
Just got an email about a potential closure of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, one of the few national museums of photography in the world. It's a forward originally written by Winnipeg artist Diana Thorneycroft. Writes Thorneycroft:
Dear photographers and friends of photography:
I have just learned that the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography has lost the building that was specifically designed for them. As reported in the Monday edition of the National Post (16.03.09) the museum will be gutted and turned into offices for politicians....
For the past two years CMCP has been occupying temporary space at the National Gallery.It is imperative that we show our support for this institution, its programming and collecting, or we may very well lose it.
According to the National Post story, "The federal government will convert the former Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography in downtown Ottawa into committee rooms for MPs as part of its plan to vacate the crumbling West Block next year" for a Parliament renovation that will take 10 years.
For its part, the CMCP website posts two conflicting pieces of information. A February 23 press release says: "Due to an ongoing renovation program of its premises at 1 Rideau Street, the CMCP is currently staging its exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada." But on the museum's "Hours and Location" tab, it says "New Location: Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, 380 Sussex Drive" -- the same as the address of the National Gallery of Canada.
I don't think it would be beyond the government's anti-arts, cost-saving ethos to roll the location of the CMCP and the National Gallery of Canada into one and use the old building for itself. But it's unclear if this is a permanent move. More info hopefully to follow.
Image of the CMCP building at 1 Rideau Street from its website
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Rumour: Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography to Close?
Friday, March 20, 2009
Q&A: Polaroids and Porny Trees with Attila Richard Lukacs

Attila Richard Lukacs is one of the best known Canadian artists of the 1980s and 90s. I remember seeing his huge canvases of sexy skinheads for the first time back then, and being a little shocked myself. The man knows how to make an impression on a high school girl's mind! In any case, Lukacs's work, which dealt openly with sexuality, fetish and arousal, made a big impression on the Group of Seven lovin' Canadian art scene. So I was pleased to be able to chat with him about a rather different set of work currently on view at the Art Gallery of Alberta: arrangements of small Polaroid pics that Lukacs used as figure studies for his paintings over the years. The National Post published the condensed interview today; click here to read on.
Image of one of Lukacs's Polaroid grids from Exposure, Edmonton's queer arts & culture fest
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Canada Surprises at NeoHooDoo
So I did drop by NeoHooDoo at the Miami Art Museum yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised to have a few "O Canada" moments. Rebecca Belmore and especially Brian Jungen have some works featured very prominently in the show, which seems to riff on a new take on spiritual traditions in art. Belmore's striking "Fringe", exhibited in Montreal and Vancouver recently, made the cut and is striking. Jungen's beer cooler and golf-bag totems also make the grade.
The show overall includes many artists from Cuba and the states, and is organized by the Menil Collection in Houston with PS1 in New York. (BTW the works from Radcliffe Bailey Storm and Jose Bedia were awesome.) It's really great to see strong Canadian artists recognized in this way. I wondered if Jen Budney at the Mendel Art Gallery might have had anything to do with it--she worked with show curator Franklin Sirmans back in the day at Flash Art, and has an essay in the catalogue.
Image of Rebecca Belmore's Fringe from canadianart.ca; image of Brian Jungen's work from Catriona Jeffries website
Monday, March 16, 2009
Recommended: Jarod Charzewski, Stephane LaRue, Jenny LeBlanc & more
I'm off to Florida till Friday, where I'm looking forward to going to the Miami Art Museum and perhaps a couple of other spots. But the weather's finally warming in Toronto and I'm actually kind of sad to be missing that. Anyway, here are some shows to duck into that I've seen and recommend:
- Jeremy Bailey & Jarod Charzewski at Pari Nadimi Gallery - Pari is often on the lookout for up-and-coming work, and here she offers a couple of rather different views. Charzewski, a Winnipeg-born, US-based artist, creates carefully organized piles of folded clothes that end up being quite like geologic strata. I swear I saw a "Mountain Gear" forest green fleece that was once mine in junior high. Whether it's the fleece that gets ya or not, though, there is something resonant about these minimalist-meets-maximimalist clothes cubes. I just wish they were bigger, as in accompanying install shots from another work. Bailey, for his part, goes in a rather different direction, playing with digital video quite skilfully. His dance sequence for New Order takes the Gillian Wearing dancing-in-Peckham-initated genre to a whole new digipainted level, disembodying bodily pleasure in more, well, clickable kinds of pleasures, perhaps.
- Stéphane LaRue at Diaz Contemporary - Goddammit Stephane LaRue loves edges. He loves them so much he makes you love them too, staring at his mini squares with tiny bits of edge shaved off, folding them into elegant graph-paper pieces, masking-taping them lovingly, like a dull yellow hug. Lovely.
- Kyle Bravo, Jenny LeBlanc and Claire Rau at Open Studio - In what seems like the product of an elaborate dare, New Orleans artists Bravo and LeBlanc have screenprinted themselves a kind of snowball fight in 3-D at open studio. The ideas their installation and video of the installation process raise about the transformative powers of art are serious, though -- screenprinted snow acting as snow? art acting as life? this is big stuff. And so what if an abominadable snowman somehow makes an appearance too? Levity is always appreciated, at least by me.
