Historically, art told you a story. Today, art asks you questions!

While stowed away at the AGO library, I read an article written in 1934 in which an art critic addressed the exact same frustrating issue art professionals face today — a public that doesn't understand & often feels threatened by the unfamiliar forms that contemporary art can take. 

Here are a few examples:

1. New Media art: simply art created using new technologies
2. Installation art: where a sculpture doesn't necessary have fixed dimensions, can inhabit an entire room or building, often a person is able to walk through it as though it were an environment unto itself rather than an object you merely circle around.
3. Textile Art or Material Art: fine art (as opposed to craft) made of fabric, thread, fibers…
4. Found Art: an object or assemblage of objects found by the artist and deemed aesthetically viable as an independent work of art.
5. Performance Art: where a visual artist performs an act that is intended to be a work of art

Back to the point, what really caught my attention was the author's interpretation of the problem. He proposed that people expect to "read" a painting as though it were a short story.  Considering centuries of historical precedent, this is a perfectly logical assumption, There's a baby on straw with a halo, some animals, a chick dressed in blue… This seems familiar… I recognize that the artist is recounting the new Testament story of the nativity.  Genius!" In fact, a wealth of historic artwork from Europe and Asia include multiple depictions of the same protagonist(s) in a single landscape; these pieces are trying to show that character at different points in the story, the protagonist is featured multiple times to show him moving through time and space as the narrative unfolds.  Their literal approach is similar to today's graphic novel, but lacking any dividers or frames.  

But that formula for visually citing a recognizable narrative has slipped into the past, and today it's often more challenging to access the story — if there is one — and the meaning of the work.  Perhaps the key to unlocking contemporary art is understanding its temperament.  It insists that you approach it was a modicum of respect and plenty of curiosity.  Let's explore how art shifted from an accessibly story to its more aloof present day iteration: contemporary art was born in the age of globalism.  It wasn't all created for one Church, one State, one culture, or even for one oligarchic elite.  It lacks both a cohesive language of symbols and a constant index of reference points.   

Now more than ever, the definition of art contains multitudes.

How the quirky Ralph Rugoff made TIAF worthwhile

Power Talks: Ralph Rugoff / 29 October 2011 @ TIAF.

That's right!  It's time for the first video of this blog.  I'm very excited to post this talk by one of my all-time favourite authors and curators, Ralph Rugoff.

In the midst of the self-important and hyper-commercial Toronto International Art Fair (which, by the way, becomes less international each year), Rugoff's presentation on his latest exhibitions——courtesy of the Power Plant——was like a delicious, nutritious kale chip in a sea of jujubes.

Rugoff is an uber-chill, charismatic, and inclusive  expat American.  Originally hailing from New York but better known for his time in L.A. and San Francisco, he talks about his efforts to reinvent London's temporary-exhibit-only Hayward Gallery for contemporary art. A  lurking, concrete Brutalist  behemoth, the Hayward faces a unique challenge.   Namely its exhibition funding is based almost exclusively on ticket sales——no small challenge for a museum director! Rugoff's  solutions for engaging the public in contemporary art are, like him, nothing short of genius.

If you can get your hands on his article on the Museum of Jurassic Technology, it's also an exceptional read.

Too impatient to watch the lecture?  Check out the highlights after the jump.

Saturday, December 18th: Profits / Prophets Joel Richardson's Suitman ends with an artist talk & screening

'Tis the season to evade stressed out consumers.

And there is an alternative: engage with artists before they hunker down for winter! Seize the opportunity Saturday, December 18 at Oz Studios where you can meet Joel Richardson, creator of Toronto's most (in)famous, scandal-embroiled mural. 

Installation view of Joel Richardson's solo show Suitman.  Photo credit: Nekhat Ahmed

Yes, I mean the creator of the Dupont Street city-commissioned mural, erased during Mayor Ford's ham-fisted initiative to lambaste street art, now fully restenciled & restored.  Joel Richardson's solo show Suitman comes on the heels of work featured at Occupy Wall Street and at the Chelsea Museum, New York.

Between 8 & 10 pm, Joel will speak about the Suitman exhibit, screen a short film, and introduce models used for his stencils.  (No, Harper will obviously not be in attendance.)

At the galleries, Queen West West Nicole Collins & Kate McQuillen

Spare a few moments at Queen and Lansdowne to view General Hardware's latest (and, thus far, greatest) solo show  Nicole Collins: The Reconstruction on view through Jan 21.  Collins works like a force of nature, with great energy, wicked irreverence, and specific rigorous parameters.  What she does with encaustic is pretty damn amazing and recalls the work of Ad Reinhard, Anselm Kiefer, and Alexis Harding.  As my friend Lee puts it, ee cummings-style, "nicole collins' show at general hardware contemporary is incredible and nearly made me weep. go look at it with your eyeballs." 

