Canada has a strong culture of Government funded artist-run centres in every province. These are public galleries, run by artists for artists, with a strong exhibition program that supports artists from Canada and abroad.

Another type of artist-run gallery in Toronto opened earlier this month. 47 is run by three artists, Dennis Lin, Jaclyn Quaresma and Jennifer McGregor, with – so far – no grants, investors or outside funding. But it’s not an artist-run centre.

Images from Rock Bottom, the opening night exhibition, by Steve Richards. Image: 47gallery.blogspot.com

47 spoke to VoCA by email:

On artist-run centres: Though similar to, we are not an artist-run centre. The only thing that seems to connects us with the conception of an artist-run centre is the fact that we are all artists.

When we are working at the gallery we are gallerists/curators, the artists we show are our focus. Independently we are artists with our own, separate practices.

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…So what are we going to do about it?

Image: afonline.artistsspace.org

The Art Newspaper has some excellent thoughts on the subject.

Check out this highly recommended article, right HERE

This is wild:

For the 2010 Shanghai Expo, the Korean architectural firm Mass Studies has created a phenomenal layering of signs and symbols that transforms the Korean pavilion into first, a curious and bewildering puzzle, then a tasteless, junky theme park and finally an impressively well-conceived interactive, multidimensional space.

The rendering for the Korean pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. Image: designboom.com

We think Mass Studies is exemplary of the New Architecture – It not only engages in it, but actively critiques it. They critically investigate architecture in the context of mass production, intensely over-populated urban conditions, and other emergent cultural niches that define contemporary society.

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After the Conservative government made $44.8-million cuts to the arts last year, they have slowly been re-injecting money into other cultural programs.

We can see their standpoint – that they need to get value from their money, and that they cut programs that weren’t working as well and support those that do – but we’re curious what you think.

We saw the excellent King Lear at Stratford. Image: stage-door.org

The Toronto International Film Festival sent out three press releases crowing about the $3 million from the federal government, a grant “aimed at attracting new film lovers to experience Toronto”. Today’s Globe and Mail reports that the Stratford festival and the Calgary Stampede have also gotten funding.

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1. NEXT: A Series of Artist Projects from the Pacific Rim
Reece Terris: Ought Apartment
Vancouver Art Gallery
May 6 – September 20, 2009

Reece Terris, Concept drawing for Ought Apartment. Image: architecturewanted.blogspot.com

Vancouver artist Reece Terris is building a 60-foot architectural installation straight up through the heart of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Ought Apartment is an “apartment tower” with six full-sized residences stacked on top of each other, each dedicated to a decade of décor between 1950 and 2000. With an opening date of May 6, 2009, Terris and his crew are hard at work in the Gallery building what will be the largest sculptural installation ever created at the museum.

Click HERE for Reece Terris’ website, and HERE for the VAG.

Reece Terris is represented by Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver.

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Guardian art blogger Jonathan Jones defends criticism, reflecting a stance that VoCA has long championed:

“There is an opportunity for critics again – and a need….It really is time to stand up for what is good against what is meretricious. And it really is possible to find examples of excellence as well as stupidity. In other words, this is a great time to be a critic – to try to show people what really matters…”

Image: easyart.com

“Yes, there’s a staggering volume of mediocre art being talked up by fools. But there are real talents and real ideas too. The critic’s task is to identify what is good and defend it come hell or high water – and to honestly denounce the bad….”

Read the full article HERE.

Andy Goldsworthy, Rowan Leaves with Hole. Image: alluu.wordpress.com

Click HERE for more on the sculptor Andy Goldsworthy.

In THIS post from several days ago, we wrote about an artist who had created a blanket made up of American dollar bills as a response to the economy.

A more interesting – and useful – idea for artists is outlined in this Wall Street Journal article – click HERE - that identifies an age old trend currently being revived among America’s most destitute cities…Cleveland, Detroit.

Image: austinchronicle.com

Artists are moving into cheap neighbourhoods that nobody else wants, where they are picking up properties for as little as a few thousand dollars:

“Artists have become the occupiers of last resort,” said Robert McNulty, president of Partners for Livable Communities, a Washington-based nonprofit organization. “The worse things get, the more creative you have to become.”

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Ron Arad
April 8 – May 9, 2009
Timothy Taylor Gallery, London

We often wonder if design for designs sake is tenable in the 21st century. Maybe it is, as design sensibilities merge ever more closely to visual art.

Ron Arad, Thumbprint chair, 2008. Bronze. Image: artnet.com

Design legend Ron Arad is currently showing a series of experimental new works at London’s Timothy Taylor gallery, a show that we recommend checking out.

Arad’s distillation of form is reminiscent to that of British sculptor Henry Moore (whose work you can see all around the City of Toronto, including at City Hall and in the Art Gallery of Ontario), or more recently, to the mirrored pieces of Anish Kapoor.

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1. META: RYERSON NEW MEDIA GRAD SHOW TORONTO
April 16 – 18, 2009

Rose Broadbent, Of Plastic Circumstance. Image: metaart.ca

META exhibits the work of 4th Year New Media students from Ryerson University’s School of Image Arts. Of course, there are tons of grad shows this time of year, but this one strikes us as very well produced.

Look out for pieces like Hammerhead, an interactive sculpture that allows the viewer see through the eyes of an animal, and the excellent Of Plastic Circumstance by Rose Broadbent, which pairs sand with Styrofoam to offer a poignant comment on our environmental situation.

Click HERE for the website

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