VoCA contributor Catherine Toews visited Allyson Mitchell’s exhibition in Kingston, Ontario recently. Here are her thoughts: An installation shot of the exhibition’s dolls. Image: uniongallery.queensu.ca Allyson Mitchell’s mixed-media work integrates a dizzying array of soft, girly, gaudy components – Cabbage Patch doll heads, hooked animal rugs, cross-stitched kittens, ceramic dolls, and fuzzy pink afghan blankets. It is a testament to
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Nuit Blanche Toronto takes place this Saturday, October 4th from dusk ’til dawn. Since last year’s audience doubled to 800,000 VoCA has selected what we think will be the evening’s highlights. Click HERE for our critics picks of Zone A and HERE for Zone B. Zone C is down in Toronto’s Liberty Village this year, and is made up of
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Vancouver painter Jeremy Hof has won the 10th annual RBC Painting competition for his work entitled layer painting red. Jeremy Hof, layer painting red, 2008. Image: courtesy RBC. Amanda Reeves of Oakville and (VoCA favorite) Wil Murray of Montreal were revealed as honourable mentions for their work Untitled 08 2008 and Sexe Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac Maniac.
Please, please read the full article that Ms. Atwood – the queen of Canada’s literary scene – wrote in yesterday’s Globe and Mail about the Conservative government’s cuts to the arts. Here’s an excerpt: “Tuesday, (Prime Minister Stephen Harper) told us that some group called “ordinary people” didn’t care about something called “the arts.” His idea of “the arts” is
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We saw two exhibitions in New York recently: Giorgio Morandi at the Metropolitan Museum and After Nature at the New Museum. Giorgio Morandi, Still Life (Natura morta), 1961. Image: metmuseum.org Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964) September 16–December 14, 2008 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Morandi was excellent. We kept thinking of Plato’s theory of Forms, which are described as
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Before we get to our Report from New York, we should mention the gala dinner that we attended last night in celebration of one of Canada’s most notable philanthropists and cultural supporters, Mr. Jim Fleck. Jim Fleck. Image: rotman.utoronto.ca Cultural bigwigs from Karen Kain to (VoCA favorite) the extraordinary cabaret star Patricia O’Callaghan came out to salute Mr. Fleck and
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Julian Schnabel’s Rose Bar, part of his interior at the Grammercy Park Hotel, where we’ll be having cocktails. Image: ontheinside.info There’s a great interview with Mr. Schnabel in Art Review. Click HERE and download the digital mag, free.
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto Dyed Roots: The New Emergence of Culture September 9 – October 26, 2008 This beautiful exhibition, curated by Camilla Singh in the difficult space of MoCCA, presents “the intermingling of cultures…considered as a natural consequence of immigration and travel.” Rina Banerjee, Crib sculpture. Image: rinabanerjee.net The show’s title refers to intrinsic qualities that persist
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We know that it has its sights set on becoming more culturally-aware. Now, the city of Calgary, Alberta has just announced “a stunning Western bronze destined to become one of the largest sculptures in North America and one of the city’s most photographed icons.” A model for the bronze. Image: cbc.ca
Damien Hirst, The Explosion – Exalted, 2006. Image: ionarts.blogspot.com VoCA loves reading FT art critic Jackie Wullschlager’s take on things. Here’s her take on Damien Hirst’s sale at Sotheby’s in London, which happens today. “Warhol..and Jeff Koons…were prophets of this collusion, but (Damien Hirst’s upcoming Sotheby’s sale) “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” is its apogee. It does not matter what
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Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...