- Professional Practice Primer
One of the consequences of sitting on two Boards of Directors for Hamilton’s artist-run sector - and consequently, on two Programming Committees - is that I invariably end up spending a lot of time looking at artists’ application packages for everything from exhibitions to commissions to OAC Exhibition Assistance Grants. Just this week alone, I […]
- 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 […]
- Vital Donation Via Vital Africa
The media invite for this morning’s launch event for the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s Vital Africa year of exhibitions was sweetened by the dangling carrot of a donation announcement that drew a substantial crowd and mild speculations that proved essentially accurate. Frequent AGH benefactors Joey and Tony Tanenbaum already have a well-known history of bequests […]
- James North Art Crawl: January
As I was pulling together my thoughts on this month’s uneven exhibition efforts and not-entirely-pleasant cold, I finally recalled that I have no basis for comparison to last year’s January Crawl. This time last year, I’d been in Toronto for the opening of Misplaced: Animals Lost and Found at XPACE, in which I was showing […]
- Excerpt: An age of austerity for the arts
A side-effect of my recent love affair with Adrian Searle’s Private Views has been an expanded interest in the other cultural podcasts offered by The Guardian’s website. While the critical heft doesn’t quite compete with CBC’s Ideas (a long-standing favourite of mine), the series of recordings from the 2009 Cambridge Festival of Ideas have been […]
- Studio Notes: On Cleaning and Making Messes
Further to my goal to better preserve my studio time in 2010 (after the chilling revelations discussed in this post), you may start to notice an increase in studio-related posts on this blog in the interests of self-enforced accountability. This is the first of such entries in what we might call the sobriety-sponsor relationship; however, […]
- Top Five Hamilton Hits of 2009
When I spontaneously decided to compile a Top Five of Hamilton art events and exhibitions last year, the job practically happened on its own - 2008 was a promising year full of unexpected things in wonderful places, from Christ’s Church Cathedral to Cootes Paradise to 270 Sherman. There was a forward momentum that I had […]
- Time, and where it goes
I’m not one for New Year’s Resolutions - happy enough with my weight, like my bad habits exactly where they are - but this remains a reflective time of year well suited to self-scrutiny.
One of the more useful books I read this past year was Jackie Battenfield’s indispensably practical The Artist’s Guide: How To […]
- “Its four in the morning, the end of December.”
While last minute knitting, baking and painting prevented me from saying so any sooner, I do hope everyone had a fun and happy holiday, and that the hangover fades in plenty of time to ring in 2010.
Twenty-two Veghs vs. Cheese Santa. I think Santa lost.
While I’m typically slack at posting this time of year, […]
- Steve Mazza: Unnatural Selection
I’m sure there’s a comment to be made upon the fact that I had to drive out to Cambridge to see a solo installation by a Hamilton artist the likes of which I can’t imagine having ever happened in the city itself. But it’s Friday and a week before Christmas, so I’d rather be charitable […]
