Whale Fall

Whale Fall

Strange bodies meet

where taxidermists stitch

by tall tales and lamplight

Flesh erupts in putrid neon,

and bones float softly in their sockets.

Filtering anodyne dreams, you sleep

wrapped in sweat-damp sheets

yellowed and rippling.

A wake attended by the hungry.

And I'm standing here,

sucking in iodine tears

for a fallen whale.

 "In this collaborative exhibition, artists Nicholas Crombach and Nurielle Stern explore subject matter derived from the complex, problematic and often mythologized human relationship to the natural world." On at the Clay & Glass Gallery until September 8, 2019

Centrepiece - Samara Contemporary

Apologue I (The Anteater) - Emily Jan

Resilience Plate - Kent Monkman

David Salazar

From the elaborate to the absurd, centrepieces can direct and command attention or initiate and guide conversation. A centrepiece can exist as a concept, such as a central political or social issue in a debate. It can aesthetically unite a space, or set the tone for a soirée. 

SAMARA Contemporary's inaugural exhibition joins a whole array of centrepieces, drawing the surreal and fantastical into a competing environments where each individual seeks the spotlight. The diversity of the works means that most function as their own 'centrepiece' though some more so than others. Described as curated islands, many of the works are transportive, fantastically bizarre dreamworlds where animals merge with plants, or fairytale like creatures come to life. David Salazars wall of floral-bird like forms could be crash landing or emerging from hibernation. Emily Jan's anteater bursts into bloom as they eye the onlooker as though this is a regular occurrence. Kent Monkman's "Resilience Plates" re-imagines a famous portrait of the Canadian fathers of confederation where a nude Miss Chief Eagle Testikle gestures in front of John A. in 150 years of indigenous resistance. 

Suburbia

Small World, a series of sculptural vignettes by Julia Hepburn, explores traditional aspects of motherhood through eerie, surrealist snapshots. These tiny dreamlike worlds explore the changing power dynamics and shifting of individual freedoms in the "often undervalued" role of domesticity. Each of the scenes is contained within a box, it's own small world in which the subject is distanced and isolated from the viewer, allowing us only a small glimpse into their reality. For myself, a woman with no experience of having children or the seismic shifts that come with it, this is especially apt. I have that small window into the experience but it is in many ways incomprehensible, surreal and disconcerting. I can imagine that the subject feels something of the same. 

This series is part of a wider exhibition, Suburbia, at the Clay and Glass Gallery exploring the domestic experience, how we live, and what is home.

Then, now and next

Then, now and next features a variety of artists who are using ceramics and glass in fascinating ways. All work in quite different methods and mediums but come together to form contrasting portrayals of contemporary clay and glass.
The exhibition continues at the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery until September.

Artists pictured - Samantha Dickie, Zachary Logan, Audie Murray

Gallery Visit: Artist and the Sea

As a small island, Scotland is understandably deeply influenced by its proximity to the ocean. One of the many ways this is evidenced is through a long history of artists who have been inspired by the sea and the plethora of industries, cultures and lives that revolve around it.
The Artist and the Sea gathers a host of different artists and subject matter that relate back to the ocean whether it is through the portrayal of harbours, boats, fishermen/women or through the attempts to evoke that feeling the sea awakes in us. There is a huge variety of perspectives and media–art and artists from opposite ends of the spectrum inspired by and working with the same theme. It is fascinating to see such contrasting perspectives that surround a similar subject matter.

The Artist and the Sea is on until May 2016

Unikkaaqtuat

Happy Nunavut Day! July 9 celebrates two acts passed in 1993, the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act and the Nunavut Act. Nunavut then officially became a territory on April 1, 1999.
The museum of Inuit Art is marking this date with the opening of a wonderful new exhibition, Unikkaaqtuit: Inuit Creation Stories. It features pages from several different creation myths along with many sculptures from the collection.

Studio Tour 2014

Come out to downtown Waterloo this weekend for some great art and good times! Lots of original art for sale. Hope to see you there!

Gallery Visit: Misled by Nature at the MOCCA

The current exhibition on at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art takes its inspiration from aspects of the Baroque period–its material excess, theatricality and constructed immersive environments among others. Misled by Nature: Contemporary Art and the Baroque is most obviously an homage to these ideals in the three massive, overwhelming works that occupy the main space at MOCCA.

