Micah Lexier at Birch Libralato

On the weekend I went to see Micah Lexier's latest show and curatorial project at Birch Libralato Gallery. Today NOW ran a review thereof, written in the context of Lexier's past work.

Cal Lane's macho lace creations

Today the Post ran my interview with Cal Lane, a really terrific metal artist based in New York City. She's showing work at the Toronto International Art Fair this weekend, with a show to come in Halifax. Worth checking out - though if you don't do it now, you might see it on your next trip to NYC, as Lane's been asked to do some work for the subway system.

The International Festival of Authors: Amy Bloom

I've long been a fan of Amy Bloom's writing, from the mainstream of Oprah Magazine to the fringes of transgender culture in her nonfiction book Normal. So I jumped at the chance to review her latest book, Away, for NOW's guide to the International Festival of Authors.

Arts Awards Season Ct'd

Following that profile of RBC Painting Competition winner Arabella Campbell, the National Post published my interview with Sobey Award winner Michel de Broin last Tuesday. My interview with a quite different but no less successful artist (if the New York Times is to be believed), Karel Funk of Winnipeg also ran in the Post last Thursday. One of his works is reproduced above. Both artists definitely worth keeping an eye on in the years to come.

Arts Award Season Grows...

Today I have a piece in the National Post about RBC Canadian Painting Competition Winner Arabella Campbell, pictured above. The Vancouver artist takes a highly conceptual approach to painting, concentrating on such overlooked workhorses of the genre as stretcher bars and masking tape, making her an unusual (and worthy) choice for a painting award.

Could be global warming, but the Canadian arts award season has heated up considerably in the past few years. Where once there was only the GGs, there is now the RBC award, the Sobey Award (which I am covering next week), the Bell Award in Video Art (recently scooped up by John Greyson) and more in development at the AGO and elsewhere.

Arty art artersonistas!

Had a bit of a posting break since the 1st due to moving house. So I missed posting sooner on my October 4 article in the National Post on Saskatoon-based painter Martin Bennett. Bennett's paintings are pleasing in a formal sense, but I also liked the way they talked about country meeting city in some ways (or how he permitted our conversation to drift in that direction). Speaking of place, his paintings run to November 4 at the Esplanade Art Gallery in Medicine Hat before heading to Clint Roenisch Gallery in Toronto later this year.

Today the National Post also runs an interview between myself and New York City artist Devorah Sperber, who has her first Canadian show on starting today at the Ottawa School of Art. Sperber's work is an interesting combination of art and science, using the tools of painters of olde to create digitally influenced sculptures today. I also appreciated that she wanted her works to be intelligible without wall texts, eg. accessible to the nonartgoing public, while still offering depth for theoretical exploration.

And NOW today runs my review of the fabulous Fastwurms retrospective at the Art Gallery of York University. The show runs to December 9, and is well worth the trek.

Terrific response to Nuit Blanche blog link

There was terrific response to the National Post's Nuit Blanche guide that I did for their Saturday Toronto section. Once posted on the paper's Toronto blog, it got more than 6,000 hits and was the first hit to come up on Google for a search of "nuit blanche". Reviews of the event have been mixed thus far, but I look forward to participating in the debate as it goes on.