Image from Jarod Charzewski's website Read More......
Saturday, March 14, 2009
At the Galleries: Shelley Adler, David Mabb, Aleesa Cohene
Gallery column out today in the Post with views on Shelley Adler, David Mabb, Aleesa Cohene and more.... plus it's sunny out, perfect for a gallery hop today.
Image of Shelley Adler's Problem Girl from Nicholas Metivier website
Friday, March 13, 2009
Q&A: Getting Corporate with Carey Young
Brit artist Carey Young is known for mixing up corporate costumes with art critique. So it was a pleasure to chat with her earlier in the week in advance of her exhibition at the Power Plant, which opens tonight. She had lots to say, so only a bit of it made it into this condensed Q&A in the Post today. Still, I'd recommend checking out her Toastmasters collaboration on Sunday if you love a good speech or two. Also her website provides tons of images. (Text is also after the jump.)
Image of Young's Body Techniques (after Sculpture II, Kirsten Justesen, 1969) 2007 from her website.
We're all corporate now
Leah Sandals, National Post
Published: Friday, March 13, 2009
Many critics have started suggesting that the current economic downturn will be good for art, prompting both artists and gallerists to get back to aesthetic essentials. But what about artists such as Britain's Carey Young, whose creative work is intertwined with corporate culture? Whether it's suits spouting revolution or call centre reps divulging intimacies, Young's done it as art. Now, with her first Canadian solo show opening in Toronto tomorrow, Young tells Leah Sandals more about her brainy take on conceptual-art bailouts.
Q You originally studied photography. How did you shift to performing corporate roles instead?
A I unexpectedly ended up with a corporate part-time job, which caused the shift. But I do still orbit through photography. I've just done a big project called Body Techniques, a series of photographs set in Dubai that's just been sold to the Tate [Gallery in London]. And when I was in the corporate sector I happened on a huge photographic archive that they were throwing out, and I managed to take it home for a project.
Q How did your corporate job come about?
A A few weeks after I finished my master's [degree], I ended up in a course for digital media. On this course, there was a woman working for a management consultancy part-time. She happened to be leaving her job, so I ended up with an interview only a few weeks after graduating. At first I wondered what I was doing, because I had an ideological issue with corporations. But it ended up being really fascinating. I became very interested in that idea of being an insider and making artwork that seems to engage that.
Q Body Techniques shows you staging classic performance art in a suit in Dubai. Why?
A As soon as I went to Dubai I knew that I wanted to do a project there because it's corporate HQ land, it really is. Essentially it's the most globalized place I could imagine, coming straight out of some corporate imagination. And performance art is a genre where the desire to escape the marketplace has been particularly active. By re-enacting it in Dubai, I kind of wanted to play one against the other, using a suit as a costume to show I'm complicit, not an outsider.
Q How are corporations and artists alike?
A [Laughs] Well, that's a complex question. In some ways they don't understand each other. In other ways it's the most immense flirtation. From a business perspective, the interest has been in trying to seem creative, because that's a differentiator to shareholders -- seeming innovative. And then the art world is obviously interested in money and philanthropy.
Q Has the recession affected your art? Many people in your pieces look like they could've worked at Bear Stearns or Merrill Lynch.
A Well, some of them have worked in those places. I try to collaborate with real businesspeople. The trainer in the video I'ma Revolutionary is a real corporate trainer. I've also worked with a venture capitalist. And several artworks are legal instruments, so having lawyers involved is very important. I want authenticity.
Q About the legal piece you're showing in Toronto, Donorcard: How does it work?
A It's based on the organ donor card you likely have in your wallet. For a start, I think the wallet is a really interesting place for artwork. It's underused; it's so personal and it's also about the financial dimension. Everyone can pick up a Donorcard for free. The card has a contract on the back I've already signed and when you sign it [the card] becomes an artwork only as long as we're both alive. So it's like a very loose marriage contract between me and 2,000 people.
Q You also make art with call centres. How will that function in Toronto?
A In the gallery there's a red phone on a table, and a photograph of a telephone agent. As soon as you pick up the phone, you're connected straight through to that agent. And the agent answers with a script that I've written. It's a mix of personal and commercial.
Q Finally, you're performing with Toastmasters on Sunday. How did you get into that? It's hardly the hip, young thing.
A [Laughs] No, it's not the hip, young thing. Whenever I bring people, I say: "It's so untrendy!" But everyone loves it. I found it by accident. I just heard the word "toastmaster" somewhere and eventually joined a chapter in London.
One of the things I like about Toastmasters is that everyone's a student and everyone's a teacher. You're just working through the manual, and the people who are further along give you generous, constructive feedback. It's almost nicer than the art world!
Carey Young: Counter Offer opens tonight at the Power Plant in Toronto. For details, visit thepowerplant.org.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Kickass Valerie Blass
Valerie Blass is a very right-now sculptor out of Montreal. NOW ran my review of her first TO exhibition today. Summation: Kickass. Co-exhibitor Nicholas Baier ain't so shabby neither.
Image of Blass's Presque ca 2005 from Parisian Laundry