Column

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C the Visual Arts Foundation: Founding Patrons

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Photography

Human Rights

The Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography’s exhibition “The Space of Silence” presents installations reflecting on the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide by artists Isaac Applebaum, Jack Burman, and Alfredo Jaar. With a compelling link in content, the CMCP simultaneously presents a touring exhibition from the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University: “Facing Death: Portraits of Cambodia’s Killing Fields.”

What to C: “Space and Silence” at CMCP, Ottawa / “Open Ends” at MoMA, New York

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Exhibitions

Site-specific

Short write-ups on a number of exhibitions, including “Bridget Riley” at Dia Center for the Arts in New York, “The Bigger Picture” at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, “Being on Time” at Central Technical High School in Toronto, and the Toronto International Art Fair at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

What to c & What was c’n: Bridget Riley at Dia, New York / “The Bigger Picture" at AGO, Toronto / TIAF, Toronto / “Being On Time” at Central Tech, Toronto

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A short guide to upcoming art fairs, including photo l.a. (one of the largest photography fairs in the US), Art Miami (reputedly the best of the North American fairs), Arte Fiera (Italy’s leading exhibition in Bologna), ARCO (an international fair for contemporary and modern art in Madrid), and The Art Show (held at the Armory in New York).

Fair Well: A short guide to upcoming art fairs

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Editorial

Editor

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Notes from the mental health district

Feature

Writer

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Sculpture

Painting

Drawing

Body

Readymade

Representation

Ray Cronin considers the work of Rick Burns and his exhibition “Body Absent” at the University of New Brunswick’s Art Centre. The exhibition presents a series of sculptures which evoke absence, oppression, and dehumanization. Burns works in painting and mixed-media drawing as well, incorporating similar subject matter as in his sculptural works. 

Poetic Absence: Ray Cronin on the work of Rick Burns

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Memory

History

The Diefenbunker, constructed between 1959 and 1961 in Carp, Ontario, by the government of Canada, was converted into a museum in 1998\. Shortly after, Axe Néo-7, an artist-run centre in Hull, Quebec, organized “Singular Fission,” a site-specific contemporary art exhibition with works reflecting on Cold War mentalities, paranoia, fantasy, and survival.

Escape Fantasies: Survival in the Diefenbunker

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Installation

John Armstrong considers the implications of Jeannie Thib’s “Model/Mimic” as a site-specific exhibition at Gairloch Gallery, a converted domestic residence and part of the Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens. Curator Marnie Fleming selects installations that incorporate the unique setting of the Gallery, reflecting on past domestic lives and fictions of a past era.

Thoughts Arising from an Exhibition

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Participation

Video

Surveillance

Wendy Landry considers the work of Jan Peacock, specifically two video installations at the Dalhousie Art Gallery in Halifax, Book of Chairs (1997) and Reader by the Window (1993). Both works create environments that require the viewer’s participation and incorporate themes of voyeurism, vulnerability, control, orientation, memory, and integration. 

Attempts at Grace: Wendy Landry on the video installations of Jan Peacock

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Art Director

Publisher

Artist Project

Artist

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Gender

Autobiography

Five black and white photographs by Aaron Anaïs Kimberly entitled “Autoportraits” are presented. Kimberly’s work questions what is natural and what is artificial in gender, particularly masculinity. In the tradition of butch lesbians and drag kings, the work draws attention to the intricacies and everyday performance of gender.

Autoportraits

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Voyeurism

Seven images by artist Stephen Waddell are presented: five photographs and two paintings. The photographs depict an unsuspecting man as he goes about his daily life. The subject’s ignorance and the placement of the artist/viewer give the series a suspenseful and mysterious quality.

Il Killer

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Abstract

Canadian

Two images by artist Judith Schwarz for CMagazine. Presented on two sides of the page, the images are identical save for a light grey background for the first and a dark grey background for the second. Reminiscent of a Celtic knot, the uniform pair of white outlined circles on each page present a puzzle for the eye and brain to work out.

Blink

Review

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Institutional critique

A look at the contemporary conceptual art exhibition “Apocalypse” at London’s Royal Academy, the sequel to Saatchi’s “Sensation” (1997). Carol Peaker visits the exhibition and questions where art begins and ends and what defines certain artistic products as art as opposed to commercial entertainment.

Letter from London: November 2000

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Cultural Studies

Daryl Wells considers Brooklyn Museum of Art’s exhibition “Hip-Hop Nation: Roots, Rhymes, and Rage.” Despite the curator’s good intentions, Wells finds the presentation to be ill-conceived and poorly executed. Among other things, Wells critiques the lack of critical moments and inclusion of voices from hip-hop theorists, critics, and rappers.

Hip-Hop Nation: Roots, Rhymes and Rage, Brooklyn Museum of Art

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John Armstrong considers the work of artist Lucy Hogg, particularly her work in “Closet Abstracts” at Anodyne Contemporary Art in Vancouver. Hogg’s figural and abstract paintings is regarded by Armstrong as an evolution of endless adjustments. In “Closet Abstracts,” oval canvases of interlocking shapes and looping doodle designs call attention to the painting’s manufacture and sense of contingency.

Lucy Hogg: Anodyne Contemporary Art, Vancouver

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Science

Technology

Barry Allikas’ codon series are considered while on display at the Pari Nadimi Gallery in Toronto. An investigation of complexity theory, the geometric abstraction works explore an array of themes including data, territory, surveillance, self-organization, and systems of science and new technology. Using associative colours such as camouflage and suggestive titles, Allikas gives viewers a point of entry into interpretation of his works.

Barry Allikas: Pari Nadimi Gallery, Toronto

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Interpretation

Dena Shottenkirk considers the notoriety and popularity of Damien Hirst. His exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in New York is typical of Hirst, with larger-than-life pieces creating a crowd-pleasing spectacle. The shocking presentation paired with the obscure interpretation of Hirst’s work assures viewers of its mass accessibility and status as art simultaneously. 

Damien Hirst: Gagosian Gallery, New York

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Museums

David Boyd Haycock reviews “Out There” at White Cube2 in London, an exhibition featuring the major names in contemporary British art. Haycock critiques the sameness of the content. Some bright spots include Gavin Turk and Tracey Emin, whose work is at least thought-provoking for Haycock.

Out There: White Cube, London

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Text

Language

Maureen Fenniak reviews “About the Author” at Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton, an exhibition comprising the work of performance and installation artist Blair Brennan. Here, Brennan is occupied with themes of the occult, magic, mysticism, and language, and uses text and sculpture to communicate ideas on technology, process, and mechanics.

Blair Brennan: Harcourt House Gallery, Edmonton

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Collaboration

Multiples

Dena Shottenkirk reviews “Project #0004” at Friedrich Petzel Gallery in New York, the work of artist Allan McCollum. McCollum uses multiples of objects to draw attention to how a banal object is thought to be transcendental when presented in multiplicities, while we feel we can ‘know’ an object when there’s just one of them. 

Allan McCollum: Friedrich Petzal Gallery, New York

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