This year’s CONTACT photography festival kicked off with a bang at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA) in Toronto. I was pleasantly surprised by this year’s show, Collected Shadows: Archive of Modern Conflict (AMC). An arrangement of images on the deep purple wall at MOCCA: Image: VoCA I had never heard of the AMC, even though it is Toronto
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The National Gallery of Canada very kindly invited me to Ottawa – expenses paid – to see the current exhibition, which is called ‘Builders’, and is the second Canadian Biennale. (Did you know there was a Canadian Biennale?) According to curator Jonathan Shaughnessy, the show’s title is inspired by the idea of artists as not only players in the game,
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This past weekend, at the invitation of artistic director Ilene Sova I visited Walnut Studios, a grey, graffiti covered building just off lower Niagara Street in Toronto. The studios are divided up into about 50 artists spaces, where painters, mixed media artists, street artists, jewellery makers and even fashion designers hone their craft. Artistic Director Ilene Sova. All images: VoCA
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS ARTBOMB IS NOW OPEN TO MONTREAL ARTISTS. Beginning in June 2012, ARTBOMB will make occasional road trips to Montreal to pick up work. We will meet artists at a specific location to assess and receive their work. Artists will sign a contract and we will return with the works to Toronto, where they will be photographed and
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Over the past ten years, artist Max Dean has collected other people’s photo albums. He’s got about 500 of them, which are being used as part of his latest project at this year’s CONTACT Photo festival in Toronto. Artist Max Dean. All images (except Google map) by VoCA. The project is called Album, and it involves Dean loading up his
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My daily online art auction project, ARTBOMB, has been up and running – very successfully! – for over three months now, so I thought I would give you a peek inside the studio. The view of our photographer’s set-up, from the side. ARTBOMB is a project by myself with my incredibly brilliant partners Jim Shedden and Carrie Shibinsky. We scour
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My first impression, at this year’s emerging design exhibition at the Gladstone Hotel, which is titled Come Up To My Room, was that it wasn’t quite as strong as the past few years. UA Collective. All photos: VoCA. Click on images to enlarge. Looking through my photos, though I’m not sure that’s the case. The work is different, more conceptual
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One of Canada’s most important collections of vintage and modern photography will go on view at the University of Toronto Art Centre in the new year. Peter Henry Emerson. A Stiff Pull, ca. 1886, photomechanical process, photogravure. Image:utac.utoronto.ca The Malcolmson Collection, which I can tell you is a spectacular, very special selection of rare photographs, is comprised of work dating
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“Saint Helen,” says new gallery owner Daniel Faria of the name of his opening exhibition, “is the patron saint of new discoveries.” A fitting choice then, for his gallery – a former auto body shop, and a place where, as he points out, collectors will discover new and exciting artists. The beautifully scripted title of Daniel’s inaugural show. All images:
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Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...