Oink oink, dear bloglings! Although I’ve been bed-ridden by what I can only assume is swine flu, I hope your fit and ready to check out these events.Ellen Moffat is bringing COMP OSE to Toronto’s Doris McCarthy Gallery; and Jordan Broadworth’s Turn hitched a ride East on the trans-Canada to the Moose Jaw Art Gallery. For a little bit of East Coast coverage, you can read this snippet I wrote for Halifax alt-weekly, The Coast, on wicked local artist Mathew Reichertz at Studio 21. Enjoy!
By Ola Wlusek
Gwenaël Bélanger's "Faux mouvement (1° - 120°)," 2008.
What does it feel like to be at a breaking point, the tipping point, a rock bottom, or a sweetest high? What would such emotional extremes look like? How would they manifest visually and aurally? What if one chose to illustrate them by the means of inanimate objects?
This is what the Montreal-based artist, Gwenaël Bélanger, sets out to accomplish in his exhibition for the Centre d’exposition Expression, Saint-Hyacinthe.
“My goal is to play. I play with the perception of everyday objects and the boundaries and limits of our perception in the world. My photo-prints complexify something very simple” explains Bélanger. Read the rest of this entry »
By Mike Landry
Stephanie Chabot's creepy press image for "La maison de l’autre."
Two pieces cemented my need to talk with Stephanie Chabot. Glancing at the Montreal-based artist’s website, I was blown away by, first, a pair of creepy disembodied green wax hands called “Chicken” and, secondly, a unsettling disembodied hairy green forearm jutting up from the floor holding a chair called “I Have Been There All Along.” Since I’m a sucker for both horror and Canadian art, I just had to talk with Chabot about her latest exhibition La maison de l’autre.
ToD: How much of this show will be new work?
SC: This shows going to be mostly new work, but there’s often an old piece in a new show. It’s rarely all new work. It’s going to be an installation, with mostly new pieces and some old ones that kind of become different pieces in this context. There’s going to be sculpture and moving sculpture. It’s really going to be an installation, like an immersive environment. The object will be relying on each other more than before, as opposed to being independent sculptures. Read the rest of this entry »
By Mike Landry
Jonathan Forrest's "Shazaam".
Veteran abstract painter Jonathan Forrest isn’t one to rest on his laurels. Continuing to explore abstract painting, the long-time resident of Saskatoon has created a new explosive series of paintings. I chatted with him on the phone about the shake up and life in Saskatoon.
ToD: Since this exhibition is entitled More Pieces of the Puzzle, I was wondering what exactly the “more” was implying. Is this a continuation of a previous series?
JF: Really it was just the idea that it’s more thoughts from the brain of Jonathan Forrest—some more clues as to what’s going on in there. There’s no other show called that, and it doesn’t relate to any other shows. It just seemed like kind of funny title for a show alluding to it being another glimpse to how I approach painting. Read the rest of this entry »
A Jamie Lee Curtis shriek to you, dear BOOglings! Celebrate Halloween in Vancouver with two ToD favourites, Les Fermières Obsédées and Skeena Reece, along with many more at Centre A’s Vampyre Love Ball. Evergon evokes the spirit of Easter just in time for Christmas with Jeux de la passion at Galerie Verticale in Laval, QC. And Toronto pedestrians should take a minute to grab a Dufflet pastery and and check out Jan Peacock’s Play/Byplay opening this week at QueenSpecific next door. Enjoy!
By Mike Landry
Jerome Bourque's "Blanche."
Jerome Bourque is a huge fan of theatre. Every time the Quebec-based photographer sees a play he’s excited. He wishes he was still on stage, or working the lights behind the scenes.
While theatre may be Bourque’s first love, he’s married to photography. It’s the idea of image-making that connects the two mediums for him. Bourque’s photographs share theatre’s construction and lighting, and he even goes as far as to consider his photo shoots as a stage not a set.
“For me, photography has nothing to do with reality,” says Bourque “It has the power to be something other than reality. Media, like newspapers and television, are trying to tell us its reality, and I’m always trying to compete against that.” Read the rest of this entry »
By Mike Landry
One of Zamora's new yet-to-be-titled photographs.
Toronto-based multi-disciplinary artist Alberto Guedea Zamora is abstract in every sense of the definition. A dual citizen of Mexico and Canada he lacks a concrete existence. Posing in many works with a flurry of hair shrouding his face, he remains impersonal in his work. He uses citrus fruits and vibrant colour in odd situations lacking any specific reference. He crafts his images to be so abstruse that even he reconsiders his own understanding of them. And even in the figurative medium of photography he abandons practicality and highlights intrinsic form. It’s pretty killer, so I decided to see if I could abstract some more information from the artist and chatted with him last week about his latest exhibition at Hunter and Cook Gallery in Toronto.
ToD: Tell me a bit about this exhibition at Hunter and Cook Gallery.
AGZ: My photographs are influenced by my installation, and curatorial background. I will present three series but the show can be viewed as one piece as well. My aim is to make the different pieces work together to represent one main concept. The individual pieces that I will present can be read in many different ways. I don’t like to interfere with the interpretation of the viewer. All the pieces were premeditated—the idea comes first (I rarely use snapshots). I know what they mean to myself, but even to me they show different layers of interpretation. Read the rest of this entry »
By Mike Landry
Roselina Hung's, "Coda: Self-portrait in the studio."
The government has no business in the bedrooms of the nation, and, apparently, neither do Vancouver art lovers. Before Roselina Hung changed her very personal style, the Vancouver-based painter was having a tough go of it.
