Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Image: spots-berlin.de

Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer spoke with VoCA about his 6-piece exhibition as Mexico’s representative at the Venice Biennale, and about his 200,000 watt interactive light sculpture Pulse Front: Relational Architecture 12 for Luminato festival in Toronto this week.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is representing Mexico at this year’s Venice Biennale (June 10 – 21 November, 2007). The exhibition will consist of 6 large-scale installations in the Palazzo Van Axel, a 15th-century gothic landmark bordering the Chiesa Santa Maria dei Miracoli, in the vicinity of the Rialto Bridge.

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Will the big news at the Venice Biennale (June 10 - November 21, 2007) this year be Canada’s own DAVID ALTMEJD?

(He’s still a Montrealer, even if he lives in New York and London.)

David Altmejd on the cover of Art Review

Altmejd’s work is certainly of-the-moment. His unique architectural otherworldliness made quite an impact at the Whitney Biennale in New York in 2004. There, he presented precisely arranged decay with a sculpture involving intriguing, complex network of perspex cubes, gold chains, crystals, hair and taxidermied animals. The baroque, gothic qualities of Altmejd’s work also invites comparisons to Matthew Barney’s films and sculpture.

Dave Altmejd, The Settlers (detail), 2005. Image: stuartshavemodernart.com

From an interview on Flash Art Online:

“I feel like my work is quite self-referential. I feel that it has become complex enough to be used as a source of inspiration for my future works. I like to think that when the work evolves, it is not because of something coming from the outside, but rather something coming from inside of it, like a mutation.

That way the result feels more real and alive.”

The commission created by Altmejd for the Biennale consists of two works, The Index and The Giant 2.

The Canadian pavilion is re-imagined as an aviary, a nesting place for birds. The Index is made up of various structures of wood, steel and mirror glass, interconnected and assembled. They are inhabited by flocks of stuffed birds and animals, fabricated from materials at hand and fragmented bodies - half-human, half-avian - the whole richly ornamented with tree sections and quartz crystals.

David Altmejd, The Giant, 2006. Image: stuartshavemodernart.com

The Giant 2 is a luxurious, imposing 4.3 metre behemoth attended by all manner of stuffed and sculpted birds.

David Altmejd, The Giant (detail), 2006. Image: stuartshavemodernart.com

Here are some images of the two works - The Index and Giant 2 - in progress in Altmejd’s studio:

The Index. Copyright David Altmejd. Image: galerie.uqam.ca

The Index. Copyright David Altmejd. Image: galerie.uqam.ca

The Index. Copyright David Altmejd. Image: galerie.uqam.ca

The Index. Copyright David Altmejd. Image: galerie.uqam.ca

The Index. Copyright David Altmejd. Image: galerie.uqam.ca

The Index. Copyright David Altmejd. Image: galerie.uqam.ca

The Index. Copyright David Altmejd. Image: galerie.uqam.ca

The Index. Copyright David Altmejd. Image: galerie.uqam.ca

The Index. Copyright David Altmejd. Image: galerie.uqam.ca

The Giant 2. Copyright David Altmejd. Image: galerie.uqam.ca

The Giant 2. Copyright David Altmejd. Image: galerie.uqam.ca

The Giant 2. Copyright David Altmejd. Image: galerie.uqam.ca

All images courtesy of Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York and Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London.

David Altmejd is represented by Andrea Rosen Gallery (New York) and Stuart Shave/Modern Art (London).

RON KOSTYNIUK AND JONATHAN FORREST

Ron Kostyniuk, Relief Structure: Planar Series, 1968. Image: ccca.ca

Jonathan Forrest, Tune Up, 2007. Image: newzones.com

JONATHAN FORREST has been called “part of the vibrant next generation of Saskatchewan’s abstract painters.”

His work is on view at Newzones Gallery in Calgary through June 30, 2007. Click HERE to see more of his work.

Ron Kostyniuk, Relief structure, cube series, 1968. Image: ccca.ca

Jonathan Forrest, Orange Float, 2007. Image: newzones.com

Saskatchewan-born and Calgary-based artist RON KOSTYNIUK has been making his relief sculptures since the mid 1960s. He teaches at the University of Calgary and is represented by Axis Contemporary Art in Calgary.

Kostyniuk has exhibited widely in Canada and internationally, and his work is in over 40 public collections. More recently, he has been exploring the vernacular architecture of the Canadian prairies, in particular the iconic grain silos that are fast disappearing from the landscape.

Ron Kostyniuk, Saskatchewan Road Map 2. Image: axisart.ca

See more examples of Kostyniuk’s work HERE .

Ron Kostyniuk, Relief Structure, Rod Series, 1968. Image: ccca.ca

Jonathan Forrest, Landing Strip, 2007. Image: newzones.com

Latitude 53 Contemporary Visual Culture presents the 8th annual Visualeyez… a festival of performance art, ON NOW:

18 - 27 May in Edmonton.

