent Toronto-based artist Bill Burns will continue his research during a Fall/Winter residency at Griffin Art Projects, in a project that further prompts an examination of parallel economies. Burns’ ongoing research includes The Goat, the Salt, the Oil, a performance series that positioned global trade as an art practice; at Griffin, the artist will research a further speculative iteration of his project, activating the site of the Vancouver Harbour and producing a series of short films, this time potentially proposing the trade of red snapper for goat’s milk, yogurt for honey, organizing a shipment of Nepalese salt for olives or other foodstuffs in Vancouver. The residency includes a photo study of Vancouver dockyards, trains and freight yards, drawings—“pre-documents”—of potential future trades and short Super 8 film diaries of Burns’ everyday life in a pandemic, under the regime of advanced global industrialism. 

*Office Work is open to the public on Saturday, October 2nd and 9th 1-4pm at 1216 - 736 Granville Street, Vancouver, (buzz Dr. Trylowsky to enter building) or DM Trappprojects on Instagram for more information. View the press release here.

Artists:

John Anderson, Vikky Alexander, Jerry Allen, Lotta Antonsson, Roy Arden, Kim Kennedy Austin, Tim Barber, Karin Bubaš, Tom Burrows, Neil Campbell, Lincoln Clarkes, Christos Dikeakos, Jamie Dolinko, Hannah Dubois, Marcel Dzama, Mark Gilbert, Graham Gilmore, Rodney Graham, Claire Greenshaw, Adad Hannah, Arni Haraldsson, Cameron Kerr, Robert Kleyn, David Korty, Evan Lee, Tim Lee, Robert Linsley, Attila Richard Lucacs, Kelly Lycan, Jean MacRae, Jason McLean, Al McWilliams, Mathew McWilliams, Myfanwy MacLeod, Eric Metcalfe, Julie Morstad, Shannon Oksanen, Oraf, Heather Passmore, Isabelle Pauwels, Parvin Peivandi, Ryan Quast, Tony Romano, Derek Root, Peter Schuyff, Alex Tedlie-Stursberg, Ron Terada, Mia Thomsett, T&T (Tony Romano & Tyler Brett), Holly Ward, Neil Wedman, Brian White and Kelly Wood.