1. Christian Marclay: REPLAY
DHC/ART Foundation, Montreal
November 30, 2008 – March 29, 2009

Christian Marclay, David Bowie, 1991. Image: waninator.blogspot.com

This exhibition features the North American premiere of Christian Marclay’s REPLAY. Originally curated by Emma Lavigne at the Cité de la musique in Paris, REPLAY gathers Marclay’s video work, which has emerged as a dominant strand of his art practice.

Artist, composer and DJ, Christian Marclay works across numerous media—including collage, sculpture, installation, performance and video—and has created a unique multidisciplinary body of work that fuses the realms of audio culture and fine art.

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After having seen the basement, first and second floors - see our post HERE - we returned last night to the AGO see the upper galleries.

We took the elevator up to the fifth floor, where the soaring ceilings made the rooms feel spacious. The only criticism we had, really was the inescapable feeling that the galleries were overcrowded.

A lot of large scale work demands large open space to make it feel proportionate, like Brian Jungen’s oversized totem poles, or the Mark Lewis (next year’s representative at the Venice Biennale) excellent video of Algonquin Park.

Mark Lewis, Algonquin Park, Early March, 2002. Image: marklewisstudio.com

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In a turn of events that was bound to happen eventually, advertising agencies have realized they can exploit a recent change in the law to sell space in St. Mark’s Square, Venice and make a large profit. An enormous billboard-sized watch ad featuring the villain of a James Bond film dominates the square opposite the Doges’ palace.

The colonnade surrounding piazza San Marco in Venice. Image: Frederick Muller/photo.net

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Sombre sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s mark end of art boom, says the FT.

“However, (Sotheby’s) managed to sell its star piece, an abstract work by Kazimir Malevich, for $53m - $60m after the buyers’ premium - after securing an irrevocable bid for the work. It had estimated it would sell for about $60m…”

Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist composition (blue rectangle over purple beam), 1916 sold at Sotheby’s last week for $60,002,500. This was not only a record for the artist, but a record for any Russian work of art ever sold at auction. The masterwork was executed in 1916, the same year that Malevich published his Suprematist Manifesto.

This is evidence of the fracture that is currently taking place in the art market, where certain acknowledged masterpieces (historical, mid-century and contemporary) retain their value as mid-market works suffer.

Read the full article HERE.

Read a related article on the Sotheby’s sale from Artdaily.com HERE.

VoCA loved La Pocha Nostra!

In their Canadian premiere, Mexican American performance troupe La Pocha Nostra presented a one-night only performance of Divino Corpo: Temple of improbable and invisible causes at MOCCA in Toronto on Friday night.

Photo: Joshua Meles.

Four scenarios were set up, one against each wall of the museum’s main space in “living dioramas”, slowly moving and occasionally settling into tableaux vivants. Against the West wall the chief - in red feather headdress and long grey hair woven in a loose braid - held court, wearing one motorcycle boot and one black high heel shoe. He sat on a throne flanked by Tom Dean’s life sized bronze hounds. Over the course of the evening, he read a manifesto, gazed into a mirror, was seductively fed a banana by a minion, and threatened to cut a terrified-looking volunteer’s long blonde hair, until the crowd convinced him otherwise.

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Sure, the newly renovated Art Gallery of Ontario is all about the architecture, expertly done by Frank Gehry in a way that makes up for the ROM debacle, but what about the art?

As we wandered the lower floor galleries, we were continually surprised, mostly in a positive way.

Lord Thomson’s donations have been given pride of place. His collection of model ships in the basement are extraordinary, and worth the price of admission alone.

L’Ocean, French warship c. 1795. Thompson Collection. Image: ago.net

Upstairs on the second floor, there is the Galleria Italiana, which overlooks Dundas Street and is gorgeous. The galleries open with Michael Snow’s Walking Woman sculptures before leading to gallery after gallery of Group of Seven works. Luckily, they hold their own and the small sketches, hung closely packed together, often read like stills in a role of film. The effect is to bring the visitor face to face with the great white north. The Clarence Gagnon’s oil sketches on board were particularly stunning for their use of colour as was the entire wall of Lawren Harris canvases. Several small galleries were entirely devoted to David Milne, prints, drawings and paintings.

This curatorial strategy wouldn’t work everywhere, but in Canada where many visitors won’t be overly familiar with these artists, it’s an instant lesson in art and cultural history.

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Art and Investing seminar

November 19th, 2008

Angell Gallery, Toronto

With guest speakers:

Andrea Carson - Art consultant, critic & publisher of online art resource View on Canadian Art

Jeremy Tabarrok - wealth advisor, ScotiaMcLeod

Jamie Angell - gallerist, Angell Gallery

This seminar is designed to answer questions about buying art, refining and working with your collection, and assessing its value.

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1. HARUN FAROCKI: one image doesn’t take the place of the previous one

1 November 2008 to 1 February 2009

Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston Ontario

Some of you may have seen Farocki’s excellent film installation at last year’s Documenta in Kassel, Germany. Or perhaps when it was shown as part of Re-Enactments at Montreal’s DHC/ART Foundation.

Harun Farocki Deep Play (2007) Image: canadianart.ca

This exhibition brings together six installations by renowned German filmmaker Harun Farocki, several of which are being presented in North America for the first time. Farocki’s filmic montages are presented in the gallery, where documentary visuals are subtly accompanied by spoken commentary.

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From the November 1 issue of the Globe and Mail, Jeremy Gerard writes from New York:

Barack Obama…is the first White House contender to include a far-reaching arts plank in his platform.

Barack Obama…looking good. Image: dcpox.com

The proposals range from increased support for arts education and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to changing the U.S. federal tax code for artists. “It is unprecedented”, said Robert L. Lynch, president and chief executive officer of Americans for the Arts, a Washington-based arts advocacy group, explaining that no U.S. presidential candidate in recent times has addressed cultural issues in such detail.

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Luis Jacob, A Dance for Those of Us Whose Hearts Have Turned to Ice, Based on the Choreography of Françoise Sullivan and the Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth (With Sign-Language Supplement), 2007. Image: flickr.com

Françoise Sullivan’s rather significant contribution to visual arts in Canada was re-acknowledged by artist Luis Jacob when he referenced her in his video installation A Dance for Those of Us Whose Hearts Have Turned to Ice, Based on the Choreography of Françoise Sullivan and the Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth (With Sign-Language Supplement) (2007) that was shown at last year’s highly regarded art exhibit Documenta 12, in Kassel Germany.

As a recipient of the 2008 Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Sullivan will receive a $25,000 award and her work will be featured in a temporary exhibition at the AGO in 2009.

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