David Hoffos: Scenes from the House Dream
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
6 November 2009 – 14 February 2010

David Hoffos, Scenes from the House Dream: Barnett Newman, 2004 Detail of diorama.
Image: canadianart.ca

“I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.”
— Gaston Bachelard (The Poetics of Space)

Up in the small city of Lethbridge, Alberta, artist David Hoffos has, for a number of years now, been working on an elaborate 5-phase series of work titled Scenes from the House Dream.

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So she didn’t win the Sobey Art Prize this year…but Shary Boyle has won the 2009 Iskowitz Prize from the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Shary Boyle, Lovers, 2009. Image: canadianart.ca

Awarded for her outstanding contribution to visual arts in Canada, the $25,000 Prize includes an exhibition of her work at the AGO in 2010.

Visit Shary Boyle’s website HERE and the Art Gallery of Ontario HERE.

Boyle is represented by Jessica Bradley Art + Projects in Toronto.

It’s perhaps unsurprising, given the inflated heights to which it has recently risen, that filmmakers would be attracted to the comedic aspects of the contemporary art world.

Martin Creed, Work No. 227 Lights going on and off, 2000. 5 seconds on / 5 seconds off
Image: tate.org.uk

In New York last weekend we saw the film Untitled, which offers an interesting glimpse into this world – Chelsea in Manhattan, to be precise.

Click HERE for the plot synopsis and to view the trailer. It’s a decent film, best for its perceptive assessment of the characters that fill this world, their desire to succeed and their utter conviction in quite empty ideas.

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The 2010 Carnegie Art Award for Nordic art at the Kunsthal Charlottenborg offered a chance to compare new art from the Nordic countries with art being made in Canada. Like a lot of young Canadian art, there was strong work but much of it felt familiar, unsurprising and safe.

Tone Kristin Bjordam, Liquid Landscape. Image: idfx.nl

But much of it was also beautiful, like Tone Kristin Bjordam’s video Liquid Landscape showing drops of coloured ink spilling into water upside down like rainbow-hued mushroom clouds, and a spatially fragmented video/object piece by Egill Saebjornsson that was good, but less complex than David Rokeby’s excellent Giver of Names.

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We’ll attend the opening of Untitled, a new movie about the art world.

A still from the movie. Image: themusic.fm

It’s a comedy, starring Adam Goldberg and set in Chelsea, Manhattan. The film tells the story of Adrian Jacobs, a difficult composer of equally difficult music whose sparsely attended performances involve musicians breaking glass and kicking metal buckets. In contrast, Adam’s brother is a commercially successful painter of vapid canvasses that corporate clients snap up by the dozen.

But, Adrian’s luck appears set to change when Josh brings the stunning Madeleine to one of his concerts. She embraces his work and ask him to perform at her gallery, and as the two embark on a fiery affair, Adrian is introduced to a world of pretentious art collectors, dueling gallerists and eccentric artists, including Ray Barko (played by the excellent Vinnie Jones), whose bizarre creations include chandeliers of stuffed animals and dead cows draped with jewelry….

Stay tuned for our review. Click HERE to watch the trailer.

…In London:

Sales were up at Frieze art fair in London apparently, but collectors are bargain-hunting. Artists continue apace, and you’ve got to hand it to Swiss artist Christoph Buchel for bravely exhibiting a pair of his old, worn socks on the floor of Hauser & Wirth, for sale at €20,000. Not sure if they sold.

Christoph Büchel Socks, 2009. Image: artfagcity.com

Editions are big news. White cube gallery in London exhibited as White Cube Editions at the Zoo art fair, offering affordable but highly branded prints and multiples by artists.

One of Damien Hirst’s Blue Paintings that are being slammed by critics in London.
Image: slamxhype.com

The latest trend seems to be blatant piss-taking (Hirst on Francis Bacon, Elmgreen Dragsett on Giacometti, the Korean artist Gimhongsok on Jeff Koons, or one of Stephanie Syjuco’s artists who have copied Gimhongsok’s copy of Koons.) This seems to point to a lack of creative inspiration among artists, perhaps a fatigue of having to create new, inspiring artwork. It’s as if they are creating lesser, imitation editions of great work and it’s an interesting trend to keep watching.

In related news, in THIS op-ed in the NYT last week argued that today’s conceptual art will go the way of the dodo bird. It’s craftsmanship and technical skill that will serve art in the long term, not “witty” conceptual ideas. VoCA thinks the writer certainly has a point.

…and in Canada:

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It’s art fair season, and VoCA was in London but opted out of the crowded, frenzied booths of Frieze and Zoo, choosing instead to focus on silent, monumental, brave and important art in the galleries.

We also went to Copenhagen – but more on that soon.

Anish Kapoor, Svayambh. Image: telegraph.co.uk

In London, our favorite thing was the Anish Kapoor show at the Royal Academy, or more specifically, one piece in the show. Kapoor, winner of the 1991 Turner Prize and creator of Chicago’s $23 million Cloud Gate, has become one of the most important sculptors working today. The enormous wax piece, Svayambh moved slowly on a track through several galleries. It was truly awe-inspiring.

The best art always takes risks.

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We’ll be back soon with reports on Pop Life at Tate Modern, Gustav Metzger at the Serpentine, the Artangel commissions…

Seizure, 2008 by Roger Hiorns. An Artangel commission by the Turner Prize-shortlisted artist. Image: tate.org.uk

…Anish Kapoor at the Royal Academy, Radical Nature and Heather and Ivan Morrison at the Barbican, the Turner Prize shortlist, and much more!

Just found this on Luxist.com:

Louis Vuitton’s new book: Art, Fashion and Architecture. Image: luxist.com

“A seductive anthology of the famed French fashion house’s collaborations with an international group of elite artists, architects, designers, and photographers, including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, David LaChapelle, Annie Leibovitz, Takashi Murakami (whose updated LV monogram is featured on the cover) Richard Prince and Stephen Sprouse.”

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Alberta is seeing a lot of cultural action these days.

There’s Santiago Calatrava’s controversial bridge, Lethbridge’s own (and VoCA favorite) David Hoffos with a large retrospective coming up this fall at the National Gallery of Canada, and Nigerian artist El Anatsui giving a talk tomorrow at the Glenbow Museum, courtesy of the Canadian Art Foundation, to name just a few things going on.

Burtynsky’s new book. Image: rsvppost.com

Not to mention the Art Gallery of Alberta, which is currently under construction and set to open in early 2010 with Edward Burtynsky: Oil.

From October 9 – December 12, the Illingworth Kerr Gallery at the Alberta College of Art and Design launches 2 exhibitions by an American and an Irish artist, that explore the issues associated with the idea of the North and related ideas of the West.

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