While not willing to abandon the nostalgia driving her portraits, she instead decided to incorporate a shared nostalgia (from Sears catalogues, family portraits and old television) for her first solo exhibition, The Way We Were.
“This is my way of still being able to work with portraits, but also something more people could relate with,” says Hung “I showed some of this work during an open studio and it was funny the reaction I got from people—they had photos of their family dressed the same.” Read the rest of this entry »
A rhyming Seussian hello to you, dear bloglings! Get ready to talk Montreal, because Immony Men’s Effections: We need to talk is coming to Occurrence this week. Mirana Zuger presents D is for Water at Ottawa’s Terence Robert Gallery. Micah Lexier is up to more shenanigans with exhibitions all over the map, but if you get a chance, check out Two Arrows Pointing in Opposite Directions now on display at Toronto’s Conveinence Gallery. Eryn Foster (ToD interviewee numero uno!) and John van der Woude combine for Google Earth at Gallery 44 in Toronto. Enjoy!
—Mike Landry
By Mike Landry
One of Marla Hlady's early sound objects---the 2004 "Sound Ball".
Brace yourself, dear reader. Ottawa’s Artengine has just trumped contemporary art’s game of cool with Nite Ride.
Curators Ryan Stec and Emily Falvey have merged the talents of Toronto sculptor/audio artist Marla Hlady and Montreal-based electronic musician Tim Hecker…and put them on a bus. A nighttime-only bus. But if you’re not in the region to hop on the bus during Nite Ride’s one-week run, the tracks, and artist-designed routes will be available for download.
“As a sculptor I’m rarely just thinking of the sound aspect,” says Hlady. “I’m thinking about the sound experience within the space, and I could never seem to separate the two. So I grabbed onto that.” Read the rest of this entry »
By Ola Wlusek
Detail from Heather Goodchild's installation, "The Fire and the Knife".
Do not be fooled by the cuteness and the innocent appearance of the stuffed lamb! Even though it is not made of hazardous materials the symbolic meaning of this animal can be very threatening.
Heather Goodchild, a Toronto-based artist working in textiles, is the creator of charming plush animal herds, such as squirrels with furry tails, rabbits with over-sized pointy ears and other ivory-toned, forest-dwelling creatures. They are often scattered inside miniature theater-like stage sets filled with trees and enjoy sneaking up on us from beneath the geometric patterned quilts. They play an important role in the storytelling traditions employed in the artist’s textile works.
The lamb is part of The Fire and the Knife installation in which Goodchild further investigates religious and spiritual themes of sacrifice and morality. The attraction to such themes emerges out of the artist’s lack of exposure as a child to any type of organized religion. This lack inspired a desire for knowledge and the cozy artworks are the actual evidence of her findings into the world of faith and folklore. Read the rest of this entry »
By Mike Landry
The cover of Kovitz' epic bookwork.
Ten years of Rob Kovitz‘ life arrived from the printer’s last week. Eight volumes, each stuffed with about 500 or more pages, in a plain white box. All that remained to do was hand tape the title of his epic, Ice Fishing in Gimli, and his name on the front. A big task for sure, but par for the course.
“The whole project is kind of massive, so I guess every stage along the way is quite a lot more involved than it would be if it was just a one volume book,” says Kovitz from his Winnipeg home. “I never had a clue when I started that it would turn into such a huge project.”
Really, the word “project” doesn’t do justice to Kovitz’ bookwork. Running a baffling 4750 pages, it’s Proust meets frozen Winnipeg. During it’s creation, Kovitz displayed the work-in-progress at various galleries. Now he’s premiering the finished work at Montreal’s Dazibao to coincide with the release of the epic this month. Read the rest of this entry »
Amalie Atkins' 2008 “Dress and Apple on Tree, ”a photo from the set of her new film (also in "Mind the Gap!"), “Scenes from a Secret World”.
Following up on their amazing exhibition, Diabolique, Saskatchewan’s Dunlop Art Gallery has set its curatorial genius on emerging artists across province. Mind the Gap! featured more than 30 artists working in a wide variety of media. Co-curators Amanda Cachia and Jeff Nye have provide “a visual, cerebral and geographic map of new developments in contemporary arts practice in Saskatchewan.” We checked in with Nye to see if he could convince ToD why we should “mind the gap.”
ToD: Pardon my ignorance, but what defines a Saskatchewan artwork? Or is there such a thing?
JN: We curated the project with an open mind about whether we were going to find such a thing. Personally I was skeptical about whether we would just being somewhat familiar with the kind of work going on. Read the rest of this entry »
By Mike Landry
One of Dan Brault's 2008 "satellite" paitings. (photo: Jérôme Bourque)
It’s too soon in Dan Brault’s young career for him to say if eight solo shows in two years have impacted his work. But the variety of venues sure has.
“I’m always trying to figure out what can I do with this space. I’m a painter by nature, but after that I’m always interested into spatial interrogation or how to use the space to make a work. So sometimes the paintings work really well in one space and in another not so much.”
Of course, the Quebec City-based Brault isn’t the only painter to employ such tactics. But given Brault’s “eclectic” approach to painting, his spatial consideration offers the thematic links often difficult to understand in his stand alone works. Read the rest of this entry »
A great smothering bear hug to you dear bloglings! Workoholics BGL are up to their old antics with New Sellutions in Toronto. Ottawa will being treated to the wonder that is Diana Thorneycroft and her work The Canadiana Martyrdom Series. Rui Pimenta’s kinetic and light based paintings and sculptures set up shop in Port Hope, Ont. And the Art Gallery of Windsor provides a one-two ToD punch with works opening by Scott Conarroe and Victor Romão. Enjoy!
—Mike Landry
