Features
"Folk Art to 1950" by John A. Fleming and Michael J. Rowan, University of Alberta Press, 2012
Chock-full of everything from tin weather vanes and painted game boards to carved barber poles and knife handles, this book resembles a cabinet of curiosities or, perhaps, the attic of a centuries-old farmhouse – minus the dust. more »
May 21, 2013 in BOOK REVIEWS
"A Concise History of Canadian Painting" by Dennis Reid, Oxford University Press, 2012
A strange thing happened on the way to the third edition of this scholarly survey of some three centuries of Canadian art history: It was waylaid by women. more »
May 21, 2013 in BOOK REVIEWS
"Back Talk (Works 1983-2009)" by Ruth Cuthand, Mendel Art Gallery/Tribe Inc., 2012
This catalogue for a recent retrospective exhibition by Ruth Cuthand was shortlisted for the 2013 Saskatchewan Book Awards. more »
May 21, 2013 in BOOK REVIEWS
"Prairie Gothic": Photographs by George Webber, Rocky Mountain Books, 2013
Calgary photographer George Webber’s moody black-and-white photographs seem to violate any sense of the wide-open spaces of clichéd flatland lore. more »
May 21, 2013 in BOOK REVIEWS
CHRIS CRAN: Candidates and Citizens TrépanierBaer Gallery, Calgary April 18 to May 18, 2013
When I first viewed Chris Cran’s paintings in a survey show at the Kelowna Art Gallery in 1998, something pricked my senses. It was not just his adroitness and competency working at large scale. more »
May 15, 2013 by Dick Averns in REVIEWS
"A Story of Canadian Art: As told by the Hart House Collection" and "The Bequest: Ernest E. Poole and the AGA Collection," March 9 to July 1, 2013, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton
Passion: That’s the key word that jumps out at me as I wander through these two collections of Canadian art – the passion of collecting and taking chances to explore the unknown of art’s creation. more »
May 15, 2013 by Douglas Maclean in REVIEWS
COLLECTOR PROFILE: Dell and Lauren Pohlman, Calgary
Many of Dell and Lauren Pohlman’s favourite artists are known for obsessive approaches to art making. For example, the Calgary couple owns Toronto artist Ken Nicol’s "1000 Bugs", which consists of 1,000 insects collected by the artist. more »
May 14, 2013 by Maureen Latta in COLLECTOR PROFILES
"WESTERN" and "ROUNDUP", Kamloops Art Gallery, Jan 18 to March 23, 2013
"Western", a group exhibition, and "Roundup", paintings by the late Interior B.C. artist and rancher Sonia Cornwall, welcome viewers with the scent of straw and thistle in an entrance painted yellow ochre, the colour of local hills and foliage. more »
Apr 11, 2013 by Susan Buis in REVIEWS
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"MY WINNIPEG: THE ARTISTS' CHOICE": Feb. 9, 2013 to March 17, 2013, Plug-In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg, MB
This exhibition is often a kind of “My Life” by 14 Winnipeg artists nominated by participants in the project’s earlier chapters. Sometimes, though, we wonder at the exact connection. more »
Apr 11, 2013 by Kenton Smith in REVIEWS
GARY JAMES JOYNES: "Topographic Sound," dc3 Art Projects, Edmonton February 7 – March 16, 2013
Is it possible to see music? What mysterious patterns does music carve into space? Surprisingly, Gary James Joynes (a.k.a. Clinker), an Edmonton-based visual artist and musician, can answer these esoteric questions with precision and lustrous beauty. more »
Mar 27, 2013 by Agnieszka Matejko in REVIEWS
KARLA GRIFFIN: "It’s not you, it’s me," Frances Morrison Library Gallery, Saskatoon, February 13 to March 15, 2013
This impressive work is the centrepiece of her exhibition on the theme of dumping: The dumping of old possessions, and how that can be seen as a parallel to the dumping of one lover by another at the end of a relationship. more »
Photographer: David Jacques
JANET WERNER: "Another Perfect Day," College Art Galleries, Saskatoon February 8 – May 4, 2013
The ubiquitous role of the female figure in 20th and 21st century popular culture permeates Janet Werner: "Another Perfect Day," at the University of Saskatchewan. more »
Mar 15, 2013 by Lissa Robinson in REVIEWS
