Cannupa Hanska Luger, “Light Bison”, 2023, (courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery New York, photo by Brandon Soder)
Revealing clothes at the Art Gallery of Alberta
In 1840, Queen Victoria became one of the first women to wear a white wedding dress, prompting a custom that continues today. White was viewed as a sign of wealth. Later, it also acquired value as a symbol of purity and innocence. Artist Karin Jones constructed a replica of Victoria’s dress out of blond hair, riffing on the connection between whiteness, race, and contemporary beauty standards. The hair dress is part of the exhibition Second Skin at the Art Gallery of Alberta Sept. 30 to Dec. 31 examining the politics of clothing. “These body coverings variously conceal, reveal, protect, attract, restrain and deflect, often performing more than one of these actions at the same time,” says the Edmonton-based AGA. Along with Victoria’s dress, expect gym shorts entirely beaded by Nico Williams and futuristic regalia made with repurposed sports equipment by Cannupa Hanska Luger. Other participating artists include Nick Cave, Catherine Blackburn and Aganetha Dyck.
Kablusiak, “Red Ookpik with Hat, Red Ookpik, Plucked Ookpik, Furby Ookpik and Garfield Ookpik,” 2021–23
collection of Marnie Schreiber; collection of Frank Griggs and Jeremy Laing; and courtesy the artist and Norberg Hall, Calgary, © Kablusiak (photo courtesy of National Gallery of Canada)
Sobey finalist Kablusiak has a past
Kablusiak is a Calgary-based artist who seems to pop up everywhere these days. That includes a National Gallery of Canada exhibition for the five Sobey Art Award finalists running from Oct. 12 to March 3, 2024. Representing the Prairies and the North, Kablusiak’s main contribution to the exhibition is a large tent with dozens of peepholes so passersby can peer voyeuristically inside and watch a selection of television shows from the artist’s youth in Yellowknife. The work, titled Qiniqtuaq, offers everything from American sitcoms to an Arctic show on how to cook a caribou head. There is also a table with examples of the artist’s trademark Ookpik dolls inviting viewers to reconsider how Inuit art and artists are defined. Metis artist Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, representing B.C. and Yukon, explores the evolution of tobacco, once sacred to many Indigenous groups. Tobacco is stuffed into pantyhose to make toy rabbits. “Paintings” are made from tobacco infused with Crisco oil. Other Sobey finalists are Michelle Pearson for Ontario, Anahita Norouzi for Quebec and Seamus Gallagher for the Atlantic region. The winner of the $100,000 prize will be announced Nov. 18.
“Punk Prayer,” 2012, ©Pussy Riot (photo by Mitya Aleshkovsky)
Pussy Riot: Velvet Terrorism
Often, when Russian strongman Vladimir Putin takes an intense dislike to someone, that person ends up poisoned, tossed out a window or murdered in some other way. Three members of the feminist punk art collective Pussy Riot got off easy when their street theatrics angered the dictator. They were convicted in 2012 of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” and each sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. Pussy Riot’s performances, music, and videos are characterized by provocative, profane and politically charged lyrics and actions. Guided by the dictum that all protest art should be “desperate, sudden, and joyous,” Pussy Riot has boldly, and with a wry smile, shone a light on the brutal injustices of the Russian state. Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia is an exhibition of videos, music and other ephemera that tell the stories Putin would rather silence. The exhibition runs from Oct. 25 to March 10 at Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal at its temporary space in Place Ville Marie.
Magdalene Odundo, 2023, Alun Callender Photography (courtesy of Gardiner Museum)
Magdalene Odjundo: A Dialogue with Objects
Internationally acclaimed British-Kenyan ceramic artist, Dame Magdalene Odundo, is making her Canadian debut at Toronto’s Gardiner Museum Oct. 19 to April 21 with the opening of the largest-ever North American exhibition of her work. Odundo’s sensuous vessels, with their vibrant orange and velvety black surfaces, reference the human body; their rounded bellies and elongated necks evoking a sense of energy and movement. The artist’s works work can be found in the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, The British Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Victoria & Albert Museum. More than 20 works are displayed alongside objects selected by the artist from the Gardiner Museum’s permanent collection, as well as objects on loan from major Toronto museums and private collections. The objects in the exhibition span geography, time periods, and media, bringing Odundo’s work into conversation with objects as diverse as an ancient Cycladic marble figurine, a Ndebele apron from South Africa, and a painting by the late Trinidadian-Canadian artist Denyse Thomasos.
Jennifer Hornyak, “Bark Brown with Greens,” 2023
oil on canvas, 51" x 48", (photo by Andras Csaszar, Wallace Galleries)
Jennifer Hornyak: Merging
Montreal artist Jennifer Hornyak, who has exhibited extensively across Canada, is known for her textured paintings of flowers filled with emotion and mystery. The new show of the British-born artist at Calgary’s Wallace Galleries Oct. 21 to Nov. 15 is titled Merging because of the artist’s transitioning during the last few years from a more defined image to a more abstract vision. Rather than replicating the images of these flowers in pots, “she prefers to portray their essence in her art,” according to David Malboeuf and Rima Hammoudi writing in the book Jennifer Hornyak. The oil paintings are on canvas or board. There are also works on paper. “Regardless of my intentions, the final shape of each flowerpot is a direct reflection of my mood,” says Hornyak. “The objects may be the same, but how I paint them entirely depends on how I feel about the world that day.” ■
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