Reviews: Stephen Appleby-Barr, Ydessa Hendeles & Andrea Nunes

Stephen Appleby-Barr has been getting a lot of buzz lately in the Canadian mediasphere. Today's National Post offers my take on his work, which is appealing but which I also feel cautious about. Reviews of the new Ydessa Hendeles show and a small look at Andrea Nunes are also included. Here's an excerpt:

Stephen Appleby-Barr at Narwhal
Appleby-Barr is a young, much-buzzed Torontonian who gained fame as part of the cheeky art-and-illustration collective Team Macho. In his second solo show, The Invisible College, he pays tribute to the artists -- members of Macho among them -- who've influenced his creativity. Granted, there's considerable sleight-of-hand involved: Appleby-Barr's portraits are influenced by heavily hued classical paintings and turn-of-the-century sepiaphotographs. This approach is particularly successful in a portrait of recent Iskowitz Prize winner Shary Boyle, who is rendered as an officious Governor General, and in a restrained painting of Owen Pallett, revealing a dapper duke of all that is young, eccentric and creative in Toronto. Overall, the warmth of this coming-of-age project is palpable, but a caveat: The artist's self-conscious, Anglo-fetishizing style can come off a bit gimmicky. To Nov. 29.

I also liked Appleby-Barr's painting of a young Francis Bacon done in similar style. So many artist list their influences, rather than pay tribute to them... so it's nice to see. (The idea of the artist's cat being one of his "artistic colleagues" also comes off very humorously.) Because the original review had to be trimmed for space, I'm also posting more observations on the Hendeles show after the jump.

Image of Appleby-Barr's Punchy Graduation from Narwhal


Strait-Jacket at Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, 778 King St W
Many were saddened last year when the Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, the best (and until recently, the only) private-collection exhibition space in Canada, suddenly shut down for looked like an indefinite, and possibly permanent, period. Accordingly, the relief was palpable when Hendeles reopened this fall with a new exhibition, Strait-Jacket. This show is smaller than past ones and some items on display, like Hendeles’ Punch and Judy puppets, have been previously shown. Nonetheless, this mix of top-notch works and artifacts successfully evokes complex knots of questions about sanity, culture and power. Pippilotti Rist’s Ever is Over All is a perfect example, with a video that shows a beautiful, carefully dressed woman violently shattering car windows—using a flower-shaped truncheon, no less. Joan Crawford’s lover-annotated charm bracelets, in this context, suggest both amulets of adoration and shackles of romantic obsession. Similarly, Barbara Kruger’s text works point to more immediate tensions, ones that question the sanity of seeking relationships with objects rather than with human beings. This latter point is a dilemma that any collector or art lover must grapple with, and it’s one of the many fascinating threads of ambivalence that rise to the surface in this worthwhile exhibition.

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Micah Lexier's Provenance Project: Dealer Non-Drama?

One of the more unusual art projects I've seen this year is Micah Lexier's Provenance. For it, Lexier got a dozen commercial galleries to exhibit one of his arrow-sculptures in their back rooms. The reason this struck me as unusual was that usually an artist only shows with one commercial dealer at a time--sharing of artists does occasionally happen for group shows, but something on this scale is very rare to nonexistent.

Today the National Post published my brief Q&A with Lexier on his project. Here's an excerpt:

Q Usually an artist shows exclusively at one commercial gallery in a given city. How and why did Provenance, which is displayed at multiple dealers this fall, come together?

A I think this project is, in a way, unprecedented. It started because I recently moved back to Toronto after living in New York for nine years, and I just felt at home like I never had before. It was kind of a zeitgeist moment for me. After years of being a younger artist, playing. I got to a point where I felt like I knew all these people, and liked them. I also like variations on a theme, and I like to connect and collaborate. So, corny as it sounds, this project was partly about identifying a community.

Overall, I really like the project; I do think it achieves its goal of marking a community of interest--or at least an "I was here" of a sort. More pics:








Top image of Lexier's Provenance arrow at Angell Gallery; then Provenance at Stephen Bulger Gallery, Diaz Contemporary, MKG127, Le Gallery, Christopher Cutts and Olga Korper. Both photos by Toni Hafkensheid

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Get a David Hoffos for 30 Bucks - Just in time for the Holidays!

One of the promising art things that is happening this week is the opening of David Hoffos' Scenes from the House Dream at the National Gallery of Canada. Hoffos makes such amazing, must-be-experienced-in-person installations, so it's nice to see him get a serious exhibition there. But in browsing around for info on the show I found something almost as awesome—Hoffos' shilling of a $30 Scenes from the House Dream souvenir stereo-card set. In addition to being excellent holiday-gift-list fodder, it's worth checking out just to browse around Hoffos' site, which is humorously branded "The Official David Hoffos Action Website: Thrills, Chills, Exciting Illusions and Artwork". Funny/sad man.

Image of David Hoffos' Scenes from the House Dream Stereo Card Set from his Official Action Website

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Still No Such Thing as a Free Lunch; Bus Trips Another Story Altogether

Last week I trekked out to the Blackwood Gallery at the University of Toronto at Mississauga to check out its interesting, evolving show "Fall In/Fall Out." More on that hopefully later this week. But for the time being I wanted to spread the word that the U of T's shuttle bus rides from its downtown campus to the Blackwood's campus--previously $12 round trip for non-students--are now free if you pick up your tickets at the downtown campus' Barnicke Gallery.

