- Trending the 2011 Sobey Ontario Long List
The viewer’s subjective experience accounts for a lot more in art criticism than I think most art writers would be willing to admit. Experiences as varied as the weather outside or the latest article rattling around inside one’s head has impacted my viewing of countless exhibitions over the years. While many of these involuntary associations [...]
- Weekend Links: The Summer of our Disconnect
The art world was delighted to see Ai Weiwei finally released from prison, even as it held its breath to see what conditions China may have placed upon the artist’s freedom. Meanwhile, perfectly free artists the world over – by “world” read “New York” – squander their liberty every day by mindlessly churning out whatever [...]
- But what did you REALLY think about the City of Hamilton Arts Awards?
The City of Hamilton Arts Awards were a welcome development on the Hamilton arts scene earlier this year but they were not without visible flaws in the works, as I explained in detail both before and after the fact. That latter post precipitated a few informal conversations after the fact but I was otherwise disappointed [...]
- Off the Shelf: Summertime Reading
With the passing of the solstice this week, I’ve already seen not just one, but two posts from my various art blogs of choice recommending books for summer reading. Those fine edu-ma-cating types at Art 21 mix artist biographies like Patti Smith’s amazing Just Kids with some beefy textbooks whose unsuitability for the beach is [...]
- Thinking outside the red box
Canada Post may still be on strike (emphasis on the “may” as the news indicates that a legislated end may be near) but artists in general aren’t anywhere near that organized and still have business to conduct. Visual artists at all stages of their careers answer calls for submissions from public galleries, artist-run centres and [...]
- Weekend Links: Artists Out Loud
From protesting the most current threats to creative freedom to uncovering a long-forgotten painter from art history, this weekend’s links celebrate the power of the artist’s voice, with sometimes hilarious results. Kay Sage, White Silence, 1941, Oil on canvas, 30 × 40 1/4 inches, Private Collection. Photograph by Stewart Clements. (Source: Katonah Museum of Art) [...]
- James North Art Crawl: A June Observation
While I can’t claim to have done so with perfect consistency, I have been attending and writing coverage of the James North Art Crawl since October 2007. Looking back on that first distant report from the days when Hamilton Artists Inc. was on Colbourne and I was, amazingly, even more jaded than I am today [...]
- Weekend Links: Reality Check
Even though I spent much of this week trying to keep my head down in the studio and focus back on the not-so-simple practice of just making art, my reading time threw me back again and again into the sobering reality of the structures that govern the well-nigh ungovernable currents of contemporary art. From biennales [...]
- Off the Shelf: Climbing the Cold White Peaks
It’s been quite a while since I’ve turned up with one of those book-review type things I once optimistically promised to do around here once a month (the last being this look at various lo-fi artist books in my collection), and this overdue instalment is already breaking my ground rules in that this book did [...]
