View on Canadian Art
– 1. LOVED
– 2. LOATHED
– 3. RECENTLY NOTICED
– 4. 5 THINGS TORONTO
– 5. 5 THINGS VANCOUVER
– 6. 5 THINGS MONTREAL
– 7. NUIT BLANCHE: TOP PICKS
Welcome to View on Canadian Art!
Have you bookmarked this page yet? Please do!
Now officially in our second year, we have moved ourselves onto this blog, for easier access…
We’ll be updating regularly with recommended exhibitons, events, openings, artists, galleries etc. in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, with periodic news from Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Halifax and wherever else there are worthwhile things happening in the Canadian art world.
This month we begin by offering our top five things to see and do in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto. We give you the low down on Nuit Blanche Toronto on Sept. 30 - if you see any art that night, these are the must-sees!
Look out for my review of Body: New Art from the UK in the new issue of Border Crossings (page 123)
Oh, also I’m looking to write a column…so if you hear of anything…
And next month expect a report from NY and London.
With very best wishes,
Andrea
1. LOVED:
The Power Plant summer show – The Power Plant contemporary art gallery in Toronto was “All Free All Summerâ€, prompting a dramatic increase in attendance. (Finally! They have the right idea!) Annie Pootoogook’s exhibition of drawings of contemporary Inuit life was a colourful, careful mixture of traditional and western living; outpost camp life peppered with images of ATM machines, social services office and television.
Also on view was a documentary interview with Annie. In it, Annie talks about how she enjoys drawing and how she is grateful to be able to make her art. She says that she just draws what she sees.
Annie seemed rather unfortunate. Entirely immune to today’s art world where young artists are bred to be art stars,and where there is so much ambition that it often seems to be all about who you know.
The artist was cast in a romantic light, reaffirming the image of the Inuit whose culture is being eroded. Question: Is this problematic – in an art gallery?
Paul Butler’s Collage Party at MoCCA – We went, we saw, we collaged. There were long tables set up, covered with magazines, scissors, glue sticks and blank paper. People were busy cutting and pasting – it was a fantastic communal art experience – a signal that art is everything, everywhere and we are all creative..
I think that when art enters the market, it should be rooted in history or explore a fundamental aspect of human nature, but art as pure creativity can be fun, and broadens the mind.
2. LOATHED:
Derraindrop at the Drake - When we arrived, a bit late, videos were playing on the screen on stage. They were being presented by an emcee, presumably one of the group. After fast-forwarding through a number of videos, including Britney Spears’ reality TV show and a girl with a guitar god fixation, someone else got up on stage and began a silly, stream-of-consciousness rant about nothing in particular. It was unbearably pretentious, so after an agonizing fifteen minutes or so, I left. Artists in their 20s should be discouraged from thinking that they can get on stage and faff about in the name of art and people will actually applaud them for it. I didn’t learn anything insightful. They might be great people, but the ‘performance’ was really taking the piss.
Art can be fun, but should be serious at its core. Art is serious, as Bruce Nauman said: “Art is a matter of life and death. This may be melodramatic, but it is also true.â€
Starbucks Salon - Although I’ve not experienced the Salon in the flesh, just hearing about this newfangled marketing idea left me feeling conflicted. Is there a problem with corporate intervention in the arts? Or is it the future - the democratization of contemporary art, writ large?
These salons, the second of which will be held in NYC on Greene between Spring and Broome from Sept 8 - 17, premiered in Park City during last year’s Sundance festival. This year, expect Buck 65, Los Super Elegantes and Darryl McDaniels of Run DMC. The Portrait Project is where you can exhibit a computer-aided ‘self-portrait†on the walls of the salon in New York.
