Frank Pimentel
Dunlands Restaurant
Feb 10 - April 17,2015
Kenderdine Art Gallery
Curator by Leah Taylor
“A portrait is a lesson on how one human being should approach another.”– Dorothea Lange, 1965
During the period from 1960 to 1980 photographers became increasingly interested in documenting the social landscape through the growing trend of street photography and the snapshot, capturing moments that made the invisible visible. The subject of the marginalized gained significance, reflecting the civil rights movement, a rise in feminism and the social and cultural diversity of urban centers.
Frank Pimentel's 1987 photo series, Dunlands Restaurant,documented the patrons, employees and sights of the Dunlands café, formerly located in East end Toronto. Pimentel's artistic oeuvre focused on social documentary photographs that explored issues of immigration, social marginalization, and the decay of urban North America. Pimentel’s vernacular subjects and banal restaurant moments have been captured through his camera lens with insight and empathy, creating a visual history of the everyday at the Dunlands Restaurant.
About the Artist
Frank Pimentel is a Portuguese, Canadian, born in 1960. Pimentel graduated from Ryerson Media Studies program, with an MA in Art Therapy from the University of Buffalo. His work has been acquired by the National Gallery of Canada, the Canada Council Art Bank, the National Archives of Canada, and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. This exhibition is comprised of a selection made from the Dunlands Restaurantseries, from the University of Saskatchewan Art Collection.
