It’s kind of interesting that the new Art Gallery of Alberta, which is slated to open on January 31st, will be collaborating with the National Gallery of Canada to bring works from the NGC to Alberta audiences.

Goya Disasters of War, 1810 – 20. Image: tate.org.uk

It’s a great idea that bridges the Canadian geographic gap nicely and brings excellent exhibitions to Edmonton. The first featured exhibition will be the beautiful, brutal Goya: The Disasters of War and Los Caprichos, which will run until May 30th.

Read the full article HERE.

Here are a few good art-world happenings coming up:

Edward Burtynsky, Oil Fields #22, Cold Lake Production Project, Cold Lake, Alberta, 2001. Image: arttattler.com

• Photographer Ed Burtynsky is planning a new traveling exhibition on the theme of Oil that will be on at the soon-to-be opened Art Gallery of Alberta in 2010

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“With their artists competing on an international stage, Canadians can no longer complain of their country as a cultural backwater nor luxuriate in the nostalgic charm of provincialism. In art as in political, social and economic activities, Canada is fully involved in the world of today,”
– Dr. R. H. Hubbard, former Chief Curator of the National Gallery of Canada.

Guido Molinari, Untitled, 1964. Image: artnet.com

Walking down Bloor Street in Toronto last night, we stopped at a bookshop’s outdoor display and there, right in front of us, on sale for $1.99, was a copy of Canadian Art Today, originally published in 1970 by Studio International.

Edited by William Townsend, a professor at the University of London, the slim book is filled with contributions from Canada’s art elite at the time: R.H. Hubbard, then chief curator of the National Gallery of Canada, Doris Shadbolt, then curator of the Vancovuer Art Gallery, curators Dennis Reid, Pierre Theberge and David Thompson.

“Canadian artists were dependent for generations on the artistic traditions of France and England and it is only since the last war that contemporary American influences have made a decisive impact,” writes Townsend.

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Thomas Kneubühler: Tresspass Act
and
J. Stanton: Art Paraphernalia for a Modern World
Latitude 53, Edmonton
7 August – 5 September, 2009

Thomas Kneubühler, Access Denied, Le Black Jack Resto Bar (Guard#7)
Image: thomaskneubuhler.com

Kneubühler’s artist project comprises a traditional gallery show, and more interestingly, a series of large billboard-sized outdoor photographs of security guards displayed on the sides of buildings.

“North America is preoccupied with security,” says the artist: “In the gallery exhibition, we see industrial zones and office buildings, places that are deserted at night time. The viewer can peak through the windows, yet becomes a trespasser himself while being watched by security cameras and guards.”

Surveillance is a timely and interesting topic, but in this format it doesn’t really succeed as it should.

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Richard Rhodes, editor of Canadian Art magazine, will curate the 7th Alberta Biennale at the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton.

Walter May, History, 1989. Image: ccca.ca

Rhodes, who is planning a series of studio visits with artists from the province, commented on how many great and overlooked artists are living and working in Alberta. He plans to mix in some less known artists with the upcoming young artists for which the province is becoming increasingly known.

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An inspiring story from Edmonton on how artist Kristy Trinier is shaking things up in Edmonton as the Public Art Director for the Edmonton Arts Council.

Kristy Trinier and Davide DiSaro, Inkognito, 2005. Image: skewgallery.com

The above work by Kristy Trinier was a collaborative sound and light installation for an exhibition of paintings by Sverre Bjertnaes at the Trondheim Kunstmuseum in Norway. Ten record players continuously looped, playing a composition developed with sound software and printed on white vinyl LP’s. The paintings in this work of the exhibition were only visible in the black lights. Materials used were vinyls, record players, black lights.

Read the full article from Vue Weekly HERE.

For more on Kristy Trinier, see Skew Gallery’s website, HERE.

Painter Graham Peacock has been teaching painting at the University of Alberta since 1969, when he arrived in Canada from England.

Graham Peacock, Valor, 2003. Image: grahampeacock.com

Perhaps not strictly speaking underrated, Peacock has been exhibiting throughout Canada on a regular basis since 1971. In 2003 he had an exhibition of recent work at the New New Painting Museum in Toronto, and in 2005 had a retrospective at the Ernest Poole gallery in Edmonton.

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How relevant are art schools today? Do artists really require education beyond basic technical training? Do art institutions hinder, rather than help the creative expression of artists today?

Bruce Nauman, The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign), 1967.
Image: truthinart.wordpress.com

And what does Bruce Nauman think?

Read my opinion piece on the brand new news website, The Mark.

Click HERE.

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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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

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