1. DONIGAN CUMMINGS: EX VOTOS

MSVU Art Gallery, Halifax

21 June-10 August 2008

One of Donigan Cumming’s collages. Image: canada-culture.org

Montreal-based artist Donigan Cumming is known for his staged portraits of the aging, ill and socially assisted poor, in the form of photographs, videos and, best of all, his photographic collages.

Cumming’s work deliberately attacks the objectivity claimed by traditional documentary media. His disturbingly intimate images have been influenced by Artaud’s “theatre of cruelty,” Surrealism and cinema verite, among other historical art forms.

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“What separates true artistic development from mere rehashing?” asks Artforum’s Brian Sholis in his review of Canadian art star Brian Jungen’s new show at Casey Kaplan in New York.

Artist Brian Jungen. Image: voyage5capefarewell.com

“Some artists focus exclusively upon a narrow set of concerns but manage to find nuanced and varied expressions of them. Jungen, though formally creative, seems to be on intellectual autopilot.”

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The late Haida artist Bill Reid received the Order of British Columbia. Image: protocol.gov.bc.ca

In Canada, the first time the work of contemporary indigenous artists made it into an art context was in 1965-67 when Doris Shadbolt, at the Vancouver Art Gallery, organized the groundbreaking exhibition, Arts of the Raven: Master Works of the Northwest.

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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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…although we think this sculpture - below - looks more like ‘playing hockey’ than ‘watching Northern Lights’, and so is an appropriate homage to les Canadiens in the playoffs.

Mattiusi Iyaituk, Watching Northern Lights. Image: spiritwrestler.com

We think the time is right for First Nations art to attract renewed interest - there’s a lot of new and excellent sculpture and drawing around - for instance the Sobey Art Prize-winner Annie Pootoogook.

You can find great Inuit art at Feheley Fine Arts in Toronto: Click HERE.

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