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A View on Art
A point of view
September 2005
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– 1. LOVED
– 2. LOATHED
– 3. LOVED AND LOATHED…
– 4. RECENTLY NOTICED…
– 5. COMPARE AND CONTRAST:
– 6. CONNECTIONS…
– 7. MY BIO
– 8. ET CETERA
– 9. ARTISTS TO GOOGLE
– 10. PLEASE FORWARD THIS NEWSLETTER

Hello,

Welcome to the second edition!

For those of you new to my mailing list, this newsletter is intended as a light, informative peek into the best and most interesting work, trends and people that I come across in Canada and in my travels abroad. September is a busy time, so this issue is short and sweet.

Hopefully it will also become a catalyst for debate and opinion. Enjoy!

With very best wishes,

Andrea

1. LOVED
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-The Robert Mapplethorpe summer exhibition at the Guggenheim New York. The show compared his work to a series of classical mannerist prints from the State Hermitage, and it was inspired curating.

His awareness of light and shadow is breathtaking, as is his ability to convey a range of emotion in a single image - a wilting calla lily suggests hope, pathos, humility..

Guggenheim

-The Neue Galerie. For anyone who hasn’t been - you must go! It’s the perfect place for lunch when you’re on Museum Mile.

-The recently released DVD of Vera Frenkel’s work. The brilliant From the Transit Bar, (1992), a video installation originally screened at Documenta IX is a complex study of many forms of alienation - and in a way, our universal alienation from one another.

On the DVD the artist states:“I have always been more interested in translation than in languages themselves” and her early video work (The Secret Life of Cornelia Lumsden, 1979 and This Is Your Messiah Speaking, 1991) anticipated much of today’s preoccupation with truth and fiction, historical fact and fantasy. Frenkel notes: “The truth can be useful or not: but never true”

Vtape

2. LOATHED
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When is a bookmark not a bookmark? When a curator describes it thus:

‘The bookmark serves as a navigational checkpoint–a recognizable feature that orients the reader in an otherwise nondescript textual landscape. Like an outpost in a vast terrain, the bookmark demarcates the known and the yet unknown regions of a text, and serves as a roving beacon that remains always at the reader’s furthest foothold, and on the verge of discovery.’

The Bookmark Project 2005 November 6 to 13, Organized by the Koffler Gallery, Toronto

Koffler Gallery

Anna Torma: Draw Me a Garden

Very pretty, whimsical stream-of-conciousness embroideries…great art? I’m not convinced. Decide for yourself:

Spin Gallery

3. LOVED AND LOATHED…
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The Queen West Art Scum Garage Salem at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MoCCA)

Organized by Istvan Kantor

The show, fueled by Kantor’s distain for the institutionalization of art, was a motley group of work brought together market-style: the good, the bad and the ugly. A great idea! Kantor’s work stood out - naturally - as his work was properly contextualized. The others, unfortunately fared less well..

MoCCA

4. RECENTLY NOTICED…
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Performa 05 First Biennale of New Visual Art Performance New York City November 2005

The programme will include a musical-theatre film by Laurie Simmonds at Salon 94 as well as a series of performance re- enactments by Marina Abramovich of works originally performed by Joseph Beuys, Vito Acconci, VALIE EXPORT, Bruce Nauman and Gina Pane. At the Guggenheim, Nov 9 - 15.

Anyone going to London?

Check out Francis Alys: Seven Walks, an Artangel project at 21 Portman Square, W1 and the National Portrait Gallery, WC2. From 28 September - 20 November

This is the artist who moved a sand dune (assisted by a thousand people) in Lima..

CHECK OUT THIS AMAZING GALLERY!! This East London gallery, recently opened by a curator - Man Somerlinck - who I rate very highly. It’s worth a look, and DEFINITELY a visit when you’re in London:

Fordham Gallery

Ivan Otis

It’s not everyday that you see art equally repulsive and fascinating. Ivan Otis’s photographs are, though.

A former fashion photographer, he creates remarkable, compelling, wonderful, horribly crude and kitch photographs that recall both Nobuyoshi Araki and Esquire magazine’s Varga girl of the 1940’s. These highly detailed images are of exceptional quality, somehow reminiscent of the paintings of Glenn Brown.

5. COMPARE AND CONTRAST:
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Photography by Ed Burtynsky

Ed Burtynsky images

And photography by Chris Jordan

(Thanks Arabella!)

Chris Jordan images

6. CONNECTIONS…
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The multi-faceted, reciprocal connection among players in the art world must never be forgotten or dismissed; rather, it must be taken advantage of. Artists need dealers - who need collectors - who are important to museum curators - who are important to artists..and so on

Sometimes I wonder if we overlook these connections in Toronto.

The best art rises to the top as writers, curators, dealers and collectors engage with it and seek to understand it within a particular context. When they work in relationship to one another, the system provides a thriving art community.

Artists:

Focus energy. Translate the emotional into the visual. Provide an alternate way of reading the world. Reflect societal ideologies. Anticipate ideas.

Dealers:

Understand the artwork. Support artists. Make the artwork available to the public. Create a dialogue of understanding with collectors. Foster/encourage support for the contemporary arts.

Collectors:

Are instrumental in supporting artists and galleries. Raise awareness for contemporary art. Provide long-term care for artworks. Support the canon through museum endowment. Are instrumental to the secondary market..

Museum curators:

Have a highly developed sense of the language of visual art. Have an awareness of historical precedent. Help to establish a canon. Contextualize artworks. Provide a stamp of approval by giving shows, acquiring works.

7. MY BIO
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I have some spare room this month, so here’s my bio:

Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design. She returned to her hometown of Toronto in 2004 after having spent six years in London, U.K where she managed several art galleries and received her Masters degree in Art Criticism from City University. She is interested in promoting Canadian art internationally, and has curated a number of projects, including Revealed: New Canadian Video, a screening at Canada House, Trafalgar Square, London in 2003.

Her broad range of interests include video and conceptual installation artwork, product design, architecture and cultural administration. Her writing has appeared in exhibition catalogues and on Artnet.com, in Contemporary, Border Crossings, C magazine, Canadian Art, CONTACT magazine, Fuse, Vertigo, Videopool and Azure among other publications.

8. ET CETERA
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No articles this month, I’m afraid. I’m busy writing behind the scenes. Look out for reviews in Art Papers (Power Plant) Border Crossings (Iron Men) and C magazine (Martha Rosler) among other things in the next month or so.

Artists/Institutions/Organizations: I’ll write your grant applications for you! Contact me for a quote: carsonandrea@hotmail.com

Check out my critic’s picks of the best art shows, parties, screenings and performances to see across Canada, launching very soon on Martiniboys.com

Martiniboys

9. ARTISTS TO GOOGLE
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Daniel Cockburn - VIDEO (Toronto)

Jennifer Marman/Daniel Borins - INSTALLATION (Toronto)

Lisa Klapstock - PHOTOGRAPHY (Toronto)

Louise Liliefeldt - PERFORMANCE (Toronto)