Asinnajaq is an artist and curator recently named to the team for Canada's 2019 presentation at the Venice Biennale. In 2017, she also curated an Inuit film program for imagineNATIVE in Toronto.
Our editors’ weekly roundup of art news.
For the first time ever, a team is curating the Venice Biennale Canada Pavilion. This week, five curators were selected by the Inuit artist collective Isuma, which is being featured at the 2019 pavilion. The team includes: Montreal-based Inuk artist and curator Asinnajaq; Art Gallery of Alberta chief curator Catherine Crowston; Art Museum at the University of Toronto chief curator Barbara Fischer; Albuquerque-based independent curator Candice Hopkins; and National Gallery of Canada senior curator Josée Drouin-Brisebois. (e-flux)
In an unusual move, the National Gallery of Canada is selling off a Chagall at Christie’s. The sale of the colourful 1929 canvas La Tour Eiffel, which the gallery bought directly from New York’s Pierre Matisse Gallery in 1956, is estimated at $6 million to $9 million. According to a Christie’s press release, the sale is intended to benefit the National Gallery of Canada’s acquisitions fund. The auction will take place May 15 at Christie’s Impressionist and Modernist Evening Sale in New York. Chagall’s 27-year auction record was broken this past November at Sotheby’s when Le Grand Cirque (1956) went for $16 million. (press release)
Dorothy Henriques-Wells, the first Black alumnus of OCAD University, has died. “Dorothy Henriques-Wells, a painter who depicted the florals and landscapes of her native Jamaica with a spare yet ebullient lyricism, has died in Miami at ninety-two, according to the Jamaica Observer,” Artforum states. “In 1950, Henriques-Wells became the first black alumnus of OCAD University, then known as the Ontario College of Art, and she later went on to teach art in Jamaica for more than two decades.” She was 92. (Artforum)
Artists have reached a new tentative agreement with the National Gallery of Canada. Canadian Artists’ Representation (CARFAC) and the Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels du Québec (RAAV) wrapped up negotiations with the gallery on March 14, stating “we have reached a new tentative agreement for the next four years.” The last agreement was negotiated in 2015, and like the new one covers “terms and conditions for the exhibition and reproduction of works of art, as well as the provision of professional services by living Canadian artists.” Next steps include a ratification vote by CARFAC and RAAV members. (press release)
Sequoia Miller is the new chief curator at the Gardiner Museum. Miller, an American, worked as a full-time studio potter before re-entering academia. In 2015, he curated “The Ceramic Presence in Modern Art” at the Yale University Art Gallery, bringing ceramic artists like Peter Voulkos, Lucie Rie and Toshiko Takaezu into dialogue with painters and sculptors like Willem de Kooning, Ed Ruscha and Mark Rothko. Sequoia will begin at the Gardiner, which bills itself as “Canada’s national ceramics museum,” on April 5. (press release)
Norman Armour, co-founder of Vancouver’s PuSH Festival, is stepping down after 14 years. Produced over three weeks each January, the PuSh Festival aims to present groundbreaking work in the live performing arts. “Celebrated Canadian works that have premiered at PuSh include the Electric Company Theatre’s Studies in Motion: The Hauntings of Eadweard Muybridge in 2006” the Globe and Mail reports. Armour is heading to a consultation role with the Australian Council’s international strategy in North America. (Globe and Mail)
Kristie MacDonald is the latest recipient of the John Hartman Award. This annual award of $4,000, funded by artist John Hartman, is granted to an emerging artist for development of new work. The artist is selected based on a recommendation from the MacLaren Art Centre’s curatorial team and the award is administered by the MacLaren Art Centre. Past recipients include Duane Linklater (2011) and Erika DeFreitas (2016). MacDonald is a Toronto-based artist who engages notions of the archive and the collection. (Akimbo)
Mike Jones, filmmaker and co-founding member of the Newfoundland Independent Filmmakers’ Co-op (NIFCO), has passed. “In the 1970s, professional film equipment was expensive and hard to come by in the province, so a group of filmmakers, with Jones leading the pack, got together and established NIFCO in 1975,” the Telegram reports. “Today, [film is] a multimillion-dollar industry employing more than 600 people in the province.” Jones also directed episodes of Codco, which starred his siblings Andy Jones and Cathy Jones. He was 73. (Telegram)
Maxine Proctor is the new managing editor of BlackFlash Magazine. Proctor is director and co-founder of the Toronto Art Book Fair, and she is a former resident of Saskatoon, where the photo and media-art magazine is based. Proctor will commence her BlackFlash duties on April 16. (press release)
And in case you missed it: The $50,000 Scotiabank Photography Award has shortlisted Moyra Davey, Greg Staats and Stephen Waddell. And Tanya Lukin Linklater was appointed to receive the inaugural $15,000 Wanda Koop Research Fund. (Canadian Art)
