- Design Annex arrives on James North
After much anticipation – and a few sneaky sniffs around the premises late last week – I attended the first of this week’s opening previews to welcome the Art Gallery of Hamilton‘s new Design Annex to James Street North. Photo: Mike Lalich The completion of this new shop and event space brings a dramatic transformation [...]
- A ghetto of words
I have a confession – I firmly believe that a large part of my recent lack of blogging activity is down not to being too busy to write, but too busy to read. This isn’t to say I haven’t been reading at all – that’s a habit I couldn’t break if I tried – but [...]
- Akimblog Hamilton now online
My most recent post for Akimblog is now online, featuring three current Hamilton exhibitions, all well worth the viewing if you have not yet done so. Simon Frank, View (from the escarpment) (detail), 2012, log-marking hammer on drywall (photo: Mike Lalich) A challenge of writing for Akimblog, one that I think has revealed its hand [...]
- ‘Revisions’ at The Pearl Company
I know it has been an obscenely long time since I’ve updated here – the insanity of moving both home and office inside the same month doesn’t really bear speaking about – but there’s few better ways to come back than with the announcement of a new exhibition. Well, I say new but Revisions is [...]
- Weekend Links: The quiet confidence of craftsmanship
This could be the revelation of some brilliant draftsmanship in exhibitions close to home this month, or the melancholy of having packed up my James North studio this weekend, but my first Weekend Links of 2012 is less issues-driven and more redolent with the high notes of art well made. From anonymous paper sculpture to [...]
- Akimblog Hamilton now online
After what feels like a long absence, I had a great time getting back into Akimblog with another Hamilton report that has now been posted for your reading pleasure. Included in this month’s round-up are quite a few stand-outs from James North this month – Jeff Nye at Hamilton Artists Inc., From the Ground Up [...]
- The Fisher King & Other Mythologies at Gallery on 4
After a crunch-tastic holiday season and some fantastic high-speed framing from the good people at Earls Court Gallery (seriously Bob, I owe you one), I’m pleased to report that The Fisher King & Other Mythologies is now installed for your viewing pleasure at the Hamilton Public Library’s Gallery on 4. After the past several years [...]
- Ghosts of exhibitions past and future
I’ve found lately that the challenge of maintaining this blog lately is not so much in the demands of a full-time occupation – rather, it’s in balancing that job with exhibition commitments inherited from my more flexible freelance days. When combined in recent months, the studio and the office achieved a critical mass that left [...]
- ‘A Vanishing of Bees’ at upArt Contemporary Art Fair
Obviously, blogging has not happened around here with anything like my old-time regularity, but at least this time I’m packing a double-barrelled shotgun’s worth of excuses. In addition to the usual demands of the day (and often night) job, I have been investing all free time possible in the studio preparing for my installation at [...]
- Weekend Links: The value and values of art
Anyone reading this blog likely comes with the agreement that art has a value. The links this weekend explore how we come to determine that value, either in terms of credibility, money or action figures and video games. Takashi Murakami as action figure by Mike Leavitt (Source: artinfo.com) Are critics the best thing for art [...]




