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.
May 12th, 2010 — Articles by Andrea Carson, First Nations/Inuit, Painting, Performance art, Toronto and region
Check out my piece on artist Kent Monkman’s home and studio in the current issue of Design Lines magazine. The studio, a former factory, was re-done by Jason Halter of boutique design firm Wonder Inc.
You know Monkman for his traditionally painted landscapes into which he inserts contemporary figures of First Nations people, often doing rather unconventional things…
Kent Monkman, Achilles and Patroclus, 2008. Image: kentmonkman.com
Or for his drag performances as Miss Chief Eagle Testickle…
May 5th, 2010 — First Nations/Inuit, Photography, Sculpture/Installation, Toronto and region
Now’s a good time to check out the Art Gallery of Ontario again.
Part of Barbara Kruger’s billboard on the facade of the AGO. Image: VoCA
You can take in Barbara Kruger‘s magnificent billboard that lines the front of the gallery, (done for CONTACT photography fest, which in on throughout May.) The billboard reads LOVE IT-SHOVE IT-PRAISE IT-PLEASE IT-DOUBT IT- SHAME IT-BLAME IT-KISS IT-BUY IT-BELIEVE IT.
February 26th, 2010 — First Nations/Inuit, Loved & Loathed, Painting, Sculpture/Installation, Thoughts on art, Toronto and region
Well. Last night I did a “Face the Critic” at the Drake, with Leah Sandals and Richard Vaughn and it was…interesting, to say the least. I didn’t feel able to properly articulate my views – there were some big personalities in the room. But I learned a lot, and it’s always good to have your foundations shaken a little.
Brendan Flanagan, Reflective Pool. Image: brendanflanagan.ca.
The idea was that each critic would bring two works – one we ‘love’ and one we ‘loathe.’
Richard began by pointing out that he doesn’t subscribe to the idea of ‘loving’ or ‘loathing’, which is fair enough. Then he went on to talk at length, and very interestingly, about how much he loved an Allyson Mitchell work – one of her large, fun-fur covered Sasquatch sculptures.
January 17th, 2010 — First Nations/Inuit, Thoughts on art, Winnipeg
Here is the final part of an article written by former Winnipegger Edwin Janzen, an artist and writer currently based in Ottawa. The article was previously published in Drain magazine – you can read the full article, HERE, (under Related Essays) or click HERE for last week’s post on VoCA.
Roger Crait, Untitled, 2009. Image: umanitoba.ca
The Power of Myth
How Did Winnipeg and Its Art Become such a Big Deal?
By Edwin Janzen
The City Behind the Myth
Winnipeg artists — and the city as a whole — owe much to the considerable efforts of these influential “fixers.” For the representation of Winnipeg as a sort of mythic art mecca has surely been a good thing, hasn’t it? Winnipeg and its artists are receiving more attention than ever before, so can the repackaging of Winnipeg as a geographically and creatively charged nexus be anything else than an unmitigated good? If life gives you lemons….
December 17th, 2009 — First Nations/Inuit, Rumour Has it..., Thoughts on art, Vancouver and region
Rumour has it that some artists aren’t pleased with the way the Vancouver Olympics is being handled.
Image: mediacoop.ca
We’ve been hearing rumblings for some time now of artists being censored, their ‘anti-Olympics’ works removed or under threat of removal and constraints being put on artists who are being commissioned to make works to showcase Vancouver’s visual art scene.
Much of the debate arises from this contractual clause: “The artist shall at all times refrain from making any negative or derogatory remarks respecting VANOC (the organizing committee), the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Olympic movement generally, Bell and/or other sponsors associated with VANOC.”
Vancouver has the most condensed area of homelessness and addiction in Canada and many Vancouver artists take inspiration from the grittiness of the Downtown East Side. We can imagine that they wouldn’t agree with an Olympic Committee that may be glossing over this aspect of the city.
“Art without free speech is simply propaganda“, says The BC Civil Liberties Association president Rob Holmes.
