- 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 […]
- Weekend Links: Little Big Cremaster!
It’s not so much that there weren’t newsworthy things to be read in the arts blogosphere this week - if you’re here for the serious, you could always check out Hyperallergic’s round-up of Ai Weiwei updates or this nifty Art Fag City contemplation of art’s spiritual side, but this heat-wave we’ve suffered through this week […]
- 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 […]
- 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 […]
- Friday Links: A Fire in My Belly
I’ve been following the controversy around the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and their removal of David Wojnarowicz’s video A Fire in My Belly from the critically acclaimed exhibition Hide/Seek with a stomach-churning mix of disgust at the repressive forces at work in American society and relief that I live in Canada. The fact that I […]
- Old-school Leonard Nimoy is totally (not) relevant to my artistic practice
Among the daily slew of Akimbo announcement emails to hit my inbox this morning was one odd bunny in particular that managed to penetrate the fog created by inadequate coffee supplies (my Bodum coffee press has a crack in the glass) and an impending grant deadline:
The Owens Art Gallery (Sackville NB) is looking for Artists […]
- 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: 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 […]