(Personally, I see a grande wolf in sheep’s clothing)
3. RECENTLY NOTICED:
RAMON SERRANO at Corkin Shopland Gallery:
Up until September 17
Ramon Serrano’s work is worth seeing. I went to his studio to hear a talk about his latest project. A shelf was intalled along all the walls, at the artist’s eye level, upon which were placed an assortment of clear glass vessels of varying sizes and shapes. Serrano had drawn the word ‘horizon’ repeatedly to form a consistent line behind the glass. Each glass had been filled halfway, to the height of the horizon line. Given the utopian ideas suggested by gazing toward the horizon, and that on the island of Cuba the act of filling a glass is considered an act of faith (people consder it symbolic of protection, good luck or safety), the non-Cuban viewer is confronted with two very different meanings. There are also (un-intentional) allusions to minimalist artworks of the 1960’s. The Cuban-ness of the work is reinforced, as is the discrepancy between foreigners and Cubans, which is a theme that runs through Serrano’s practice.
An earlier work, Habana Mirage, created for this year’s Havana Biennale comprises four canvases over eight feet long featuring photographs of maquettes made from thousands of photographs of “forbidden buildingsâ€. These canvases sat upon piles of books of theoretical political philosophy, which in turn sat upon traditional schoolchildren’s benches. Translation: These images are all of buildings that ordinary Cubans are not allowed to enter, resting upon a foundation of socio-political theory learned in school.
SHAAN SYED at Birch Libralato:
Shaan makes lovely, sophisticated paintings that you would want to hang in your home. Last year, he went to London to do a Masters degree in painting and this show was a chance to see how his work had changed. The works were superbly painted, slick, cinematic and certainly of-the-moment.
MICHELLE ALLARD at Mercer Union:
Michelle Allard’s work was a series of brown file boxes filled with bright yellow tubes of paper, installed like an island in the middle of the gallery. The tubes were formed by shaping sheets of paper around fluorescent tubes. “Like information, there are spikes and recesses with contour contingent upon the space.â€
The shape of the sculpture is interesting, but the success of similar work that I’ve seen has tended to depend on the obsessive nature of the work crowding out space. Here there was no visceral experience for the viewer, suggesting that the artist had perhaps stopped short of fully expressing her idea. Feminist artist Carolee Schneeman, famous for Interior Scroll (1975) where she pulled a scroll of paper from her vagina, has said that when she came up with the idea, she didn’t want to do it but knew that she had to. Drawings just wouldn’t have had the same effect.
MICHAEL TAGLIERI at Le Gallery:
Michael Taglieri’s photographs at Le Gallery showed a figure dressed in yellow rain slicker and wellies, adopting various poses in the Canadian landscape, everywhere from an industrial park in the suburb of Woodbridge to Tom Thompson’s favorite lookout up North.
Having figures in yellow raincoats lends an appropriate anonymity to the work, but if Michael Taglieri wants to make genuinely captivating work, he might embrace a more fundamental perspective. What are universal reactions to landscape? How can he express this? Although he can certainly use his own experience as an Italian Canadian kid from Woodbridge as a starting point, the universal quality of all great art isn’t always detectable. The reason that great art is great, from Picasso to Barnett Newman to Andy Warhol, is because at its core, it resonates with a broad public.
5 THINGS TORONTO:
1. Monte Clark Gallery Toronto
Who: Evan Lee
What: Photographs
When: Sept 16 – October 15
Why: Lee’s experiments with a flatbed scanner use its characteristic hyper-real results to great effect, turning a pile of flies and various dollar-store items into vivid and dramatic still-lifes.
Opening Saturday, September 16 2-5 pm
Artist in attendance
2. Japan Foundation
Who: Shojo Manga! Girl Power!
What: Mostly original cartoon drawings
When: Aug 31 – October 7
Why: Featuring more than 200 works by 23 artists, this exhibit is the first of its kind to explore the unique styles of female manga artists and examines their contributions to the development of Shojo (young girl) Manga.
3. 105 Robinson Street (at Claremont)
Who: Open House
What: City of Toronto
When: Until 22nd October
Why: Local outsider artist Joseph Wagenbach, who had recently been discovered living alone, as an artistic recluse. His remarkable oeuvre is being assessed and catalogued by an archivist, who leads tours and answers questions. A must see!
