Jonny Silver

About Jonny Silver

Artist-Filmmaker, Jonny Silver, studied art, philosophy and literature at St Edwards University in Austin, Texas, (on an athletic scholarship) then returned to his native Toronto to attend the Ontario College of Art where he studied under some of Canada’s most renowned visual artists including, Graham Coughtry, Tom Hodgson, Michael Snow and composer, Udo Kasemets. As a student, he won awards for his work in sculpture, installation art and experimental film. His art education included an assistantship with cubist painter (and student of cubism founder Georges Braque,) Arthur Langlet, at Atelier International de Séguret in southern France. Silver had one-man shows at A Space, Toronto, Ed Video, Guelph, and at the Canadian Embassy, Belgrade, Serbia. Work from this period was also featured in group-shows at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, Canada House, London, and the Goethe Institute, Berlin. He followed a filmmaking career starting at the National Film Board of Canada then as a director-for-hire, working in both the English and French sectors of the Canadian film-TV industry. He became a specialist in opposing genres, Performing Arts and Crime TV, directing on award-winning series, specials and documentaries for domestic and international audiences. His work took him across Canada, throughout Europe, to Central America and the Middle East. While working in prime-time, Silver continued producing his own art-house projects including features, Lonely Child and Pio And The Cracks, psychodrama, Rue d'Enfer, dance film, Ecstasy Forbidden, and installation film, Return Of The Cubes, all of which gained wide exposure internationally. Silver’s artistic output has included a body of work in digital photography which mirror his film work in its exploration of psychological themes. His unique style of “Découpage,” resembling puzzle-images, has been featured in art books, web-based projects and group exhibitions including the Dada Reboot show at Toronto’s 2012 Nuit Blanche and the 2015 Liquid Rooms show at the Palazzo Ca’Zinardi in Venice. Silver also formed, Site Crew, with designer, Len Rydahl, to develop public art installations and media concepts. Site Crew’s installation, Udotimeshape, was featured at a 2016 concert by, Arraymusic, one of Canada’s foremost contemporary ensembles. And Site Crew’s gallery installation, Return Of The Cubes, a mixed-media show featuring sculpture, découpage and video, premiered at Toronto’s Bauhaus2digital gallery in October 2017. Silver has held a part-time teaching position at Toronto’s Centennial College since 2011 and he spent 2013 teaching Photography and Visual Aesthetics at the Ciné Institute in Jacmel, Haiti, from where he authored a book of field notes and photographs, published as, A Season In Haiti.