Though the works in this show vary in scale, three generously proportioned canvases loom large in my memory, but I'll stick to writing about one: a massive spectre in silver and cerulean blue titled Lunar Caustic.  When critic Gary Michael Dault quipped that this is the flagship piece of the exhibit, he hit the proverbial nail on the head.

As yet, Lunar Caustic has no internet presence, and I won't take a camera into a gallery on principle.  A quick disclaimer on the image below*: this detail is a background found on one of Collins' blogs, and the only visual reference to a wall-sized behemoth of a work made of torn and cracked, silver-basted translucent encaustic.  This scarred, patched hide is occasionally pierced by strident patches of blue, a concentrated field of which bathes the top of the canvas.  In it I recognize something of Moby Dick's terrible, enthralling beauty. 
Please.  See it in person.

*Supposed detail of Lunar Caustic, perhaps unfinished.

Jim Campbell kills it at Pari Nadimi, while David Rokeby's piece is just dead

Jim Campbell, Exploded View (Commuters), 2011
1152 LEDs, custom electronics, wire, steel, 72 x 46 x 38".  Photo credit: Derek Weidl

Be sure to visit the Pari Nadimi Gallery, just south of Queen at 254 Niagara St. before December 22nd.  I've been twice and intend to see the show once more tomorrow.  Both times David Rokeby's interactive sound piece has been temporarily turned off — the Achilles Heel of New Media Art is that generally only the artist can fix it should something go awry.  Luckily, the highlight of Toronto's most innovating art/tech show of the year is an installation of hundreds of spherical LEDs by the San Francisco artist, Jim Campbell.  At first glance it seems like the lights are reacting to your presence in their vicinity, but distance disproves this theory.  Instead the lights which are turned off resolve into life-size three-dimensional silhouettes who "walk" though the field of LEDs!

Nothing beats experiencing this New Media piece in the flesh and photos fail to reproduce its effect, so try to see it while it's still up!  Alternately, a second installation of Exploded View (Commuters) has popped up at the The Museum (Kitchener), where Campbell will be leading a public tour of the show on December 11 at 11:30am.  In fact, there is a lot happening at Kitchener Galleries right now!  Check it out:

Down in Miami, Pae White is as charming as ever

You may recall Pae White's show Material Mutters (often misremembered as "Material Matters") at the Power Plant in 2010.  Well, here is her latest work, currently featured at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair:

FIGURE 1:  Pae White, Pop Storm, 2011
Japanese paper, clay, black thread, dimensions [presumably] variable.
Image courtesy of Kaufmann Repetto.

I'm really enjoying the lighthearted humour of Pop Storm!  Let me be frank, Pop Art wasted no time transforming from a campy, accessible rebuttal against Minimalism into a bloated self-congratulatory monster (for whose persistence we have Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami to thank) [Figures 2 & 3]. This tongue-in-cheek installation is fun and friendly.  The puffed clay popcorn kernels are even hanging at mouth height!  Talk about accessible.  Sad to say, this type of contemporary art still incites baffled skepticism in the general public.  To the average person, work such as Pop Storm seems to beg the question, "How is this art?!"

Oakville Galleries, Part 1 Gairloch Gardens: Chris Kline & Janet Cardiff

Saturday marked the first of many visits to the Oakville Galleries.  The Galleries are locally known as Og2, which refers to two locations, one gallery nestled into the downtown library, while the other overlooks Lake Ontario on a gorgeous waterfront estate.

Each location hosts a discreet exhibit, together comprising their winter programming (click here to view their Akimbo).  Both are on par with——if not better than——any public programming in TO right now!

Downtown, Centennial Square
Hyper Spaces*: José Manuel Ballester, An Te Liu & Lynne Marsh (26 Nov, 2011 – March 4, 2012)

* see Part 2!

Waterfront, Gairloch Gardens
Chris Kline – Bright Limit (Nov 26, 2011 – Feb 19, 2012)
& participatory site-specific experiential work by Janet Cardiff

FIGURE 1: Oakville Galleries, Gairloch Gardens location.

It was a perfect day to experience the lakefront location——crisp, cloudy, with strong sunlight breaking erratically over the water… one of those pale days hinting at winter, when a strong flash of colour would take you by surprise.  Apart from a few birds and a small wedding party, the grounds were quiet [Figure 1].  Mark and I were the first visitors to the pristine Chris Kline exhibit.