The Good Artist: Sam Mogelonsky

Who are you? My name is Sam Mogelonsky. I am from Toronto. I have a BFA from Queen’s University, Kingston, ON and an MFA from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art, London, UK. I also have done residencies in London, France and Spain. I mainly work in sculpture, but also in performance and digital media. I now live and work in Toronto and have a studio here.

What is on your ipod/bookshelf? My bookshelf is mostly full of art catalogs and art/ critical theory books… but also has some classic novels on it. It’s full and there are more books at my parent’s house, in storage for when I have a place big enough for more than one bookshelf. I tend not to keep my paperback novels once I’m finished with them, unless I really think I’ll read it again. I sometimes will just leave them wherever I finish reading them- hostels, trains, with friends. Hopefully someone else picks up the book and reads it.

At the moment, I am using my precious commuting time to read and have been trying to upgrade my art theory knowledge. I had a binge session on Amazon a while ago and now I feel like I have to actually read all the books I bought! I just finished Fantastic Metamorphoses: Ways of Telling the Self by Marina Warner and before that The Craftsman by Richard Sennett. I was grant writing this past week, so I started re-reading On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir and the Collection by Susan Stewart. But I think after that, I might go back to some fiction, a classic or another Haruki Murakami novel.

I always have my iPod on! In the studio, in the car, on the subway, walking… I try to keep it charged up and ready to go. It’s a pretty random assortment and I have some classic rock and good 80’s/ 90’s hits to classical music to bluegrass and jazz to tracks by younger bands. Right now, I am loving the song ‘Excuses’ by the Morning Benders. I can’t stop playing it! I am listening to the National, Laura Marling, Y La Bamba, The Sparrow and the Workshop, Beirut and the Fleet Foxes a lot. I also like talk-radio shows such as This American Life and The Vinyl Café.

Where do you seek inspiration? I get ideas when I am traveling and usually scrawl them down while riding the subway. I sometimes get inspired when doing something repetitive such as washing my hair, doing the dishes or swimming. Anything can spark an idea, but often the best is after going to a museum or gallery and then meeting up with friends over a cup of coffee/ a pint and talking about art/ what you’ve seen/ what you want to see and do. Great ideas emerge that way.  Another way is through reading… I usually find little bits to work with through reading great fiction or picking up my beat-up copy of Lewis-Carol. 

When did you start creating? I guess I started creating when I was a kid and would just draw. I remember my grandfather had a drafting table and amazing markers and pencils and they were really fun to play with. This grew to painting during high school, evolved into sculptures during university and then into some performances and media works later on. I think my practice really started taking shape while I was on a residency in the south of France just after my master’s degree. That’s when I started to really feel confident in what I was doing.

Why Toronto? Mainly because I was born here and this is where my family is. So, when my visa for the UK ran out last year, I decided to come back here to try to establish myself in Canada and settling in Toronto seemed like the logical fit. So far, it’s been pretty good. I have met some great people and have been able to be involved in a lot of interesting projects already. There is good work being shown at spaces all over the city and I always enjoy a good gallery crawl. Toronto is also full of very tasty (and often pretty cheap) delights- Yum!

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