VoCA was at the opening of Joshua Neustein’s contemporary response to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the fascinating new show now open at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum. Despite having had some trouble with the powers at the ROM, who apparently wanted to place stanchions everywhere, the artist and curators were able to get the installation up and it looks great. Margins,
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Andy Warhol had it right…the notion of celebrity speaks volumes about our culture and VoCA thinks it’s important to be aware of the implications. How will this change our culture in future? Michael Jackson by Andy Warhol made the cover of Time. Image: timeinc.net Some interesting notes: Aside from whether heart attack or impending media pressure killed Michael Jackson, it
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Saturn Return 30th Anniversary party Mercer Union, Toronto Friday July 10, 2009 Earlyish ’til lateish These days, when it’s so important to think local, it’s especially important to support your local art scene. Mercer Union Artist Run Centre in Toronto is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary on July 10 with Saturn Return. Come out and support Toronto’s artists – Mark your
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Conceptual artist Ian Wallace is a very big deal in Canada, particularly in Vancouver where he is regarded as the father of the conceptual photography movement – his students included Jeff Wall and VoCA favorite Rodney Graham. Wallace has won the Molson Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. His works often bring together the photo, the painting and
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In The Trees: Works from the Battat Collection Battat Contemporary, Montreal July 2 – August 15, 2009 Ed Pien, Night Gathering, 2005. All images courtesy Battat Contemporary. Montreal’s newest collector-led art space, Battat Contemporary, run by the collector Joe Battat, opened in March 2009 and has quickly made a name for itself by mixing Battat’s interest in Old Master drawings
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VoCA went to Montreal and by far the best thing we saw was Michal Rovner’s wonderful installation Particles of Reality, her first solo exhibition in Canada, at DHC Art Foundation. The exhibition, which opened in May and runs through September 27, begins with the same video works projected onto Petri dishes that the artist showed at the 2005 Venice biennale’s
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Thomas Kneubühler, installation view: ‘Brise Soleil’ éclairant ‘Mount Hortons’ & ‘The Mountain (Switch)’, “Electric #1″, 2009 and “Electric #3″ , 2009. Image: projex-mtl.com
Burning Cold 18 June – 30 August 2009 The Ottawa Art Gallery For a while now VoCA has been interested in the new Inuit art – in fact, we interviewed Inuit art dealer Pat Feheley about it HERE. Feheley speaks eloquently and knowledgeably on the “sea change” that occurred once Cape Dorset artists discovered that they could depict the world
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Paulette Gagnon, chief curator of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, has been given the top job at the gallery. Paulette Gagnon. Image: newswire.ca She will replace Mark Mayer, who left last year for the bigger top job at the National Gallery of Canada. Paulette Gagnon is the 9th director general of the museum, and the third woman to occupy
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At first glance, you can’t help but wonder about the point of it all. A group of artists travel to the world’s biggest art party to…well, party, paddle around in canoes, drink lots of prosecco and generally live it up in a rambling palazzo. Oh yes, and make whatever ‘art’ takes their fancy. The Canadian off-pavilion contribution, Reverse Pedagogy, was
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Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...