Karen Engle’s book Seeing Ghosts: 9/11 and the Visual Imagination takes an intriguing, and – she argues – much needed look at the artworks and ephemera that surrounded September 11.

Eric Fischl, Tumbling Woman. Image: artnet.com

You probably haven’t given much thought to Eric Fischl‘s sculpture Tumbling Woman, which was placed and quickly pulled from Rockefeller Centre when it became clear that a woman in mid-fall wasn’t an appropriate memorial (no closure).

Continue reading →

Well, it’s down to five.

Who will win the $70,000 Sobey Art Prize this year?

After last years win by Vancouver superstar Tim Lee (stolen, we think, from Winnipeg’s excellent Daniel Barrow) and won the year before by Montrealer Michel de Broin (who we interviewed HERE and whose pedal powered Buick we covered HERE), this year it’s down to this group:

WEST COAST AND YUKON: Luanne Martineau, whose fuzzy felted pieces we really like for their craft element and references to Minimal art and painters like Philip Guston.

Luanne Martineau, Dangler, 2008. Image: akimbo.ca

PRAIRIES AND THE NORTH: Marcel Dzama, he of the much-copied naive drawings that were so much in vogue several years ago. From Winnipeg, where he lived, Dzama seemingly influenced all of Brooklyn. Now he lives in New York and shows with David Zwirner Gallery, where he’s been making sort of awkward dioramas.

Continue reading →