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