- Saltz and the new definition of “dickish”
I’ve resisted commentary on the more prolific Jerry Saltz drama taking place these days on the grounds that any refutation of a critic’s reasoned argument that opens by calling said critic “dickish” is not worthy of intelligent consideration - although the underlying dickishness of the hollow discourse in itself is intelligently examined here.
Instead, I’m backtracking […]
- White cats and black humour: suicide as farce
Among my less-than-glowing observations of this month’s Art Crawl, few have lingered in my mind the last few days save for a comment left on the post by a fellow art crawler who took issue with Laura Paolini’s exhibition Hello, Schrodinger? at Hamilton Artists Inc. My preoccupation is certainly not with his negative impression of […]
- Adrian Searle on the Artist/Writer Duality
In taking the time to digest Adrian Searle’s thoughts at Art Toronto (along with the rest of that overblown weekend), I’ve come away with remarkably very little, at least insofar as the advice given at his keynote address was sensible beyond contention. The value of building a conversation that extends beyond the press release and […]
- I blame Adrian Searle
Because it’s been four days since I wrapped up four days of commuting into Toronto for all the art fodder I could get my grubby paws on, and all I’ve got is a bad case of writer’s block. I’d rather have the t-shirt.
Daniel Borins and Jennifer Marman at upArt Contemporary Art Fair
And while I could […]
- The value of negative criticism
As far as talking points for a Monday go, one can do a lot worse than Edward Winkleman’s self-professed Quick-Cliche question this morning on the value of negative criticism as opposed to no criticism at all, a notion coincidentally yet sagely examined in Joanne Mattera’s highly useful Marketing Monday post for today. To quote Ed, […]
- On “Being included in revised versions of art history”
Even after taking a lovely weekend off to mentally and physically reboot in the beer-and-barbeque laden crucible of a post-Canada Day weekend, I’ve come back to the internet to find that commentary around Jerry Saltz’s crusade to amend the scarcity of female artists in MoMA’s Painting and Sculpture collection is still going strong. Edward Winkleman […]
- ‘Not Quite How I Remember It’ at The Power Plant
I’m writing these impressions of The Power Plant’s summer show, Not Quite How I Remember It, from the other side of a somewhat fuzzy Canada Day weekend that stands as a handy temporal buffer between the moment of viewing the exhibition and my writing on it now - it’s a gesture that is either an […]
- Loose Threads
Two of my posts from this past month are now in need of a resolution as April draws to a close, neither of which warrants its own post, so consider this a two-for-one deal.
Firstly, some of you may have noticed that my first blog for Akimblog has now gone online. The post’s coverage of the […]
- The Condition (Not the Content) of Hamilton’s Art
Earlier this week, when Terence Dick invited me to join the contributors to Akimblog as a representative of the Hamilton art community, he did so with the caution that I would need to find a way of writing that would remain ‘different and distinct - yet somehow retain your breezy, intelligent, personable, and critical style.’ […]
- Intentionality and the Internet
I’m sure a fair few of my Canadian readers are familiar with Akimbo - and quite possibly, like myself, enjoy their daily deluge of email notices clogging up their inboxes with show invites and calls for submission in far too great a number to be truly useful. I think it’s a true show of […]
