Porn and Privacy in Mia Sandhu’s “Golden Girls”
Based on images from the so-called Golden Age of Porn in the 1970s and ’80s, Sandhu's subtly sinister works on paper raise questions about whose bodies end up on display
As Immense as the Sky
Meryl McMaster’s latest works—a series of not-quite-self portraits that broaden understandings of land histories and what it means to be in a body—will feature next week in a solo show in Montreal. Here, Gabrielle Moser pulls the camera back on her work to date
This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: What “Showroom” Gets Wrong about Toronto’s Art Scene
“Showroom”—framed as a survey of Toronto artists—is a monocultural show that fails to account for the city’s diversity, writes Gabrielle Moser.
Abbas Akhavan: Every Artwork Is a Trap
"Every artwork is a trap, because it is supposed to be a window to something else, or a closure to an idea: it’s a conceptual trap," says Abbas Akhavan.
Play on Words: “Stopping the Sun in its Course” Review
“Stopping the Sun in its Course" brings together Canadian artists in Los Angeles, continuing the West Coast interest in wordplay. Gabrielle Moser reviews.
Fiona Annis Intertwines Photography and Death
Fiona Annis transforms traces of dying stars into an immersive installation at Toronto's Gallery 44 that ruminates on loss.
Synaesthetics: Aleesa Cohene Fuses the Senses
Aleesa Cohene creates synesthetic experiences that turn appropriations of film and TV clips into transfixing installations, writes Gabrielle Moser.
Kitty Scott’s Contemporary Re-Hang Elevates the AGO
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto January 29, 2014, to October 2015
Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins
Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto
Fashionality: Challenging the Dress Code
A feature from the Summer 2012 issue of Canadian Art
Geoffrey Farmer: Playing Stateside
Vancouver artist Geoffrey Farmer has achieved international success in recent years, but had yet to show in the US until now. Gabrielle Moser reviews, finding intriguing evidence of the artist's ongoing engagement with the mythical properties of everyday objects.
Kutlug Ataman: Home Movies
The Istanbul-born, London-based video artist Kutlug Ataman traded in his trademark large-scale installations for a reserved presentation style when he recently showed his work at London’s Whitechapel Gallery. But as Gabrielle Moser reflects, the video piece still resonates with messages about the evolving nature of family and official histories alike.
Gerald Ferguson: Last Landscapes
The late Gerald Ferguson was an influential leader in contemporary Canadian painting. Now, with a final landscape series showing in Halifax, Gabrielle Moser asks Ferguson’s Atlantic gallerists how the exhibition came together.
Lord Dalhousie: A Collector Ahead of his Time
Shows based on today’s art collectors are increasingly frequent. But it’s rarer to get a glimpse of historical patrons. Now Gabrielle Moser explores the possibilities in an interview with René Villeneuve, curator of “Lord Dalhousie: Patron and Collector.”
CSA Space: Small is Good
In a city whose downtown is overrun with pristine minimalist architecture and glass-box condos, Vancouver’s CSA Space gallery offers a welcome reprieve of hardwood floors, solid drywall and industrial lighting. It also presents some of the city’s most innovative visual-arts programming.
Lex Vaughn: A Chat on Second City and Saskatchewan
For some Canadians, winter is all about staying indoors. This week, a different kind of hibernation begins when performer/artist Lex Vaughn’s “geriatric dandy” alter ego takes up residence in a Saskatoon gallery. Here, Vaughn chats with Gabrielle Moser about the work’s origins.
Cedric Bomford: Scaling the Heights of Creative Critique
Many cast a skeptical eye at Toronto’s corporate-sponsored Red Bull 381 Projects when it opened. But Gabrielle Moser finds Cedric Bomford’s tower installation there actually reinvigorates the critical potential of artists vis-à-vis their exhibitors.
Gakona: Art Goes Electric in Paris
It seems fitting that intrigue, rumours and conjecture should accompany the art in “Gakona,” a group show inspired by a small town in Alaska where, reportedly, secretive experiments with electricity are carried out by the American government.
Here Now or Nowhere: Northern Lights
Festivals like Nuit Blanche and Luminato have amped public art festivals in Toronto and Montreal. Now—more out of necessity than novelty—northern Alberta kicks off its own version of the phenomenon, curated this year by artist Micah Lexier.
Stan Douglas: Humor, Irony and the Law
Vancouver-based artist Stan Douglas’s recent work at New York’s David Zwirner examines the rules, laws and arbitrary protocols that propel the fates of historical and contemporary subjects. The result represents a significant new artistic shift.
theanyspacewhatever: Collapsing Institutional Spaces, or Having Fun Trying
Relational aesthetics is an ever-more-popular aspect of art festivals and shows across Canada. Now the trend is given international perspective in “theanyspacewhatever,” a wacky assemblage of sculpture, installation and video at New York’s Guggenheim.
Close to You: Crafty Pop Culture
Named after The Carpenters’ 1970 saccharine-sweet song of the same name, “Close to You” provides a survey of projects that translate pop culture icons into personalized and highly intimate craft objects in the domestic sphere.
Rebecca Belmore: Rising to the Occasion
In this review of Belmore's mid-career retrospective at the Vancouver Art Gallery from summer 2008, Gabrielle Moser highlights enduring themes in the Anishinaabe artist’s work
Images Festival: So Long, AV Club
For many years it seemed as though contemporary film and video did not get enough screen time in traditional gallery spaces. Under-represented and relegated to dark corner nooks, galleries made video art seem about as appealing as the high school AV club.
Kelly Wood and Monika Grzymala in Vancouver
Curator Jessie Caryl makes the incommensurability of sound, space and imagery the central theme in an exhibition of new works by artists Kelly Wood and Monika Grzymala.
