Your Cultural Concierge! VoCA offers critical commentary on the Canadian art scene, with a focus on Toronto. Featuring exhibition previews, critics picks, interviews and in-depth articles on art in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Halifax.
February 15th, 2010 — Artist Spotlight, Design, Sculpture/Installation, Toronto and region
This weekend, VoCA paid a visit to the studio of Toronto artist Dennis Lin.
The installation, no. 1 – 60, currently on view at 47 Gallery. Image: forty-seven.ca/Derek Flack
Another view of no. 1 – 60, Image: VoCA
Lin, who works mostly with wood, creates huge installations, many commissioned by the likes of design firm Yabu Pushelberg for their hotel and condo interiors around the world. He is just back from installing a piece in Quebec City, and another in China.
February 11th, 2010 — Design, Performance art
Some excerpts from a fantastic article on Alexander McQueen:
Image: stylefrizz.com
“…anyone who cares about the culture at large — should take note of the death of Alexander McQueen. For every 1,000 so-called designers who pin a piece of jersey around a mannequin and call it fashion, there’s only one McQueen, an explosively imaginative designer…”
February 11th, 2010 — Art Gifts, Artist Spotlight, Books, Design, Drawing, Toronto and region, Upcoming Events, Upcoming Exhibitions
Toronto artist Micah Lexier is everywhere these days.
A view of Micah Lexier’s installation I Am the Coin, at BMO in Toronto. Image: iamthecoin.com
Not only did he have new work in a recent show at his Toronto dealer, Birch Libralato, he has a just-opened year-long installation at the Bank of Montreal’s Project Room titled I am the Coin – click HERE to check it out – along with several upcoming collaborations.
-Twelve of One: A Series of Twelve Consecutive Vitrine Displays is on view at Art Metropole, and will change each month over the course of one year. Click HERE for more info.
February 1st, 2010 — Architecture, Design, Drawing, Toronto and region, Upcoming Exhibitions
We snuck in on the final day to see the Cut/Paste: Creative Reuse in Canadian Design show at the Royal Ontario Museum this past weekend, and, while the huge gallery spaces overwhelmed the design objects on display, there were a few things of particular interest, like objects that prison inmates had ingeniously cobbled together: water-boilers and crudely made toaster, to transform water and bread into toast and tea.
January 24th, 2010 — Architecture, Design, Toronto and region
Architect Joshua Prince-Ramus. Image: seattlepi.com
On Friday, we went to hear Joshua Prince-Ramus, the president of REX Architects in New York, speak at Toronto’s Interior Design Show, for the Azure-sponsored talks.
Prince-Ramus is an excellent and passionate speaker, who previously worked with Rem Koolhaas. He is also an architect who - like Koolhaas - clearly revels in the constraints imposed upon him. As he said, “Constraints are the mother of invention.”
He spoke about architectural agency, about the need for architects to take responsibility for the fact that they have become marginalized. He noted that there was an artificial schism between creation and execution, that the idea of architect as ‘individual genius’ is a myth, and that there is a need to stitch creation and execution back together again.
January 22nd, 2010 — Design, Loved & Loathed, Sculpture/Installation, Toronto and region
Last night, we went to the preview of the Gladstone Hotel’s alternative design event, Come Up To My Room (CUTMR). We’ve been in the past, and this year was by far the best. Each room on the hotel’s second floor was individually transformed, many with inspiring and conceptually tight installations.
Thu, Jan 21, 2010 - Sun, Jan 24, 2010
12:00 pm - 8:00 pm
$8
Here are some highlights:
1. Orest Tataryn and Bruno Billio
This was our favorite installation. A ray of neon light zooms wildly around a carefully decorated room where two chandeliers have collided. It’s wonderful, and can be re-created to commission.
Click HERE to contact the artists.
There are many more photos after the jump….
January 8th, 2010 — Design, Video/New Media
It’s interesting to think about how new technologies are being used, particularly by artists. Google Maps is a tool for finding a location that we’re all familiar with; Google Streetview – recently introduced to major cities in Canada - is a tool for placing yourself, virtually, in a particular location (and being able to look around). Click HERE to check it out.
The Louvre in Paris. Image: eurokulture.edu
Likewise, museums around the world have virtual tours that can put you face to face with the world’s great works of art. The Paris Louvre has an iphone app that puts you up close and personal with the Mona Lisa, or guides you through Napoleon’s apartments. It’s super slick, allowing you to zoom in on works, along with text write ups on the art, the buildings and the architecture. And it’s free. Click HERE for the itunes link.
Now that time and space have collapsed, ‘tourism’ takes on a whole new meaning. Not only can you come close to the art through these technologies, but art responds to you as well.
Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...Read full bio