November 18th, 2009 — First Nations/Inuit, Painting, Sculpture/Installation, Toronto and region, Video/New Media
There’s an interesting exhibition on up at the Glenhyrst Art Gallery in Brantford, Ontario from 29 November 2009 – 22 January 2010. It’s only about an hour’s drive from Toronto and VIA Rail goes there, too.
Bonnie Devine, Reclamation Project, 1995. Image: ccca.ca
The show, organized in collaboration with Toronto’s SAVAC, brings together work by First Nations artists with work by South Asian artists, in a reflection of the two communitieis who live side by side in the area.
The artists are Roy Caussy, Bonnie Devine, Ali Kazimi, Afshin Matlabi, Yudi Sewraj, Greg Staats, Ehren Bear Witness Thomas and Jeff Thomas.
November 17th, 2009 — Collecting, First Nations/Inuit, Ottawa, Toronto and region, Upcoming Events & Exhibitions, Vancouver and region
Presentation House Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia
The Malcolmson Collection
October 1, 2009 to December 20, 2009
Gustave Le Gray, The Great Wave, Sete, 1857. Image: canadianart.ca
Do not miss seeing these extraordinary vintage photographs from the collection of friends-of-VoCA Harry and Ann Malcolmson.
Over the past twenty-five years, the Malcolmsons have assembled a rare collection of vintage and historic photographs that span the history of the medium. Highlights include nineteenth and twentieth-century classics by famous photographers Eugene Atget, Julia Margaret Cameron, Charles Marville, Tina Modotti, Man Ray, Paul Strand, Edward Weston, Margaret Bourke-White, among others.
For more images and information on a number of artist tours and events, please click HERE.
September 13th, 2009 — Collecting, First Nations/Inuit, Sculpture/Installation, Thoughts on art
The Washington Post’s influential art critic, the Canadian Blake Gopnik, offers some thoughts on critical opinion. He is “quite certain that the works of…Canadian Brian Jungen are about as good as it gets in contemporary art,” he says. “I’m sure I must have been right. My memory and instincts tell me I was.”
Brian Jungen, Prototype for New Understanding #1, 1998. Image: curatedobject.us
But then he questions himself: “What if I wasn’t? What if I…(now) reach whole other conclusions?”
He concludes that part of being a critic is being open and strong enough to change your mind.
Interesting.
June 16th, 2009 — First Nations/Inuit, Ottawa, Upcoming Events & Exhibitions
Burning Cold
18 June – 30 August 2009
The Ottawa Art Gallery
For a while now VoCA has been interested in the new Inuit art – in fact, we interviewed Inuit art dealer Pat Feheley about it HERE. Feheley speaks eloquently and knowledgeably on the “sea change” that occurred once Cape Dorset artists discovered that they could depict the world around them.
Shuvinai Ashoona, Scary Dream, 2006. Image: ottawaartgallery.com
Previously, they had been limited to what the ‘market’ dictated – cliched images of bears, seals, old-fashioned hunting scenes etc.
We recommended Noise Ghost, curator Nancy Campbell’s exhibition at the Justina M Barnicke Gallery at the University of Toronto that pairs Ashoona with super hot multi-media artist Shary Boyle in a two-woman show, and now we recommend Burning Cold, a show curated by Scott Marsden, that pairs Ashoona’s work with other Canadians including BGL, Tania Kitchell and Emily Vey Duke + Cooper Battersby.
May 26th, 2009 — First Nations/Inuit, Painting, Toronto and region
Noise Ghost: Shary Boyle and Shuvinai Ashoona
May 28 – August 23, 2009
Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Hart House, University of Toronto
Shary Boyle, self portrait, 2006. Image: sharyboyle.com
Toronto artist Shary Boyle, who is well known for her delicate figurines (often championed on VoCA) is paired with Cape Dorset artist Shuvinai Ashoona, who first came to our attention a few years ago, and did a fantastic collaboration with John Noestheden titled Earth and Sky for Nuit Blanche Toronto last year.
Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...Read full bio