4. City of Toronto
Who: Nuit Blanche
What: Events around the city
When: Saturday, September 30 FROM 7:01 PM – 7:15 AM
Why: Because the whole city will be awake and alive with culture. Because it’s outdoors. Because it’s different. Because it will be a lot of fun.
See below for our top picks.
5. Jessica Bradley Art & Projects
Who: Luanne Martineau
What: Collages/Fabric sculptures/Drawings
When: September 14 – October 7
Why: These works are evocative and humorous, referencing traditional female handwork and the body as well as underground imagery and art historical references. And her sculptures just beg to be touched.
Jessica Bradley Art & Projects
5 THINGS MONTREAL:
1. Musee d’Art Contemporain de Montreal
Who: Neo Rauch
What: Paintings
When: September 14, 2006 to January 7, 2007
Why: It is the artist’s first Canadian show, featuring a group of eight paintings produced between 2002 and 2005. Neo Rauch is the most prominent and influential graduate of Leipzig’s Academy of Visual Arts, which is famous for being a Mecca for Socialist Realism prior to German reunification.
Musée d’art contemporain lecture series: Robert Fleck
“Neo Rauch and the new Leipzig School of Painting”
Wednesday, October 4, 2006, at 6 p.m. in the Beverley Webster Rolph Hall
Director of the Deichtorhalle in Hamburg, Robert Fleck is the author of a number of publications on modern and contemporary art, including Marie Raymond, Yves Klein (2005), Y aura-t-il un deuxième siècle de l’art moderne? (2001) and État des lieux (1996). In collaboration with the Goethe-Institut.
2. Concordia University Art Gallery
Who: Mike Hoolbloom
What: Video installation and short films
When: August 31 – October 7
Why: Mike Hoolbloom has been a key member of Toronto’s fringe cinema scene since the 1980s and a prominent figure in the world of experimental filmmaking. His work incorporates appropriated images culled from Hollywood films, documentary footage and home movies. These film sequences are reconfigured into dream-like narratives depicting the cycle of life - especially of dying or foreboding death, the complexities of desire and the frailty of the human body.
3. Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts
Who: Susan Hiller: The J Street Project
What: Photographic installation
When: September 17 – November 2
Why:
“In Germany there are 303 streets named after their former Jewish residents, but hardly anyone notices them. These street names are ghosts of the past, haunting the present.†Susan Hiller has visited all of them over the past three years, filming and taking photographs of these historically evocative places.
4. Projex Mtl
Who: Thomas Kneubühler: Propriété Privée/Private Property
What: Photographic exhibition
When: September 6 – October 1
Why: These large-format colour photographs depict urban spaces where access is restricted and protected by security cameras and guards. The Swiss artist, who has lived in Montreal, is interested in the differences between the concept of private space in European and North American society.
5. Pavilion Projects: Articule
Who: The Enterprise
What: Collective/marketing firm art installation
When: September 8 – October 8
Why: Pavilion, an artist’s collective and nomadic cultural space, hijacks the traditional model of a marketing firm in order to “materialize and conceptualize the currents and sentiments that run through Montreal’s artistic communities.â€
The Enterprise will host open workshops and meetings, thus acting as a site of composition and dispatch for the company’s advertisements and communiqués. In close collaboration with PopMontreal, a survey will be produced and promoted in mass media in order to investigate the sentiment of the general public towards the arts in Quebec.
This project will help formulate an organizational structure by which the artistic community of Montreal may be promoted and projected into the larger realm of global cultural production.
Forum on the Visual arts in Québec Saturday September 16th at 3pm
FIVE THINGS VANCOUVER:
1. The Contemporary Art Gallery
Who: Concrete Language
What: Multi media exhibition
When: Sept 8 – November 5
Why: A mix of both well-known and lesser known Canadians with international artists like Martin Creed, Ian Wallace, Lawrence Weiner, Laurel Woodcock and others. The show explores visual and spatial relations in language.
