Your Cultural Concierge! VoCA offers critical commentary on the Canadian art scene, with a focus on Toronto. Featuring exhibition previews, critics picks, interviews and in-depth articles on art in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Halifax.
March 18th, 2009 — Thoughts on art
“(A lot of art) I see lacks soul, they might be clever, or well done, but it’s like the difference between listening to Theola Kilgore or one of the great R&B singers then having to listen to Britney Spears. Somebody like Jeff Koons I think is just litter upon the earth, I look at his stuff and I’m appalled, I can’t access where these people are coming from…”
Patti Smith, 1979 by Robert Mapplethorpe. Image: tate.org.uk/robert mapplethorpe foundation
March 18th, 2009 — Underrated Canadian Artists
Québécoise painter Marcelle Ferron was a member of Les Automatistes, a group, led by Paul-Emile Borduas, that believed that painting should be a result of the abstract workings of the inner psyche released subconsciously.
Marcelle Ferron. Image: nfb.ca
She became well known also for her stained glass pieces, which she learned in Quebec and pursued further while living in Paris from 1953 – 1966; the Metro station Champ-de-Mars in Montreal contains one of her windows.
She was awarded the Paul-Émile-Borduas medal for the visual arts in 1983, and in 1985 was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec. She was promoted to Grand Officer in 2000, one year before her death.
Marcelle Ferron, Les barrens, 1961- Image: artnet.com
“The only woman to sign the Réfus Global, Ferron championed an approach to art that rejected the figurative and formal traditions of her Beaux Arts training. Her early canvases are visceral studies of the post-war psyche that bare witness to a period of re-birth and reinvention in French Canadian Art.”
(AJ Lloyd, 2009)
March 17th, 2009 — Painting, Sculpture/Installation, Toronto and region
Daniel Borins and Jennifer Marman: Project for a New American Century
28 January – 29 March 2009
Art Gallery of York University, Toronto
A curator friend of ours, whose opinion we value, called this show “the best thing I’ve seen in Toronto in years..”
The first gallery. Image: canadianart.ca
March 13th, 2009 — Architecture, Art News: Canada, Toronto and region
Any thoughts on this article from today’s Globe and Mail?
Facing a huge revenue shortfall, and with too few people passing through its doors, the Art Gallery of Ontario is considering laying off 61 permanent and 47 contract employees next month….
The view from the back. Image: architecturepeanuts.blogspot.com
..Less than three weeks before the end of its fiscal year, AGO revenues are 20 per cent below projections, according to Susan Bloch-Nevitt, the gallery’s executive director of public affairs. Some 343,000 people have visited the redesigned Frank Gehry building since it opened in mid-November, roughly 16 per cent shy of the 400,000 visitors gallery officials had expected to see by March 31.
Read full article HERE.
March 13th, 2009 — Thoughts on art
The more we’ve been thinking about the current state of the art market, the more we’re growing tired of it.
Now that the economy is providing a much-needed shakedown in the art world, VoCA says it’s time to re-think where the value of art stems from. Value doesn’t come from some clever young art school grad who comes up with a new take on an old story…art has value because it contains a universally recognized, though often subtle, authentic quality.
Francesco Clemente, House of Cards, 2001. Image: artnet.com
As Marx wrote, the value of money stems from the labour to which it was once – but no longer – attached. Likewise, art on the secondary market has divorced itself from its real, important meaning and begins to take on much more sinister associations.
(Check out the excellent NYT article on mega-dealer Larry Gagosian HERE if you haven’t already)
March 13th, 2009 — Art News: Canada, Calgary and region, Edmonton, Halifax and Eastern Canada, Montreal, Nuit Blanche Toronto, Ottawa, Toronto and region, Upcoming Events & Exhibitions, Vancouver and region, Winnipeg
1. Canada’s $70,000 Sobey Art Award has announced its longlist
Stay tuned for the shortlist announcement on May 1.
