- 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 […]
- The 2011 Sobey Art Award Shortlist
Last week I attempted to make up for the lack of my usual region-by-region breakdown of the Sobey Art Award Long List by taking a closer look at the Ontario Long List currently on show at Oakville Galleries Centennial Square and Gairloch Gardens. The confluence of those five Ontario-based artists revealed a taut commonality of […]
- James North Art Crawl: February
I’m tempted to apologize for the lateness of this month’s James North Art Crawl post, but the larger part of me - the part that believes form should follow content hooking up with the part of me made of spite - can’t help but find it fitting that my sluggish pace of blogging follows upon […]
- New gallery bringing the old and hopefully something new
Now that I’m officially snowed in and bored out of my skull, I find myself with an excess of time in which to catch up on recent goings-on in Hamilton art; namely, the grand opening last weekend of Focus Gallery, the latest addition to an ever-expanding string of arts-based establishments on James Street North.
Despite any […]
- Meryl McMaster at MacLaren Art Gallery
Since some of my dearest friends now live and work in the environs of Barrie, Ontario, I tend to take advantage of that long-ish drive up the 400 to stop at the MacLaren Art Gallery during my visits. It’s the sort of regional space that deserves wider recognition for both its strong programming of contemporary […]
- James North Art Crawl: September
As much as I’m still reluctantly dragging my way back into a dual artist-writer mindset after a steady month of studio focus, it proved hard to ignore the onset of yet another Art Crawl when I was able to see its imminence growing from my perch behind the drafting table facing my second-floor window overlooking […]
- James North Art Crawl: July
Even with the relief of some much-needed rain on Friday morning, a summer Art Crawl is an inevitably humid affair. The galleries do their best to keep things tolerable with cold beer and hard-working fans but the best thing going is always the stack of curatorial statements and exhibition cards I tend to accumulate as […]
- James North Art Crawl: May
It could be the emergence of some truly decent weather the night of the Crawl, but the street was especially lively this month in particular. A greater part of that would also be owed to the higher concentration of buskers up and down James North - no doubt a lingering demonstration in the wake of […]
- Recommended Reading: ‘Just Kids’ by Patti Smith
While I’m not normally in the habit of making apologies on behalf of this blog’s frequency or lack thereof, I will be the first to admit I’ve been especially remiss lately. This would be down to a combination of overwork and an especially persistent cold; I’m hoping the latter clears off in time for a […]
- James North Art Crawl: February
One of the unspoken tensions of the Art Crawl is the extent to which the event revolves around spaces rather than their contents. There is a predictable assortment of galleries along the street that establish an art crawler’s routine more than the prospect of the art itself (if only because oftentimes the exhibitions are poorly […]