2. Artspeak
Who: Mark Soo
What: Photographic installation
When: Sept 9 – October 14
Why: Mark Soo’s installation, Monochrome Sunset (English Bay - Oppenheimer Park), is a study of light and colour, as related to the streetlights used by the City to discourage drug use and crime.
Artist talk, Sept 10, 1 pm
3. The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Who: Strange Bedfellows
What: Multi media exhibition
When: Sept 15 – October 1
Why: An exhibition of the latest group of MFA grads from UBC. Video from Abbas Akhavan, portraits by Eryne Donahue, mixed media works by Rebecca Donald, drawings by Derek Dunlop and installations by Michael Euyung Oh and Robert Niven.
4. Catriona Jeffries Gallery
Who: Kevin Schmidt
What: Video and photography
When: Sept 9 – 7 October
Opening Saturday, 9 September, 2 – 5pm
Why: The artist who brought us a video of himself playing Led Zeppelin on the beach, now exhibits a large-scale video of a wolf in captivity. As the press release states: “In contrast to the romantic symbol of the lone wolf which commonly represents solitude and radical free-spiritedness, the condition of the omega wolf signifies the nadir of pack society: the underdog and scapegoat of the pack.â€
5. Presentation House Gallery
Who: Edward Burtynsky
What: Photographs
When: Sept 16 – November 5
Why: Because of the impact of these large-scale landscapes on the viewer, and their timeliness. Burtynsky combines sheer beauty with tragedy in his images of mines, ship-breaking and the Three Gorges Dam in China.
CALGARY:
Artcity is a celebration of contemporary visual art, architecture and design held every September in Calgary, Canada. The festival, which programs art in underused, neglected and temporary spaces around Calgary also hosts the Peepshow International Pavilion Design Competition & Exhibition and the ArtTalk featuring various architects and designers.
NUIT BLANCHE:
Nuit Blanche, the “All Night Contemporary Art Thing†is happening this September 30, from 7:01 pm to 7:15 am. The city will be teeming with performance art, art tours, video art, installation art and films. Cafes and bars will be open all night, as will most galleries.
Nuit Blanche began in Paris in 2002, where the idea was to provide “high†art to the public for free. Subsequent Nuits Blanche have happened in Brussels, Rome, Madrid and Montreal.
You’ll soon be inundated with articles, maps, and itineraries in the media so we thought we’d save you the overwhelming job of trying to sift through it all.
Following are our “critic’s picks†for the night. These are picks from the exhibitions and My Secret City only – you might check in with a few galleries along the way. If you see anything, we recommend you see these. And yes, they are ranked in order of preference.
HOT TIP: Travel by bike or the subway. Bring your bathing suit (just in case). Bring your camera. And your cell phone. And remember to check out the free all-night vintage film programme at the Cinematheque.
NUIT BLANCHE: TOP PICKS
1. YORKVILLE - AREA A
Title: Fog in Toronto #71624
Artist:Fujiko Nakaya
Location:
The Tokyo-based artist presents a sculpture of fog, along Philosopher’s Walk at U of T.
(Photo: Jill Krauskopf)
Title: Maize Barbacoa, 2006
Artist: Ron Benner
Location: Yorkville Park
A corn roast performance occurs in Yorkville Park. Since Columbus disseminated corn around Europe in 1492, it has become a worldwide staple.
(Photo Credit: Jamelle Hassan)
Title: Into the Void (12 hour ‘Sleep’)
Artist: Ulysses Castellanos
Location: In front of William Ashley on Bloor and St. Nicholas Street
Toronto performance artist Ulysees Castellanos spends twelve hours playing Into the Void by Black Sabbath, amid dry ice, strobe lights and mirrors.
Title: Dark Hart
Artist: Fastwurms and Instant Coffee
Location: Hart House
Title: Hazard Recognition
Artist: Nashed Mansour and Carali McCall
Location: Hart House
We recommend both these programs for their curators. Barbara Fischer is curator at the Blackwood gallery, at U of T at Mississauga. Louise Lilliefeldt and Lisa Steele are renowned performance and video artists and educators at U of T.
