Audience for an event at Contemporary Calgary's old building. A new facility is in development. Photo: Facebook / Contemporary Calgary.
Bruce Kuwabara will design Calgary’s new art gallery. The decision was announced by Contemporary Calgary on January 14. Kuwabara’s firm KPMB will be working with local Gibbs Gage Architects on the building, which involves a unique remodel of a planetarium structure built in 1967. Kuwabara’s past buildings include the Remai Modern in Saskatoon, the recently rebuilt Ottawa Art Gallery and the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. Construction is due to begin in 2020. (press release)
And Ryan Doherty will be interim chief curator there. Formerly director and curator of the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in Lethbridge, Doherty will provide guidance in developing programming both for the new building and for offsite spaces until the building is ready. He replaces, to a certain extent, Lisa Baldissera, who was senior curator at Contemporary Calgary but moved to direct Griffin Art Projects in North Vancouver this fall. (press release)
The Art Gallery of Ontario is deaccessioning 20 A.Y. Jacksons to buy work by “underrepresented” artists. The Globe reports that the Jacksons will be offered to public institutions before hitting the wider marketplace. The resulting funds will be used to purchase works by “artists who have traditionally been underrepresented in art museums,” says chief curator Julian Cox. Jackson is considered one of the more prolific of the Group of Seven artists. (Globe and Mail)
Will the new Vancouver Art Gallery ever happen? Reporter Marsha Lederman wonders about this in a Globe reflection, noting that the gallery has been given a December 31 deadline by the City of Vancouver to raise requisite funds, and that updates on the project of late have not been forthcoming. (Globe and Mail)
Grunt Gallery program director Glenn Alteen is retiring. Alteen has worked with Grunt “since its inception in 1984 and in May of 2020 will retire after 36 years in the position,” says a release. A succession plan and yearlong transition period is being planned. The program director job call will be released January 18. (press release)
Bronwyn McMillin has won the Takao Tanabe Prize for BC painters. McMillin, who is based on Vancouver Island, receives $10,000. The award is administered by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and is aimed at emerging artists. (press release)
Jon Rafman has won the inaugural Fogo Island Arts-Sobey Art Award Residency. This new residency awards one of the artists shortlisted for the annual Sobey Art Award a residency on Fogo Island, Newfoundland. (press release)
Some Canadian artists are headed to the fairs. Work by Toronto artists Kristiina Lahde, Roula Partheniou and Joy Walker, as well as a project by Geoffrey Pugen, will be at Untitled San Francisco this weekend in the booth of Toronto dealer MKG127. At the same fair, works by Montreal artist Lorna Bauer will be at the booth of Montreal dealer Nicolas Robert, and works by Dusseldorf-based Canadian Erik Olson will be shown in the booth of Los Angeles dealer Luis de Jesus. Meanwhile, at the Outsider Art Fair in New York this weekend, works by self-trained Cape Breton artist A.J. Aucoin will debut at the booth of Los Angeles’s Good Luck Gallery. (Instagram, press release, Artdaily)
Shannon Bool will be the next artist to exhibit at the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris. It will be the Berlin-based Canadian artist’s first solo exhibition in France. This is part of a touring show organized by Musée d’art de Joliette, enriched in Paris by a few new works co-produced with Kunstverein Braunschweig. “‘Promiscuous Rooms’ reveals the underlying fantasmal character of modernist architecture, and the current relevance of this issue in a world where the image of an ‘exotic’ female body remains powerfully seductive, but in more ambiguous ways,” says a release. (e-flux)
Sam Cronk is the new senior curator of history at Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives. In the past, Cronk has worked at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Scripps/Claremont Colleges and the National Music Centre. (press release)
In case you missed it: Canada’s arts and culture charities are falling short, says a new study. One thousand works of Inuit and Indigenous art are being gifted to the MacKenzie Art Gallery. With a new $3.5 million, Thunder Bay Art Gallery is almost fully funded for its future waterfront building. 15 Canadian sites have made a new international art-destinations list. And DHC/ART is changing its name. (Canadian Art)