Curated by Todd Janes, Visualeyez is Canada’s only annual performance art festival and over the following ten days will be presenting some of the most exciting and innovative artists in performance art. Artists include: Sara Wookey (Los Angeles); Joshua Schwebel (Halifax); Juliana Pivato and Marc Couroux (Montre?al); Lori Weidenhammer (Vancouver); Amber Landgraff (Guelph); Irene Loughlin (Hamilton); Nicole Fournier (Montre?al);Emma Waltraud-Howes (Montre?al); and Mohawk multimedia artist Jackson 2Bears (Victoria).

For updates, check the Visualeyez BLOG right HERE.

VANCOUVER

Canadian Art International Lecture Series presents:

Jens Hoffman: How To Do Things With Exhibitions

Thursday May 24, 7 pm

A blurry Jens Hoffman. Image: saatch-gallery.co.uk

Hoffmann will discuss his previous projects and offer a preview of his future projects.

Formerly Director of Exhibitions at the ICA in London UK, Jens Hoffmann is presently based in San Francisco, where he is the Director of the CCA Wattis Institute of Contemporary Arts and a senior lecturer in the graduate Curatorial Practice program at the California College of the Arts.

TORONTO

The Ontario College of Art and Design presents:

Off the Wall: Reponding to Rirkrit Tiravanija’s OCAD installation

Saturday May 26, 2 - 4 pm

This panel discussion with the fascinating, erudite painter Tony Scherman, Haema Sivanesan, Executive Director of the South Asian Visual Arts Collective and OCAD gallery curator Charles Reeve.

For further reading on Rirkrit’s work, check out Jerry Saltz’s review of his recent show at David Zwirner HERE

TORONTO

The Power Plant presents:

International Lecture Series: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Wednesday, May 30, 6 pm

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Image: spots-berlin.com

In association with Pulse Front, the ethereal light sculpture that will activate Toronto’s night skyline during the city’s upcoming Luminato festival from 1–10 June, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer discusses the ideas behind his work.

The light beams of Pulse Front are activated by sensors that read the heart rates of passersby. A Mexican/Canadian artist based in Montreal, Lozano-Hemmer has exhibited internationally for over fifteen years, and will represent Mexico at this year’s Venice Biennale.

Pulse Front will be Lozano-Hemmer’s first major light sculpture in Canada, presented as part of Luminato.

Stay tuned for VoCA’s top picks for Luminato and an interview with Rafael Lozano-Hemmer coming up next week…

Andreas Gursky, Chicago Board of Trade II, 1999. Image: matthewmarks.com

Jerry Saltz’s recent article on German photographer Andreas Gursky in New York magazine (Read it HERE) illustrates a few issues that VoCA has been musing over lately:

1. Art as investment is extremely vulnerable to fashion. Gursky was (is) an extremely popular artist – his work photograph 99 Cent II Diptychon, a digitally-enhanced God’s-eye view of a discount store, was made is 2001 and sold last year for almost three million dollars, the highest price paid for a work by a living photographer. It was one from an edition of six. But with this article - by one of America’s most influential critics – casting doubt on his work, he may well come to be perceived as ‘boring’ by collectors.

Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent II Diptychon, 2001. Image: photofacts.nl

99 Cent II Diptychon, at auction. Image: thecityreview.com

2. It is often said (by many, including VoCA) that art holds little intrinsic value. And yet the best art reveals layers of meaning and ultimately gets at a universal concern. In other words, great art is about humanity. Artists from Michelangelo to Warhol have – consciously or not – addressed issues that all viewers can – consciously or not – relate to.

It’s easy to get caught up in the hype surrounding contemporary art. In retrospect, advances in printing and digital photography have produced a glut of mediocre large format colour photography. Bigger is not necessarily better, in fact it now looks rather dated.

All the more reason to:

1. Buy what you love
2. Do your due diligence and research
3. Get to know a consultant whom you trust – before buying art.

Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991. Image: artchive.com

How quickly will your contemporary art disintegrate? Will your insurance cover it?

“Repairing and restoring contemporary art can pose novel problems. One example is the 1991 installation piece by Damien Hirst “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living,” a 14-foot tiger shark suspended in a tank of formaldehyde that is considered the seminal work of the Young British Artists movement. Purchased in 2005 by hedge-fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen of Greenwich, Conn., from the collection of British advertising tycoon Charles Saatchi for a reported $8 million, the dead shark was rotting from the inside out, causing it to take on a withered appearance and clouding the fluid in the tank.

Last year, Mr. Hirst replaced the original shark with another one at his workshop in England — at Mr. Cohen’s expense, a cost well in excess of $100,000, Mr. Cohen’s spokesman confirmed. Though the centerpiece of the work has changed, it hasn’t been regarded as damaged or diminished in value, though the issue is open to question among art historians.”

Read the full article from the Wall Street Journal HERE.

Are these the most influential people in Canadian art today?

