Gallery closures due to the coronavirus pandemic are continuing in piecemeal fashion across Canada. In Toronto, for instance, the Art Gallery of Ontario closed last week due to new provincial public health regulations. Meanwhile, new provincial rules in Alberta will allow galleries and museums to remain open at 25 per cent of their usual occupancy capacity. Some Alberta galleries are opting to close, however, including the Esker Foundation in Calgary, shuttering as of Dec. 5. Gallery closures continue in Quebec, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, and in Manitoba, including the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, also temporarily closed due to COVID-19, has received a $1-million donation from an anonymous donor. Executive director Kathleen Bartels says in a release the money will support "an exciting and ambitious series of new projects." When the museum reopens, it plans to exhibit a selection of works from Flowers for Africa by Hamilton-born artist Kapwani Kiwanga, who recently received the 2020 Marcel Duchamp Prize, a prestigious French award. Next spring, MOCA will show Greater Toronto Art 2021, a major survey featuring 21 Toronto artists.
Marvel is releasing a new Indigenous comic that saw participation by Edmonton-based illustrator Kyle Charles. Charles, of the Whitefish Lake First Nation northeast of Edmonton, illustrated the story of Dani Moonstar, a telepathic Cheyenne woman who can conjure dreams. "I just try to bring all the influence of the Indigenous women into this project and do right by them," Charles told CBC News. Moonstar is part of the Marvel's Voice: Indigenous Voices issue.
The recent dismissal of Cate Rimmer, the director of the Libby Leshgold Gallery at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, has prompted a letter of concern from Vancouver's visual arts community. The open letter, to Gillian Siddall, the university's president, and to the board of governors, has been signed by some 170 artists and curators, the Vancouver Sun reports. The letter says “the termination of an esteemed professional without cause or rationale, particularly in the midst of a pandemic, breaches and undermines the trust placed in your institution.”
A stolen statue of a Hindu goddess from the University of Regina’s collection at the MacKenzie Art Gallery has begun its journey home. The story behind the Annapoorna statue, wrongfully taken a century ago, was unearthed by Divya Mehra, as she researched the MacKenzie's permanent collection while preparing for an exhibition at the gallery. According to a release from the university, the statue was part of a 1936 bequest by Norman MacKenzie, the gallery’s namesake. MacKenzie noticed the statue on a 1913 trip to India. A stranger who overheard him express interest in it stole it from a shrine in Varanasi.
Waddington’s final 2020 auction of Canadian art, including works from the 1950s' Ontario group, Painters Eleven, is being offered online with a digital catalogue. The auction, which runs Dec. 5 to Dec. 10, includes paintings by Painters Eleven members Walter Yarwood and Alexandra Luke. Other works by George Pepper, Stanley Turner and Peter Clapham are also available from the Toronto auction house. Meanwhile, Heffel is offering seven paintings by Jean Paul Riopelle in its auction of post-war and contemporary art on Dec. 2. They can viewed online in the Toronto art dealer's fall auction catalogue.
Edward Burtynsky is donating his archives to Toronto's Ryerson University, where he studied in the 1970s. The Ryerson Image Centre says in release that the multi-year gift will be made in several chronological parcels. The first features 142 images made between 1976 and 1989 and includes work submitted as class assignments. Burtynsky is now a renowned international photographer.
In Nova Scotia, Jordan Bennett has won the $25,000 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award for Tepkik, a 100-foot long public art structure made from fabric panels and reflective surface elements. "Tepkik draws on the Mi’kmaq petroglyph that depicts the Milky Way, which has been found on the rocky shores of the lakes and rivers at Kejimkujik National Park in Nova Scotia," the announcement says. Tepkik is a Mi’kmaq word for night.
The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia has chosen KPMB and Omar Gandhi Studio as the winners of a competition to create a new gallery on the Halifax waterfront. The design is based on Mi’kmaw ways of knowing, "a space that breaks away from a square box" and is "a catalyst for changing how we build sustainable, inclusive spaces for future generations," the museum said in its announcement. The Donald R. Sobey Foundation has pledged $10 million to the project. Meanwhile, Hariri Pontarini Architects will design the Art Gallery of York University’s new stand-alone building. "Hariri’s signature curves will set the frame for a three-storey building that will include a ground level event space with four separate galleries set within a redefined xeriscape garden," the institution said in a release.
Collective Bunch, a new Vancouver-based roster of BIPOC workers in screen-based industries, is hoping to encourage diversity. Founded by Jason Mackay, it's aimed at helping producers, production managers, development executives and broadcasters invest in diverse talent. "I want this to be as easy as possible for people to get hired, share knowledge, build relationships and change perceptions," says Mackay, who has worked as a partner at a film production company. For more information, go here.
Karen Carter will be the next executive director of the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, Ont.. Carter, who has leadership experience with C-Art Caribbean Art Fair, Myseum and Heritage Toronto, joins the team effective Jan. 4. She is the co-founder and director of Black Artists’ Network and Dialogue, an organization dedicated to the promotion of Black arts and culture in Canada and abroad.
Vancouver's Equinox Gallery says the Vancouver Art Gallery has acquired Walking Spectrum I, S17, a work by Devon Knowles. In sculpture, drawing, site-specific and public art projects Knowles investigates the histories, economies and social meanings of diverse materials – from denim fabric and aluminum to coloured glass and concrete, says Equinox.
Phaidon has published its fourth edition of the Wallpaper* City Guide for Vancouver. The international series celebrates the city's best architecture, restaurants, hotels and attractions. A new chapter on art and design looks at galleries and studios, while new additions to the 24-hour section include master carver Jim Hart’s Reconciliation Pole alongside Peter Cardew’s Belkin Gallery at UBC. Autographed copies can be purchased from author Hadani Ditmars.