This new ticket intiative doesn't make the bus ride--which as many know, happens on a pretty bare-bones school bus--any shorter; it's still 45 minutes to an hour when I've gone. But the initiative does make the Blackwood a little more accessible financially, which is nice. For info on the Barnicke's opening/ticket sign-out hours click here.

Video still from Paul Litherland's Force of Attraction, a highlight of "Fall In," from the Blackwood Gallery

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Enjoyed: Melinda Josie's Knitting Bear at Magic Pony

This weekend I stopped into Magic Pony, which will soon be wrapping up an exhibition related to the latest edition of Curvy, a catalogue of lady illustrators and artists from near and far.

It was actually a return trip for me as I wanted to take another look at a print I really liked: Melinda Josie's Like a Bear Knitting, pictured above. As I discovered on the Interwebs, Josie is a youngish Toronto artist and illustrator, who happened to make some of my other fave Magic Pony works, like the Kittenwillows and Fig Newton. I then discovered that this coming week Josie is opening a show related to a new children's book she's illustrated called Le Géranium -- I don't think there will be as many knitting bears involved, which might depress my own excitement about the show, but if you like the work too it could be worth a peek. Opens November 7 at--where else?--Magic Pony.

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Criticizing the Critics: Three takes on Searle

Apparently the audience for Guardian critic Adrian Searle's Toronto lecture last Sunday was a packed one. I unfortunately couldn't make it, though I did see Searle on an Art Publishing for the Digital Age panel on the Saturday. (Problem with anything containing the words "digital age" -- it seems to be an excuse for everyone to bring up their general complaints with the Interweb. But it was good to see the different approaches of Searle (literary, slightly cantankerous, no-blogging) and Vidokle (interested in high crit, free access, having readers in Islamabad).)

Anyway, I just wanted to point out three takes on Searle that I found informative, given my absence at the lecture:

1) Terence Dick's latest blog post at Akimbo. An excerpt:

Searle ticked off some people by repeatedly referring to the AGO (the gallery he visited earlier that day) as the National Gallery. He then stuck his foot in his mouth again, talking about the Ydessa “Hernandez” Gallery with Ms. Hendeles sitting in the audience before him. He made up for this faux pas by gushing over her curatorial acumen and favouring her lack of instruction through wall panels and explanatory texts over the far too obvious strategies of the “National Gallery” (aka the AGO).

2) Bryne McLaughlin's Q&A with Searle at Canadianart.ca (which I know about because I help edit there). An excerpt:

BM: As we have here with the Sobey Art Award, which was just given out last week to David Altmejd.

AS: A set designer really, isn’t he. I mean he’s all right, but where would he be without silicone glue?

BM: Perhaps, but his exhibition at the 2007 Venice Biennale did bring significant international attention to a young Canadian artist, which can be a rare thing.

AS: Janet Cardiff got it, didn’t she? And Rodney Graham’s Vexation Island was one of the big hits of that particular biennale.

BM: And Mark Lewis this year…

AS: I’m not the biggest fan. It’s all a bit rhetorical isn’t it? And you know what, I can’t remember a single thing about his show. I can’t remember anything, really, although I spent half an hour in there. Whereas the Czech and Slovak pavilion, which was literally nothing, I remember intensely. Isn’t that strange, but it’s the way it goes.

3) Stephanie Vegh's summation of the lecture (accompanied by her misgivings about TIAF) is briefer. A tidbit:

In addressing a theme only briefly discussed during a preceding forum on Art Publishing in the Digital Age, Searle expressed a certain regret over the realities of art-writing in a deadline driven culture, particularly one exasperated by the immediacy of the internet. This generates a criticism of first impressions, which leaves little time for the transformations of opinion and impact that come from reflecting on an exhibition; a second thought may prove more fruitful, more correct than the first.

Any other opinions on the lecture knocking around out there?

Image of Searle lecturing in Toronto from Canadianart.ca

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Roller Derby Radness - Review of Lois Andison @ Olga Korper Gallery

As I hinted last week, I really enjoyed some of the works in Lois Andison's current show at Olga Korper Gallery. Today NOW ran my review of the exhibition. Here's an excerpt:

It’s pretty unusual (or as some might say, terrible) for a critic to wish that an art show had opened earlier to coincide with movie premieres and celebrity sightings.

Nevertheless, I can’t help thinking that Lois Andison’s current exhibition, which features a compelling video of women on roller skates, could have benefited from launching with Whip It at this year’s TIFF – if only to make a couple of sales to Barrymore, et al., and benefit from associated word of mouth.

Andison’s work is certainly strong enough to deserve a wider audience, be it in Hollywood or elsewhere.

NOW also ran its Best of Toronto picks today. If readers are wondering about the process for this on the art front, basically the editors ask their critics (in this case, Fran Schechter, David Jager and myself) for potential winners in each category. Then the editors decide the ultimate winner. For my part, I was pulling for James Carl as best artist -- the three-venue survey last winter was a real eye opener in terms of both virtuosity and incisiveness. And while the Barnicke, NOW's top pick, is a great gallery that had a super year (what with that little trip to Venice and all) I had been thinking of Diaz Contemporary, a commercial gallery that does consistently solid and well installed shows.

I can be blamed, however, for the pick of Nuit Blanche as top art event. I think it has tons of problems and areas to shape up on to maintain this title in the future, but for now there ain't nothing else with its audience and potential.

Image from a still of Andison's video work from NOW

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