Reviews
On Charles Campbell and the Underrepresentation of Caribbean Art in Canada
The Jamaica-born, Victoria-based artist has shown at the Brooklyn Museum and Pérez Art Museum Miami—but only recently had his first Vancouver solo show
On Charles Campbell and the Underrepresentation of Caribbean Art in Canada
The Jamaica-born, Victoria-based artist has shown at the Brooklyn Museum and Pérez Art Museum Miami—but only recently had his first Vancouver solo show
Kavavaow Mannomee
Kavavaow Mannomee is, like Annie Pootoogook and Shuvinai Ashoona, part of a third generation of Inuit artists who are drawing attention to the art made above the Arctic Circle.
Roger Ballen
The anthropologist Victor Turner defined the word liminality as “betwixt and between.” It is a transitional state that involves moving between two existential planes; normal restraints on behaviour and understanding are relaxed, leading to new perspectives. Roger Ballen’s photographs epitomize this process.
The Pictures Generation
In the early 1980s, I framed a photocopy of an art-magazine reproduction of a Sherrie Levine appropriation of a Walker Evans photograph. It seemed a logical conclusion to the appropriation chain, and I can see now how it pointed to the problem with so much of the art made by the Pictures artists: there were simply too many logical conclusions.
Rothko/Giotto
Housed in a modest room in the Gemäldegalerie, this small exhibition nonetheless came equipped with a big catalogue, wall texts and a videoguide. It was substantial support for an exhibition made of only three works—Mark Rothko’s Reds No. 5 (1961) and Giotto di Bondone’s Death of the Virgin (ca. 1310) and Crucifixion (ca. 1315).
Francis Alÿs
Fifteen years ago, Francis Alÿs began shopping at flea markets, bazaars and jumble sales for discarded paintings with which he could build an art collection. Unsurprisingly for an artist whose practice consists of open-ended, exploratory projects, he had no idea what the outcome would be.
Ed Pien: Drawing in Many Forms
The Canadian artist Ed Pien has long been known as a virtuoso in the medium of drawing. In her review of “Treacherous Lines,” Pien’s summer exhibition in Montreal, Zoë Chan explains how Pien brings his drawing-sensitive touch to a suite of works in a range of media that track the ineffable movements of the human mind and imagination.
Sometimes Always: Sound Effects
Obsolete and on-the-way-out audio technologies find new life as contemporary art in a clever, playful group exhibition at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. As Sue Carter-Flinn observes, 8-tracks, CDs and good old vinyl all get their due.
Yam Lau: A House Divided, and United Again
Toronto-based artist Yam Lau is known for remarkable digital artworks that bind the poetic and prosaic sides of life. His latest show “Hutong House” opens soon in Beijing, and as David Court observes, Lau’s images of architecture are most certainly high art.
Universal Code: Solar System Symphony
Universes—those both within and without—are given the art treatment in “Universal Code,” a substantial summer exhibition at the Power Plant in Toronto. From cosmic drama to heavenly music, Justin Mah finds the art impresses.
David Wisdom: Retro Vancouver Views
Though he’s best known for hosting radio programs, David Wisdom showed photographs alongside Rodney Graham and Jeff Wall back in the day. Now, a retrospective of Wisdom’s 1970s imagery is shifting focus back to his vis-arts chops.