"The News from Here: The 2013 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art," Art Gallery of Alberta, January 26 to May 5, 2013
A glimpse of red at the entrance to the Art Gallery of Alberta beckons from Edmonton’s Churchill Square. Luxe, by Laura Vickerson, is a sumptuous damask intervention within the curvilinear metallic sheath of the gallery. more »
Mar 15, 2013 by Katherine Ylitalo in REVIEWS
LOUIS COUTURIER and JACKY GEORGES LAFARGUE : "Resolute Bay: The Daytime Journey in the Night," Feb. 7 to May 4, 2013, Yukon Arts Centre Public Gallery, Whitehorse
Two southern francophone artists, Louis Couturier and Jacky Georges Lafargue, shot photographs and video footage in Resolute Bay, Nunavut, and then created multimedia installations for public galleries in France, Montreal, Regina and Moose Jaw. more »
Mar 2, 2013 by Nicole Bauberger in REVIEWS
"BUILDERS: CANADIAN BIENNIAL," National Gallery of Canada, Nov. 2, 2012 to Feb. 18, 2013
The National Gallery of Canada, with its $8-million annual acquisition budget, buys a fair amount of stuff, a good chunk of it Canadian, and an increasing amount of that contemporary. more »
Feb 24, 2013 by Murray Whyte in REVIEWS
ANNA OPPERMANN: "Filiations," ANDREA PINHEIRO: "Bomb Book," MARIANNE WEX: "Let’s Take Back Our Space," Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver, January 19 – March 24, 2013
Walking through these three distinct exhibitions by Anna Oppermann, Andrea Pinheiro and Marianne Wex, there is a natural inclination to seek and understand how each room and artist correlates with one another. more »
ROBERT TAITE: "Temporary Arrangements," Negative Space, Winnipeg, MB, Friday, Nov. 30 to Dec. 7, 2012
"Negative Space" is a collective of young artists that sponsors an unfunded gallery. They debate each other about every show they produce, so I can imagine the hair pulling that must have accompanied their decision to grant Taite an exhibition. more »
Jan 6, 2013 by Cliff Eyland in REVIEWS
Winnipeg Revisited
Just what is it that makes Canada’s coldest Big city such a happening place for artists? more »
Dec 31, 2012 by Cassidy Richardson, Richard White in REVIEWS
NORTHWEST COAST ART: At a crossroads
Haida artist Robert Davidson talks with curator Karen Duffek about his vision of tradition-based Northwest Coast Art and modern ideas of Contemporary Art. more »
Dec 22, 2012 by Karen Duffek in REVIEWS
AUCTIONS Fall 2012 Review
As we approached the fall auctions, I was predicting a soft market based somewhat on spring sale results. So I was surprised initially with Heffel’s results, then ecstatic, for a moment, with Joyner’s results, and shocked by Sotheby’s lack of results more »
Dec 14, 2012 by Douglas Maclean in AUCTION REVIEWS
"Chronicles of Form and Place: Works on Paper by Takao Tanabe"
Senior British Columbia artist Takao Tanabe is best known for his paintings, which range from early experiments with abstract expressionism to recent large-scale portrayals of the Canadian landscape. more »
Dec 4, 2012 in BOOK REVIEWS
Rita McKeough: "The Lion’s Share"
A bizarre mock restaurant – complete with a soundtrack of a lion eating – is the subject of this saucy little book about Calgary-based artist Rita McKeough’s recent exhibition at the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery. more »
Dec 4, 2012 in BOOK REVIEWS
George Littlechild: "The Spirit Giggles Within"
Colourful mixed-media works that feature buffaloes, teepees and the like are the stars of this 175-page hardcover book. Each image is accompanied by an explanatory note. more »
Dec 4, 2012 in BOOK REVIEWS
COLLECTOR PROFILE: Murray Quinn, Grande Prairie
When visitors arrive at Murray Quinn’s home in Grand Prairie, the first thing they see is "Icarus", a large-scale sculpture of a boat by Alberta artist Peter von Tiesenhausen. more »
Nov 27, 2012 by Maureen Latta in COLLECTOR PROFILES
LANDON MACKENZIE "Nervous Centre," September 7, 2012 to January 5, 2013, Esker Foundation, Calgary
Vancouver-based painter Landon Mackenzie’s work is diverse. The surprisingly varied look of individual pieces in this survey of two decades of abstract painting and drawing represents well her central theme of movement. more »
Nov 21, 2012 by Thomas E. Hardy in REVIEWS