- 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: March
Despite the chilling sort of rain that half-tempted me to just stay in for the evening (to say nothing of a new episode of Caprica on Space), traffic at this month’s art crawl was going strong such that I spent the first twenty minutes circling the neighbourhood in search of parking. Great for the crawl, […]
- David Shrigley’s Pringle of Scotland animation
Among the many Scottish artists I came to appreciate and sometimes adore during my time in Glasgow, David Shrigley always managed to stand out by stint of his underwhelming style in the midst of the high-concept conversation happening around him. His drawings are simple and wryly comical - think of a slightly more rude Marcel […]
- 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 […]
- ReMix Institute Phase II Hits Hamilton Next Month
Hamilton’s art calendar for next month is going to be quite heavy on the Cubanos with the launch of various events and exhibitions of ReMix Institute Phase II across the Hamilton region. Continuing from Phase I of Proyecto ReMix in Cienfuegos and Havana, this international exchange brings together Cuban artists with participants from the Hamilton […]
- James North Art Crawl: August
This month’s Art Crawl followed something of a bizarro-world format - not just because I actually managed to make it out for the August crawl this year, but because a variation in plans caused my standard gallery tour to flow in reverse. My traveling companion’s girlfriend happens to be the cousin of Bryce Huffman, so […]
- It’s Friday…
…and I’m once again heading northward to a rural patch of Ontario devoid of internet access, which is really something of a blessing.
Before I hit the road, here’s a road trip far more expansive and engaging than the one I’m about to take up the 400: David Lynch’s Interview Project. The online documentary tracks the […]
- Marcel Dzama and Department of Eagles
One of my many art-school frustrations was with the expectation that someone who draws should also be trying their hand at video - I never found I had the knack for it, even though I knew full well that some of my favourite artists could do both quite successfully. The first time I saw a […]
- Top Five Hamilton Hits of 2008
This past year, and the fact of its ending very, very soon, affords me a perspective I didn’t have at this time last year - 2008 is the first calendar year in which I have had the privilege of watching Hamilton’s ever-growing art scene from January to December (didn’t even get half that in 2007) […]
- Richard Fung: Landscapes at McMaster Museum of Art
I’ve been making a habit of attending Thursday afternoon critiques for McMaster University’s Studio Art program, and managed to bonus up this week with the opening of Richard Fung’s Landscapes at the McMaster Museum of Art, as well as an Artist’s Talk earlier in the afternoon on the background of Fung’s practice leading into his […]