Title: Nuit Blanche, 2006
Artists: Holger Lippmann and Alekos Hofstetter
Location: On the crystal at the ROM
A computer animation projected against the backdrop of the under-construction crystal.
(Photo Credit: Still from Holger Lippmann and Alekos Hofsetter’s Nuit Blanche)
Title: Counting Sheep, 2006
Artist: Michael Snow
Location: Planetarium roof
Three sheep munch their way back and forth across a landscape, projected onto the bald domed roof of the Planetarium.
NUIT BLANCHE: TOP PICKS
2. UNIVERSITY - AREA B
Title: How to Respond in an Emergency: A series of incidental performances and spontaneous outbursts by authority figures and security guards, 2006
Artist: Diane Borsato
The title says it all - look out for these impromptu performances as you wander around the area.
(Photo Credit: Diane Borsato and Amish Morrell)
Title: when the wind shifted, 2006
Artist: Christina Battle
Location: 700 University Avenue, at College
Multiple projections involving insects play out across this building; imagine that this corner of the city is overtaken by the natural world.
Title: Dave’s Totally Toronto Special Guided Tours
Artist: Dave Derewlany
Location: Sign up at the Zone B info hub
Adam and Dave split up to give different, um…perspectives on Toronto. Full details are under wraps, but expect something “to be revealed…†we’re told. This is billed as “Hog Town’s mysterious and undiscovered sites.â€
Title: Adam’s The Real Toronto Special Guided Tours
Artist: Adam Brodie
Location: Sign up at the Zone B info hub
Billed as “Hog Town’s extremely mysterious and greatest undiscovered sites.†Adam and Dave split up to give different, um…perspectives on Toronto. Full details are under wraps, but expect something “to be revealed…†I’m told.
Title: Roy & Silo’s Gay Divorce, 2006
Artists: John Greyson and David Wall
Location: Harrison Baths, 15 Stephanie Street
This video and sound installation in the lockers, showers and pool of the Baths, will tell the tale of the deteriorating relationship between two gay penguins at New York’s Central Park Zoo.
Title: (Let me be your) Teddy Bear, 2006
Artist: Chris Curreri
Location: Baldwin Street
Lyrics from Elvis songs installed in windows along the street create a glowing neon love poem.
NUIT BLANCHE TOP PICKS
3. QUEEN STREET WEST - AREA C
Title: Revolutionary Song, 2005/Chanson a mourir, 1989
Artist: Istvan Kantor
Location: Bohemian Embassy, 1171 Queen West
Toronto’s own revolutionary absolutely puts the “perform†into performance art. His videos are accompanied by a “revolutionary fashion showâ€
(Photo Credit: Istvan Kantor)
Title: Night Swim
Artist: Christie Pearson in collaboration with artists and djs
Location: Trinity Community Recreation Centre, 155 Crawford Street
Bring your bathing suit! And explore various aquatic spaces - to the tune of world-renowned djs.
Title: Four Car Washes/Four Video Artists
Artists: Dana Claxton, Sara Diamond, Richard Fung, Shelley Niro
Location: Queen’s Car Wash, 1155 Queen West
A number of short videos centering on race, class and the aboriginal experience in Canada.
Title: Teledivinity
Artist: Peter Mettler
Location: Greener Pastures, 1188 Queen West
Filmmaker Peter Mettler exhibits not a film, but a series of 18 lightboxes featuring densely layered images. Presented by the Toronto International Film Festival Group.
Title: Freeze, 2006
Artists: Rebecca Belmore and Osvaldo Yero
Location: Royal Car Wash, 1106 Queen West
A slowly melting ice sculpture, from the artist who represented Canada at the last Venice Biennale.
Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...
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Great content! But it’s difficult to read/navigate just one very long page - is it possible to structure the content across different pages as appropriate…
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