Tricia Middleton "Embracing oblivion
and ruin is the only way to live now" 2012

Tricia Middleton's glitter covered, waxy, igloo-like structure is an attention stealing presence at first sight.

Walking through the construction allows one to gaze up at the perilously supported roof. The influence of the Baroque is evident in the vast amount of detail and ornamentation that is encompassed in and upon the building from wax covered roses emerging from the walls to delicate crystals that hang from the branches around the doorway. There are a multitude of discoveries to be made amongst the sometimes haphazard piles of material.

David Altmejd's The Holes is another massive sculptural installation that shows two giant sasquatch-like figures lying within a landscape of trees, flowers and mirrored crystal forms. The huge figures are ripped open with their internal organs surrounding them. There is a sense of mystery in their situation–are they decaying back into the ground? have they just emerged? or are they slowly being reassembled?–but overall it is a convoluted picture that tells many different stories. 

Lee Bul "After Bruno Taur" 2008

Lee Bul's seemingly delicate mass of suspended chains, jewellery and metal forms a floating city that is reflected in the mirrored floor below. It's less haphazard than the other two works in the space and the metalwork and jewellery give an interesting contrast to the more organic installations.

More than a celebration of the Baroque, Misled By Nature emphasizes the contrasts and intersections in nature and culture through vastly different viewpoints. Seen together, these artworks invite considerations of the places we inhabit and the different ways we interact with aspects of both nature and city spaces. 

Misled by Nature is on until April 6 at the MOCCA.

Studio Tour 2013

Hello all, I will be participating in the Mary Allen Studio Tour this year, so come out and see some great  art–painting, pottery, jewellery and much, much more (not all by me fyi!). The tour consists of several different locations to visit and view artists' work, many of them in their homes or studios.
It's a fun way to see some more of the neighbourhood as well as to get glimpse of some artists' studios and to speak with local artists about their work. There will be live music at several locations and, as well, opportunities to explore some local architecture and history–and these events are all free.
By visiting all the studio locations there is also a chance to win a gift card to be spent with an artist of your choice–not that you needed the extra incentive, right? Right!
So do something extraordinary with your weekend and come out and explore the Mary Allen 2013 Studio Tour.

Gallery Visit: Jane Ash Poitras at the ROM

"Potato Peeling 101 to Ethnobotany 101" Jane Ash Poitras, 2004
mixed media

Jane Ash Poitras is a well recognized figure in First Nations contemporary art and the paintings featured in the ROMs First Peoples gallery show why. Bursting with colour and rich in imagery, they give a profound sense of narrative that explores the impact of colonialism in First Nations people.

Picasso

"I paint the way some people write an autobiography. The paintings, finished or not, are the pages from my diary." So said Pablo Picasso, and after having seen an exhibition that spans most of his career, I can testify that his life was evidently as interesting as his art.

The exhibition I saw at the AGO was a collection of numerous paintings, sketches and sculptures that Picasso had kept for himself, works that would continue to inspire him over the course of a 70 year career.

Two Women Running on the Beach (The Race)
1922

Although Picasso is most famous for his invention and pioneering of Cubism along with Georges Braque, he experimented in virtually every style and medium of the time. From realism to abstraction in his painting along with sculpture, collage, and drawing, Picasso mastered it all and radically changed modern art.

Figures on the Seashore, 1931

Of course Picasso is a staple in any art history class as he was a major innovator in the art world, inventing new styles that completely changed modern art. But seeing these pieces in the flesh is a completely different experience then that of viewing small scale reproduction. The same images are shown again and again in art history texts in an effort to reinforce the importance of the artist, almost excessively so. Seeing a show comprised entirely of his works makes you realize why Picasso is so emphasized in the first place.

Portrait of Dora Maar, 1937

What I love about Picasso is the fact that he didn't confine himself in his art. His style constantly changed significantly as he explored many different ideas and techniques. He painted, collaged and sculpted, experimented, invented and ultimately became known as one of the most renowned artists of the 20th century.

Seeing these works also drove home the fact that it is not simply their exposure that makes Picasso's works powerful. As Picasso said, these paintings are an autobiography of himself. They reveal the unique vision of the artist in a way that draws you into the work to become one with the painting, and ultimately the story.