A Collection of Foreign Objects (ACOFO) was founded in Japan in 2002 by a group of Canadian artists living there. At the time, these artists saw important connections between the artwork they were producing and the work produced by their Japanese contemporaries.
Since 2002, the group has had several shows and projects. With each endeavor, the group’s members and artwork have shifted and evolved.
As a collective our goals are to facilitate connection, communication, and collaboration between young artists, and to challenge audiences to see new things, and to enter into the unexpected.
ACOFO has taken on significantly larger and more ambitious projects of late. For Nuit Blanche 2006 in Toronto, the group created six fantastical ”islands” and installed them into the streets – transforming some paved corners of the city into temporary otherworldly getaways. Previous to that, in April of 2006 they rented out a vacant apartment on Queen Street West and created Generated Habitats - a large exhibition that saw the artists create work that responded to the unique environment of a lived-in space.