1. Dean Drever: Bear Minimum

Michael Klien Gallery, Toronto

August 2 - 30, 2008

Dean Drever, She Loves Me She Loves Me Not (Bullets). Image: douglasudellgallery.com

Dean Drever continues his examination of power and violence in this show, which takes as a theme the Kodiak bear.
Drever is a member of the Haida Nation and Haida culture acknowledges the bear as an embodiment of a supreme being having both extraordinary physical and supernatural powers.

Bear Minimum presents the Bear, life sized and hand carved.

Check out more on the website HERE.

2. BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS: Paul Bureau, Michel de Broin, Sorel Cohen, Charles Stankievech and Eve K. Tremblay

Galerie Donald Browne, Montreal

July 22 - 30 August

Sorel Cohen, After Bacon/Muybridge: coupled figures/Whizzer Leg Toss, (detail), 1980. Image: Sorel Cohen/ccca.ca

Originally Sir Winston Churchill’s speech during WWII, said ‘I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat’.

The press release says: “Artwork does not require blood, sweat or tears” - though some artists might beg to differ.

Work by Michel de Broin and Eve K. Tremblay explores an intimate tension between two people. Excerpt from Bacon/Muybridge by Sorel Cohen explores the relationship of time and movement and the human condition. Paul Bureau’s paintings and ceramics open an emotional door on to physical matter, while Charles Stankievech’s sound piece explores inner emotion through headphones.

Click HERE to see the gallery website.

3. Painting: Thick & Thin: Miriam Bankey, Kyle Beal, Dave & Jenn, Chris Millar, Kim Neudorf, Patrick Lundeen, Ryan Sluggett

July 25 - 28 September, 2008

The Glenbow Museum, Calgary

Ryan Sluggett, Bad Reader, 2006. Image: akimbo.biz

The exhibition is curated by painter (and VoCA favorite) Wil Murray who says: “In conversations with the city’s exiles…I’ve found a belief that a wealthy city is hostile to artists…”

“All of these artists are, in some way, from Calgary. I was born here. We have made a new dialogue around painting in Calgary essential by reordering ideas of abundance and lack. Our work is not a direct critique of the general economic or political forces that created the city, but is grown from its specific complexity of excesses and voids.”

“Without easy access to the artifacts of art history or each others’ work, a shared imagination was built between us that sustained very inward practices in a city that looks perpetually outward.”

For more on:

Miriam Banke and Dave & Jenn, click HERE

Kyle Beale, click HERE

Chris Millar, click HERE

Kim Neudorf, click HERE

Patrick Lundeen, click HERE

Ryan Sluggett, click HERE