“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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Sarah Anne Johnson: House on Fire
Art Gallery on Ontario, Toronto
July 4 - 23 August, 2009

Sarah Anne Johnson, House on Fire, 2008, Chromogenic Print. Image: bulgergallery.com

Winnpeg-based artist, Yale grad and 2008 Grange Prize winner Sarah Anne Johnson debuts a new exhibition titled House on Fire at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

The last time we saw Johnson’s work, it was 2007’s Galapagos Project at Toronto’s Stephen Bulger Gallery. We loved her use of different media including sculpture and photography, and the push-pull between them.

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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.

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.

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Photographers Marco Antonio Cruz from Mexico City, Lynne Cohen from Montreal, Federico Gama from Mexico City and Jin-me Yoon from Vancouver are the four finalists for the AGO’s $50,000 annual Grange Prize this year.

Lynne Cohen, Untitled, 1980’s. Image: fototapeta.art.pl

Lynne Cohen is represented by Olga Korper Gallery.

For more info on Lynne Cohen, please click HERE.

Federico Gama was born in Mexico City and has been a documentary photographer since 1988. He was won several awards including first prize in the 1st Puerto Rico Photography Biennale (1998); The National Cultural Photojournalism “Fernando Benitez” Award (1999) and Honorable mention in the 1st Photojournalism Biennale of the New Latin American Journalism Foundation in Colombia (2001).

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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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VoCA has long championed Winnipeg as a hotbed for contemporary artists - Guy Maddin, Sarah Anne Johnson and Paul Butler among them.

Since he was included in AA Bronson’s School for young shamans at John Connelly Presents in NYC last year, along with other VoCA favorite Item Idem, young Winnipeg artist Michael Dudeck is fast emerging as one of the country’s most intriguing performance artists.

Michael Dudeck, Parthenogenesis at Pari Nadimi Gallery. Image: courtesy the artist.

Fresh from his first exhibition at Toronto’s Pari Nadimi Gallery, VoCA contributor Whitney Light caught up with Dudeck in Winnipeg:

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In his (VoCA recommended) book Art Power, Boris Groys argues for the emergence of the curator as an important figure in art today. Noting that originally, art became art through decisions made by museum curators rather than artists, he goes on to say “Sacred objects were once devalued to produce art; today, in contrast, profane objects are valorized to become art.” It is therefore necessary to have curators. “The artwork needs external help, it needs an exhibition and curator to become visible.”

It seems curatorship has, again, stepped into the limelight.

Peter Callesen, Bound to be free, 2008. Image: helenenyborg.com

We will see what curator Daniel Birnbaum has in store for us at this year’s Venice Biennale in June, but from what I hear from Leah Sandals, who was in Madrid recently for ARCO, the city’s museums had some pretty interesting exhibits on, including one that looks fascinating on the subject of Shadows.

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The 80-year-old Vancouver painter, sculptor, installation and performance artist Gathie Falk has long been inspired by the elements of everyday life: fruit, eggs, men’s shoes, women’s clothing, garden flowers and reading a book, among other things. Her work appears to meld feminine and masculine elements in a unique, charming, serious way.

The artist Gathie Falk in her studio, Vancouver, 1983. Image: lac-bac.gc.ca

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Charles Pachter, The Painted Flag, 1981. Image: cpachter.com

Food for thought by Ms. Blatchford from a recent issue of the Globe and Mail…

“…Artists, while precious and important to the nation, are not fragile and ought not to be infantilized. They don’t need coddling and protection from government; they don’t need their work to be judged only kindly or only by their friends; they need not be constantly praised; and surely, it is not necessary that every aspect of their lives is subsidized by their countrymen.

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