Volume 9 • 2022 • Issue 2

Dentistry is a helping professionand I thinkwe should try tohelppeople in our community when we can. December 2021, was called “Teeth, Loan and Trust Company, Consolidated: The Trylowsky Collection.” The name references a piece of art by Marcel Duchamp, one of the earliest and most revered conceptual artists. In 1919, Duchamp was unable to pay his American dentist Dr. Daniel Tzanck $115 that he owed, so he created and signed a fake cheque from the invented Teeth, Loan and Trust Company, Consolidated. Dr. Tzanck accepted this piece of art in lieu of cash. The 2021 show included work by Vikky Alexander, Ron Terada, Rodney Graham, and Kelly Wood, among others. Andersson curated a concurrent show at Dr. Trylowsky’s Granville St. practice called “Office Work” that presented work by Kim Kennedy Austin, Ryan Quast and Neil Wedman. Andersson told CBC that the artists represented in the exhibition are all quite different, “but they all go to the same dentist,” he said. Dr. Trylowsky often provides pro bono work for artists, many of whom do not have dental insurance. “Dentistry is a helping profession and I think we should try to help people in our community when we can,” he says. Early in Trylowsky’s career, Andersson often shared his name with people he met in the art community who needed dental care but perhaps couldn’t afford it. Dr. Trylowsky says that there are a number of dentists with significant art collections. Napoleon III’s dentist, Thomas W. Evans, amassed an art collection that included two Manet paintings and many gold- and jewel-encrusted objects that various royals used to pay him for dental services rendered. Dr. Avo Samuelian has a significant collection of contemporary art he’s been given in exchange for dental work in New York. In Toronto, Dr. Kenneth Montague is an art collector and curator who counts many artists among his patients. Asked if he would consider selling any pieces from his collection, Dr. Trylowsky says he wouldn’t want to. “I have a relationship with the art I have. I’m very fond of it. It is part of who I am,” he says. These two walls include (L. to r.): “Punta Gorda” by Vikky Alexander, “Red coat and mountain vista” by Karin Bubas, “Portal” by Neil Campbell (top, in corner), and “Tree with bench” by Rodney Graham. “I barely touched you” by Graham Gillmore (l.) was displayed beside “Ponti” by Derek Root. 31 Issue 2 | 2022 | Issues and People