
Today in my National Post At the Galleries column, I focus on three shows at 401 Richmond (the rooftop garden is such a nice escape there at this time of year...) Here's an excerpt:
Monica Tap at Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Suite 128
Monica Tap is known for paintings that translate blurred, split-second, speeding-train-window scenes into large, carefully produced canvases. Her new paintings continue to work on fleeting glimpses, but use vibrant colours and longer timespans. Polka is particularly eye-catching, using bright yellows, oranges and whites to depict a landscape that Tap might previously have rendered in brown, green and grey. Between Summer and Winter uses seasons, rather than seconds, as a frame; its pinks recall sunsets cast on snowbanks, while yellows conjure sunrises on leafy branches. While the complexity of these canvases is often pleasing, there are awkward bits -- boundaries that seem sharper than they should be, for instance. Nonetheless, Tap's delight in colour and paint shines through, as well as her desire to record time's speeding nature. This latter sense is heightened by the showing, in an adjoining room, of monochromatic works by the late painter Gerald Ferguson. (Tap studied under Ferguson.) This side-by-side presence evokes creative lineages and generational eras, while also reminding us of the sometimes bright, sometimes dark remnants that mark our rapid passage through this world. To May 1.
On a related note, I really enjoyed Monica Tap's remembrance of Ferguson that she wrote for the Winter issue of C Magazine. Also, after I sent the review in, I got notice from the gallery that there will be a panel on Gerald Ferguson at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa on Saturday May 29. Tap will present along with Kelly Mark, Peter Dykhuis and Sue Gibson Garvey.
Image of Monica Tap's Polka from Wynick/Tuck Gallery
Saturday, April 24, 2010
401 Richmond Reviews: Monica Tap, Stephanie Cormier, Wendelien van Oldenborg
Friday, November 13, 2009
Commemoration & Scholarship to Honour Gerald Ferguson
As a follow-up to the sad news of Gerald Ferguson's death last month, NSCAD has announced that friends, colleagues and family are establishing a scholarship in his name to honour his long artistic and teaching career. Donations can be sent to NSCAD University via the Ferguson Scholarship page that the college has set up.
On a related note, I just wanted to give a shout-out to the Globe's Sarah Milroy for her obit of Ferguson, which was published after my obit roundup. Milroy does a good job of capturing what Ferguson meant to many people--and also is one of the few media to confirm that Ferguson took his own life.
It is really, really sad to consider Ferguson's final act, but I'm glad it's been noted--though I'm not sure what Ferguson's particular situation was, I do know that depression and anxiety take too many lives, both in the arts and elsewhere. Gerry would cringe (and probably curse, loudly!) at the thought of becoming a poster boy for any particular "cause" or "issue"--I don't want that to happen either. But cause of death here still resounds very powerfully and sadly, at least for me.
Image of Gerald Ferguson's 600 Metres of Hose from CBC.ca