Don’t agree? Post a comment!

1. Curator: Wayne Baerwaldt.

Wayne Baerwaldt. Image: staffweb.uleth.ca

Curator of this year’s Montreal Biennale, curator of the prize-winning pavilion at the 2001 Venice Biennale (won by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller), and former Director of Toronto’s Power Plant, Baerwaldt is busy promoting artists from the West, particular from Calgary where he is director of the Illingworth Kerr Gallery at the Alberta College of Art & Design.

2. Gallerist: Catriona Jeffries.

Catriona Jeffries. Image: artnet.com

The Vancouver dealer extraordinaire opened an enormous industrial warehouse space on East 1st Street in Vancouver in June 2006, allowing room to exhibit the large scale mixed-media installations that her young artists are known for. Her roster includes art stars Geoffrey Farmer and Brian Jungen.

3. Patron: Salah Bachir.

Salah Bachir. Image: yorku.ca

The outspoken Toronto collector, publisher and businessman recently loaned a number of his Andy Warhols to the Oakville Galleries for a show that rivaled the much-hyped one at the AGO. He began seriously collecting in his early 20s and has been famously supportive of young gay artists over the years (particularly painter Attila Richard Lukacs.) His apparently outstanding personal collection now numbers over 500 works.

4. Young artist: David Altmejd.

David Altmejd and friend. Image: artnet.com

Although not living and working (or represented) in Canada, the London-based Montrealer is doing much to attract attention to the city’s art scene. He will be representing Canada at this year’s Venice Biennale, and with a solo exhibition presently touring the country, Altmejd’s delicate sculptural fantasies are unlike anything the art world has seen before. Using rock crystals, wigs and golden chains with architectural supports and taxidermied animals, his unique style has been snapped up by one of Manhattan’s hottest dealers - Andrea Rosen.

5. Established artist: A tie between Edward Burtynsky and Rodney Graham.

Ed Burtynsky. Image: rdcphoto.com

Artist Rodney Graham in one of his artworks. Image: artnet.com

While Burtynsky is the more popular, vocal, and perhaps more proactive (he founded high-level printing facility Toronto Image Works, co-founded Torontos’ Contact photography festival, received the TED Prize in 2004 and is an Officer of the Order of Canada among other recognitions), Rodney Graham has become one of Canada’s most highly-regarded and respected artists on the international art scene. He represented Canada in 1997 at Venice, had a spectacular solo exhibition that toured Canada in 2004 and is regularly included in museum exhibitions worldwide. He shows with some of the world’s top galleries (Hauser & Wirth, Donald Young, Lisson Gallery) and is gradually realizing his long-held dream of becoming a fully-fledged art rock star.

6. Director: Kathleen Bartels.

Kathleen Bartels with Bruce Mau. Image: vancourier.com

Having just renewed her contract for another five years at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Bartels looks set to continue leading the VAG on to great things. In her first term as director, the Gallery’s endowment increased from $200,000 to $5.7 million, admissions revenue doubled, acquisitions increased and programming became more international. Programming has concentrated on celebrating local stars, old and new, which has done much to promote the city as a scene with a strong past, present and future. Something that other directors in Canada might learn from. Exhibitions have featured work by local collectors Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft, architect Arthur Erickson and young artists Brian Jungen and Jason McLean as well as Haida art.

7. Board member: Rupert Duchesne at the AGO.

Rupert Duchesne. Image: aircanada.com

Mr. Duchesne, who is president and CEO of Aeroplan, is a welcome addition to an institution on life support. He was the man behind the recently announced $50,000 Grange Prize, an annual art award that will go to a Canadian or international photographer. “The Grange Prize will nurture and advance the careers of artists and engage Canadians in the burgeoning genre of art photography. Our commitment to the form is evident,” gushed AGO director Matthew Teitelbaum.

8. Media: Sarah Milroy.

Casting her (not overly) critical eye across the Canadian art landscape, Milroy deconstructs contemporary art’s meaning for the Globe’s reader. The Review section brings Canada’s museum scene together - it’s the one place where you will read about the large group exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the National Gallery in Ottawa, the Power Plant, the Musee d’Art Contemporain in Montreal and others.

9. Honorary mention: Phyllis Lambert.

Phyllis Lambert. Image: lestudio1.com

(Because even though she’s not strictly speaking visual art, she’s just so damn influential.)

The founder of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal - one of the country’s most wonderful buildings, libraries, bookshops and exhibition spaces - was famously instrumental in commissioning Mies van der Rohe for New York’s Seagram building in 1958.

1. VANCOUVER
Contemporary Art Gallery

Robin Peck, A Shallow Flight of Stairs, 2007. Image: Scott Massey/Contemporary Art Gallery

ARTIST TALK: Robin Peck

Thursday, May 17, 7pm
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The Movment Movement in motion.

Over one hundred runners ran three laps through the Royal Ontario Museum this morning… Continue reading →