Iain Baxter& Landscape with Sea Boats, 1999, (from the series Television Works).
Image: corkingallery.com

Over the years, we’ve loved the AGO (the Yoko Ono exhibition in 2002, the acquisition of David Almejd’s 2007 Venice pavilion installation, the Henry Moore sculpture gallery with the Julian Opie pole dancers, Swing Space) and we’ve loathed them (Nuit Blanche 2006, their lack of innovative curatorial thinking, the institution’s low energy and measly acquisition budget…)

With the increasingly awesome looking Frank Gehry reno (now there’s an architect who knows what he’s doing) we feel that things are looking up. There’s also their controversial new logo, courtesy of Bruce Mau Design - but more on that in the next day or so…

In the meantime…

The Art Gallery of Ontario under construction. Image: artwranglers.com

The Art Gallery of Ontario has got an amazing opportunity to use the opening as a platform to re-energize itself, and, by proxy, the city.

VoCA says: Let’s have exhibitions move out of the box and into the city (like the CAG in Vancouver), let’s have galleries that engage with neighbourhood activities like pedestrian Sundays in Kensington Market and other local urban initiatives, let’s hope they bring in great exhibitions that celebrate Canada’s admirable cultural history and current producers (like Montreal).

We have gotten the scoop on one of the new gallery’s early exhibits. It will be a large-scale retrospective of work by the early conceptualist, Vancouver-based artist Iain Baxter&.

Iain Baxter&. Image: protocol.gov.bc.ca

Iain Baxter& is an artist whose earliest work hold up next to today’s cutting edge contemporary artists. Through the N.E. Thing Co. [Anything Company], a pseudonym he established in 1966, Baxter has produced some of his most significant work.

Iain Baxter&, Still Life: Animal Preserve, 1999 (detail). Image: corkingallery.com

His art and his ideas have had a lasting influence on local artists such as Ian Wallace, Stan Douglas, Jeff Wall and VoCA favorite Rodney Graham.

Baxter was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2003 and this year he was awarded the 2004 Governor General’s Award in the Visual and Media Arts.

Ian Baxter&, Still Life, Small Bag (Blue), 1965. Image: corkingallery.com

We could go on, but here is what the Canada Council jury said upon awarding him the $50,000 Molson Prize in 2005:

“Recognized internationally as an icon of conceptual art, (Baxter) is among the most thought-provoking and pioneering of contemporary Canadian artists. His highly-regarded conceptual installations and projects, as well as his photography, have earned him the label the Marshall McLuhan of the visual arts. His art, produced in various media, is rooted in everyday life and reflects new and unique ways of seeing consumer and corporate culture, the environment, landscape and technology. Iain Baxter is widely influential as an artist and teacher.”

Ian Baxter&, Door, Ballentyne Wharf, Vancouver 1968. Image: corkingallery.com

No dates confirmed as of yet, but stay tuned….

Iain Baxter& is represented by Corkin Gallery, Toronto. Click HERE for the gallery web site.

Iain Baxter&, Garage Door, Vancouver, BC 1967. Image: corkingallery.com