Will a debate over terminology at the Art Gallery of Ontario help the progress of artists who are underrepresented in United States museums? TORONTO — A group of visitors young and old gathered at the Art Gallery of Ontario in front of a well-known Canadian painting the docent called “Church in Yuquot Village.” It was […]
Two of Canada’s greatest designers have made a brilliant new building. Why aren’t they eager to tell you about it? “Underneath, it’s very quiet and dour,” says John Patkau. “But when the light hits it a certain way, it shimmers.” Mr. Patkau and his wife and fellow architect, Patricia, are walking around their latest project, […]
Laing Brown is an art collector who is interested in ideas. Brown, chair of the Audain Art Museum acquisitions committee and an external advisor to the acquisitions committee of the National Gallery of Canada, has just returned from Britain, where he went to check out Frieze London, where 160 of the world’s top commercial galleries […]
When I first saw Odalisque at Artifake, I found it difficult to look at her. So rather than do that, I wandered off to look at the other works in the gallery as I thought about what so upset me about her. In part it was her gaze and her powerfully strong posture. But mostly it was […]
The lighting in this long and cavernous atelier is quite dim—the only light stems from a large lamp shining on the paintings of First Nations artist Shawn Hunt—emotive, beguiling fusions of dimension and colour. “What I’m trying to do is continue the long line of creating art that my people have done over the years,” […]
Douglas Coupland opens his new exhibit at the VAG. Douglas Coupland opens his new exhibit at the VAG. The Vancouver Art Gallery presents Douglas Coupland: everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything from May 31 to Sept. 1.
Douglas Coupland’s new exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery crackles with creativity, invention and insight. Coupland’s work in “everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything” combines an incredible pop art sensibility that delights in combining colour, shape and form with a surprising and subtle mix of ideas. In the first major survey of his work […]
Yuxweluptun’s abstract paintings can seem off-kilter with his figurative works but, in fact, they share features. Dubbed “Ovoidism” by Yuxweluptun, the works employ the figure of the ovoid, although here, it is the sole graphic element. He also uses a more limited palette in the abstracts and, unlike the smooth surfaces of the landscapes, the […]
The Sobey Art Award announced January 27 that it is expanding its purse by nearly 50 percent, solidifying the award’s position as Canada’s leading prize for contemporary artists. Formerly set at $70,000, the Sobey Foundation has increased its total sum to $100,000. The added capital will singularly affect the runners-up, which includes four short-listed artists (who formerly […]
In 2007, Peter Doig went from being a painter quietly admired by collectors and curators to an art-world colossus when his work White Canoe—created 16 years earlier—was auctioned for a record-breaking $11.3 million. Soon after, both Scots and Canadians claimed the Edinburgh-born, Toronto- and Montreal-raised artist as their own—an impetus for the remarkable show No Foreign Lands, […]
At 54, Doig is one of the most talked-about and praised artists in the world, his work housed in many prestigious public and private collections. Last year two Doigs, both painted in the 1990s, sold at auction in London for, respectively, $10.5-million and $12-million. Montreal currently has bragging rights as the sole North American venue […]
The National Gallery has re-installed Forty-Part Motet, the sound work by Janet Cardiff that is one of the very best things in the Gallery’s permanent collection. Forty-Part Motet consists of 40-plus voices, each singing its own part of the 16th-century choral piece Spem in Alium, by Thomas Tallis, and each heard through its own speaker. The 40 speakers are […]
No more envying the kids in the ball room at IKEA. The National Gallery has a new work of contemporary art that’s sort of an adult version of a ball-filled room, with a subtext of deep thinking. The installation is titled Work No. 202: Half the Air in a Given Space, and it’s byMartin Creed, who won Britain’s sometimes-controversial […]
Canadian name-brand art reporter, Sarah Thornton, has pulled a Greg Smith, today, penning a screed for TAR Magazine entitled “Top 10 reasons NOT to write about the art market.” In it, the “Seven Days in the Art World” author concludes that the subject is too corrupt to report on and therefore she will shift away from this kind […]