1. Geoffrey James at the National Gallery, Ottawa, May 30 – 19 October, 2008.

VoCA was at the National Gallery in Ottawa this weekend, where we took in the photographs of Canadian photographer Geoffrey James.

Geoffrey James, St. Cloud, 1989. Image: trepanierbaer.com

The best works were in the first room, miniature snapshots of Italianate gardens, presented as panoramas against wide black mats. These are precious objects – views dictated by the artist, of course, but when an artist has such a fine eye, you feel that you have been given a gift.

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OTTAWA:

Carlton University Art Gallery

Michèle Provost: Selling Out
Ron Giii: Hegel’s Salt Man
Nanuit: The Polar Bear in Inuit Art

5 May – 24 August 2008

Ron Giii, Atomicus Removing The Atomic Space, 1985. Image: paulpetro.com

RON GIII: Coming from the University of Toronto, this survey exhibition of the brilliantly-named Ron Giii’s work features early work, performance documentation and other ephemera, a selection of his voluminous writings, and more recent drawings and oil stick paintings.

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Out of Place: Memories of Edward Said; A documentary by Japanese filmmaker Sato Makoto

Saturday 26 January at 7 pm

At the Library and Archives Canada Auditorium, Ottawa (395 Wellington Street)

Edward Said. Image: brown.edu

As a compliment to its exhibition Orientalism & Ephemera - 23 November 2007 to 3 February 2008 - the Ottawa Art Gallery and the Canadian Film Institute present this film, which borrows its title from Edward Said’s 2000 memoir, Out of Place. The book traces the life and work of Edward Said (1935-2003), the Palestinian-born intellectual who wrote widely on history, literature, music, philosophy and politics.

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1. CONVERSATION PIECES

12 January to 10 February

The Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston Ontario

Deirdre Logue, Why Always Instead of Just Sometimes. Image: deirdrelogue.com

Conversation Pieces is an exhibition of new media work by Canadian artists Linda Duvall, Germaine Koh, Deirdre Logue, Matt Rogalsky and Laurel Woodcock. Audio, video and multimedia installations explore acts of communication through verbal exchanges.

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1. Free screening of Sir John Soane: An English Architect, An American Legacy

*TONIGHT* Thursday 22 November, 7 pm

The Agnes Etherington Art Centre

Please click HEREfor more information.

Sir John Soane, British architect. Image: bankofengland.co.uk

Sir John Soane (1753-1837) has inspired many contemporary architects with his command of natural light and his inviting arrangement of spatially sequential galleries. This visually rich film presents a tour through Soane’s life and works, with acknowledgements of his legacy from prominent architects such as Richard Meier and Robert Venturi.

Sir John Soane’s Museum in London UK is one of VoCA’s favorite places.

Sir John Soane’s Museum, London UK. Image: timetravel-britain.com

Introduced by Pierre du Prey, Professor in the Department of Art, Queen’s University, and author of John Soane: The Making of an Architect, who will also take questions after the screening.

2. Farouk Kaspaules: Be/Longing

23 November 2007 to 3 February 2008

The Ottawa Art Gallery

Farouk Kaspaules, Ottawa, 1999. Image: civilization.ca

Farouk Kaspaules began making art in the mid-1980s as a way to reconcile his daily life in Canada with the political, environmental and cultural instability of his home country, Iraq.

His visual experiments in mixed media employ a complex vocabulary of images, symbols and aesthetic forms derived from ancient and contemporary Iraq, as well as from his mixed cultural background (Christian, Chaldean, and Arab). Kaspaules strives “to relate daily events to broader geopolitical and social questions.”

Farouk Kaspaules, …and at night we leave our dreams on window sill, memory of a place, 2000.
Image: civilization.ca

This reflects his belief that art and politics are activities “that cannot be separated from lived experience.”

Talk with Farouk Kaspaules (in English):

Friday 23 November at 12:30 pm

Farouk Kaspaules, …and at night we leave our dreams on window sill, memory of a place (detail), 2000.
Image: civilization.ca

Please click HERE for more information.

FIVE NICE THINGS:

#1. Canadians in MIAMI:

Miami, during “art week” (December 7 - 10) can be almost unbearably overwhelming, with all the art fairs (11 this year!) not to mention the design district. Nonetheless, it offers an unbeatable opportunity for Canadian galleries to expose their artists to international collectors, media etc.

