Showing posts with label angell gallery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label angell gallery. Show all posts

Thursday, November 5, 2009

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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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Noticed: A Summer of Gallery Love for Alex McLeod


I can't say I know it from any firsthand convo, but I'm guessing that emerging Toronto artist Alex McLeod is having a heckuva summer.

I first saw McLeod's work in a solo at Switch Contemporary earlier in June, and now it turns out the the guy has a two-person show opening at Queen West dealer Angell Gallery this Saturday, as well as a hand in an emerging-artist group show at Lonsdale Gallery opening next Wednesday.

So what is it, many young artists may be wondering, that makes McLeod's work "so different, so appealing"? (Or, in the very least, much exhibited.)

Well I have to say that, on the one hand, the guy must be a strong promoter, with work featured on Kanye West's blog, among others.

On the "art itself" end, there is something kind of peculiar about his images. They are digitally created, but depict surreal landscapes that somehow seem to resonate. I had considered posting on his work after that Switch show--in some ways it seemed related both in timing and in theme to the work of Alex Fischer, who I blogged about a couple of weeks back. Both Fischer and McLeod seem able to use digital in convincing ways, with Fischer concealing its more artificial qualities, and McLeod accentuating them.

As with any emerging artist, it will be interesting to see if McLeod can keep a sustained quantity and quality of production.

Image of Alex McLeod's C-Island Seaport from Angell Gallery

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