Ilan Sandler, Tactlility, 2005. Image: Ilansandler.com
WEST COAST AND YUKON
Rhonda Weppler & Trevor Mahovsky; Luanne Martineau; Keith Langergraber;Evan Lee; Julie York
PRAIRIES AND THE NORTH
Paul Butler; Marcel Dzama; Sarah Anne Johnson; Jon Pylypchuk; AltheaThauberger
ONTARIO
Shary Boyle; Christian Giroux & Daniel Young; Luis Jacob; Kelly Richardson; Derek Sullivan
QUÉBEC
David Altmejd; Raphaëlle de Groot; Manon De Pauw; Pascal Grandmaison; Adad Hannah
ATLANTIC
Alexandra Flood; Tara K. Wells; Ilan Sandler; Graeme Patterson; Joe
McKay
March 10th, 2009 — Montreal, Performance art, Sculpture/Installation, Toronto and region, Upcoming Events & Exhibitions, Video/New Media
TORONTO
2 of 2 Gallery
Jeremy Bailey: Machine Ego
Saturday, March 14, 6-7 pm
Jeremy Bailey, still from VideoPaint 3.0. Image: http.uk.net
For his first solo show at 2 of 2 Gallery, Jeremy presents some of his most recent works including Video Terraform Dance Party, VideoPaint 3.0 and SOS, alongside new works.
In these new videos Bailey continues his research in melding productivity and art by creating new satirical interfaces for office related tasks that also help a user create unique works of art; think 3d digital bricolage calculator. Jeremy will also present a live performance at the opening, featuring a demo of some of his most recent software.
For more information, please click HERE.
MONTREAL
DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art
PRESENTS: A film by Michael Snow
Thursday, March 19, 2009
March 9th, 2009 — Painting, Performance art, Sculpture/Installation, Video/New Media
VoCA is a big champion of art made by women, that style of post-feminist work that is ultimately about the experience of being female. Some of our favorite artists are Toronto-based Gunilla Josephson, Pipilotti Rist, Judy Chicago (currently showing in Toronto), Vancouver’s Gathie Falk and many others.
Gunilla Josephson, stills from Invasions. Images: gunillajosephson.com
Here’s an FT article on several women whose work is on view in London this month: Isa Genzken, Gitl Braun, Berlinde de Bruyckere, (VoCA favorite) <a href=”http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/rebecca_warren.htm”>Rebecca Warren</a> and Annette Messager.
“Taken together, their work argues that women are evolving a language and materiality that is original, oppositional, malleable, and fascinatingly contrasts with work by men.”
March 7th, 2009 — Toronto and region, Video/New Media
João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva: MAGNETIC RESONANCE ON ABISSOLOGIC EXPERIMENTS
Mercer Union, Toronto
March 06 – April 18, 2009
Get a preview of the artists who will represent Portugal at this year’s Venice Biennale.
João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva, Colombo’s Column, 2006. 16-millimeter film, 3:02 min.
Image: wattis.org
This duo blends early silent cinema, archaeological dig, and late-60s land art into “poetic fictions”. They may not make sense to you, but they are lovely and use retro effects like that iron filings and magnets game from the early 1970s.
March 5th, 2009 — Architecture
HERE is Designboom’s preview of Milan’s furniture fair – arguably the best, most prestigious event of its kind in the world.
While we’re looking forward to the beautiful objects by emerging young designers, we’re a little uncomfortable.
Now that the ideas behind Bruce Mau’s ahead-of-its-time exhibition MASSIVE CHANGE are filtering into public consciousness and ‘cradle-to-cradle‘ is becoming a more popular, and recognized term….
Not a good thing. Image: earthfirst.com
…VoCA wonders whether furniture designers shouldn’t shift the definition of their work a few degrees.
Is it possible to – with a clear conscience – design objects for purely aesthetic reasons now that our environment is so immediately under threat?
Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...Read full bio