3 things: An article, an artist project, an exhibition

August 21st, 2007 | Articles, Exhibitions, News: Canada

1. This brilliant and hilarious article by Blake Gopnik in the Washington Post is a must-read. Gopnik makes a convincing case for why a local auto-body shop’s mural is High Art. Or does he?

Blake Gopnik’s High Art mural. Image: Richard A. Lipski/The Washington Post

“At some 40 feet across, our picture has the scale to beat the giant postwar paintings of modern masters such as Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman. It’s also got truly modern colors: A background of the most acid yellow-green, with figures on it in a baby blue, generates a color-clash Picasso would be proud of.

Pablo Picasso, Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper, 1913. Image: cti.itc.virginia.edu

Speaking of Picasso, our picture plays almost cubist games with space and perspective: A car hovers in midair, suspended in — or on? — the void of that green background, while below it stands a mechanic figure almost out of a futurist painting by Fernand Leger. Or is that worker standing in front of the car? Or simply farther down the picture plane, in a space all of his own? The ambiguities only add to the painting’s force.”

Fernand Leger: “The Mechanic”, 1920. Image: academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu

Read the article HERE

2. DHC Art Foundation in Montreal has awarded its first production grant to New York-based Canadian artist Nancy Davenport, for a project that will be installated at the 2007 Istanbul Biennial, September 8 - 4 November, 2007.

The installation, titled Workers, is a moving DVD frieze depicting Norweigian workers and their out-sourced Chinese counterparts in a representation arising from issues of globalization.

3. The Sobey Art Award shortlist exhibition at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, from September 15 - December 2, 2007.

5 artists, each representing one Canadian region, have been shortlisted for the annual $50,000 Sobey Art Prize, awarded to an artist 39 years old or younger who has shown their work in Canada in the previous 18 months. This year’s shortlist is:

Michel de Broin - Quebec

Michel de Broin, Black Whole Conference, 2006. Image: micheldebroin.org
Jean-Denis Boudreau - Atlantic