Some of the galleries taking this opportunity are:

ART BASEL MIAMI:

-Monte Clark Gallery, Toronto and Vancouver
-Corkin Shopland Gallery, Toronto
-Landau Fine Arts, Montreal
-Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver
-Art Metropole, Toronto

And a Canadian magazine:
-Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Vancouver

SCOPE (Let’s hope for everyone’s sake that it was better than the disaster in New York during last year’s Armory Show and the non-event in London this past October):

- Angell Gallery, Toronto
-Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto
-Clint Roenisch Gallery, Toronto
-Greener Pastures, Toronto
-Katharine Mulherin, Toronto

AQUA ART MIAMI:

-Othergallery, Winnipeg
-Blanket Gallery, Vancouver

PHOTOMIAMI:
-Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto
-Peak Gallery, Toronto
-Skew Gallery, Calgary

BRIDGE ART FAIR:
-Birch Libralato, Toronto
-Newzones, Calgary
-Pierre Francois Ouellette Art Contemporain, Montreal

#2. THE SEPTEMBERISTS, a video by Anthony Goicolea made in collaboration with superhot menswear designer Thom Browne.

Showing at the Monte Clark Gallery Toronto until January 17, it is a poetic, superbly produced film bearing echoes of Thomas Eakins, early photographs by Wilhelm von Gloeden and Ralph Lauren advertisements.

(We love the young art star in the ad above.)

#3. CANADIAN MAGAZINES! After the demise of Parachute, VoCA urges everyone to give subscriptions of great Canadian magazines like Border Crossings for Christmas. It’s excellent writing and fantastic interviews (not that I’m biased…but I do write for them…)

#4. There’s A GOOD ART VIDEO:

RIGHT HERE

#5. Winnipeg wunderkind MARCEL DZAMA has hit the really big time, with a page in this month’s Vanity Fair alongside Julie Mehretu and fellow former-Canadian Terence Koh (aka AsianPunkBoy).

Remember the days when his drawings were selling for $500 Canadian in Toronto? It wasn’t so long ago…in 2000 at Artcore Gallery.

Now you can buy all kinds of Dzama-designed products, like these cool Melting Snowman cannisters…

And these action figures:

VoCA RECOMMENDS

FIVE UPCOMING SHOWS:

1. NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA:

Art Metropole: The Top 100
December 1, 2006 - February 25, 2007

Just when former General Idea member AA Bronson is making a major comeback with his own installations and as director of Printed Matter Inc. in New York, here’s further evident of his prescience.

Art Metropole was founded in Toronto by artist collective General Idea in 1974 as a non-profit artist-run archive and distribution agency for artists’ publications and other materials. The exhibition is selected from the collection of over 13,000 works spanning three decades and featuring work by James Lee Byars, Gilbert and George, Meret Oppenheim, Rosemarie Trockel and others.

Read more about the show HERE

And about Art Metropole HERE

2. OAKVILLE GALLERIES:

David Altmejd: Metamorphosis
January 27 - March 25, 2007

Get a sneak peek at next year’s Venice Biennale contribution with the artist’s first major solo exhibition in Canada outside Montreal. In a project specific to Oakville Galleries’ unique space, Altmejd will respond to the domestic nature of the site.

Read more about the show HERE

3. PLUG IN:

Sarindar Dhaliwal: Record Keeping
December 8, 2006 - February 17, 2007

Drawing on her history of migration - from India to Britain to Canada - Dhaliwal brings together works on paper and installations from over fifteen years in an assemblage of signs, symbols and languages.

Read more about the show HERE

4. PRESENTATION HOUSE:

Tichy
November 18, 2006 - January 14, 2007

An overview of the recently discovered Czech photographer, Miroslav Tichý, the first exhibition of his work in a public institution outside of Europe. The show features images of women from Tichy’s hometown of Moraviea, captured with his cameras hand-made from old tins, toilet rolls and cigarette boxes, which are also on view.

Read more about the show HERE

5. ART GALLERY OF NOVA SCOTIA:

Graeme Patterson: Woodrow
January 20 - April 9, 2007

Video installations by the Saskatchewan-based artist of one of the fast-disappearing small farming communities that once thrived on the prarie landscape. Through stop-motion animation and robotic figures, Patterson represents key elements: a barn, a grain elevator, a church, the hockey rink.

Read more about the show HERE

Interesting and little-known Canadian art fact #2:

Michael Snow was one of the four performers of the rarely performed Steve Reich piece Pendulum Music on May 27th 1969 at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The other performers were Richard Serra, James Tenney and Bruce Nauman.