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April 5, 2012
For the past five weeks the gallery has hosted visits from grade 7 and 8 classes with Meryl McMaster’s photography show titled In-Between Worlds. Today is the last session. For each class I shared a little about my role as a curator. I’d begin with the question “What does a curator do?” Responses from the young participants usually included words like “pick” and “choose” what goes on the gallery walls.
The selection process is one part of a curator’s job. Some other aspects include:
- maintaining a gallery or museum’s collection
- research & interpret a collection or temporary exhibitions
- document and administer exhibitions
- write labels, catalogue essays and other supporting materials
- visit and correspond with exhibiting artists
- design and arrange exhibitions
- plan future exhibition programming
- arrange packing and transportation of artworks
- deliver public talks, present research and publish articles
- co-ordinate publications and catalogues
In closing my chat with the students, they’d ask what my favorite part of being a curator is. After of moment of thought, I’d reply: “With every show you learn something new. What can be more rewarding than expanding your horizons?”
Arts Infused students
January 15, 2010
Last week’s cold snap prompted me to submerge myself into Station Gallery’s collection storage and get better acquainted with our Inuit prints. The gallery’s holdings of work by northern artists is an outcome of a perfect storm between supply and demand several years ago. Many of the pieces came into the permanent collection at a time when the exchange between northern art production and southern acquisition funding was at a premium.
Free market capitalism is so deeply entrenched and ubiquitous in our consumer-based society, it’s almost impossible to imagine another economic model in Canada. And yet in the North, traditional modes of exchange are still within lived memory – up there capitalism is the new kid on the block.
A book that grapples with this topic was recently published and launched at YYZ, an artist-run centre in Toronto. Art and Cold Cash combines the collective efforts of artists Jack Butler, Sheila Butler, Patrick Mahon, Myrah Kukiiyaut, William Noah and writer Ruby Arngna’naaq. Graphic designer, Dale Barrett skillfully combined bilingual text (Inuktitut and English) and image. This publication is a substantial record of essays, interviews and studio production investigating capitalism’s overlap with artistic practice in Canada’s Arctic. Art and Cold Cash is a publication chronicling decades of discourse between artists living near the 49th parallel and those who live well beyond the tree line. Decade by decade, the North is slowly becoming like the South. Just as its climate changes, so too does its land and people. As the distinctions between Canada’s north and south become increasingly blurred, explorations like Art and Cold Cash hold more currency than ever.
November 7, 2009 (posted November 9, 2009)
Taras Shevchenko Museum - Monument Theft
As the sun was setting yesterday, I quietly witnessed the end of something. It’s rather hard to pin-point what that “thing” was, but its quietus was very distinct.
I was in Oakville yesterday and recalled an incident, which happened almost three years ago. A historic bronze monument in the Taras Shevchenko Museum and Memorial Park went missing. This heritage site was marked with the first monument to Taras Shevchenko in North America. Likened to a poet-bard, Shevchenko is to Ukrainians as Shakespeare is to the English or Goethe to Germans. The eleven-foot bronze figure of Shevchenko was hacked off at the ankles sometime over the Christmas holidays in 2006. Copper prices soared and the bronze sculpture was stolen from the park and peddled for its intrinsic material value.
The incident compelled me to return to the Memorial Park, having last visited the place several years when the statue was intact. The two visitations were markedly different experiences. My initial visit was at the height of summer with the grounds well tended and flowering. It was a peaceful Sunday afternoon and I can recall feeling a deep solace that day. I remember thinking this place had a unique quality—the tree-lined alleys, the classical landscaping, the historic monument, the cornfields that surrounded it all. Oddly, to be there was to be in another time in some other place.
Late 2009, all has changed. The property is now derelict, slated for residential development. Amongst thistles and overgrown brush stands a defaced and disembodied granite base where the Shevchenko statue once stood. A pair of bronze shoes, weeds, mature trees marked for cutting—these are the vestiges of something’s end.
October 9, 2009
Nuit Blanche artist: Sara Hartland-Rowe, City
Four years ago Nuit Blanche was launched. Very few people had seen anything like it in Toronto. In that inaugural year, the “all-night contemporary art thing” was just that—an indefinable, nocturnal foray into cultural expression. It was experimental, elastic, vivid, and replete with verve. The Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) opened its doors and neighbouring Grange Park was teeming with people. The European Union hosted a rave-like party on the lawn of the Italian consulate. Trinity Bellwoods Park was a “zoo.” The impressions were strong and long-lasting. There was a lot to live up to post-2005.
Nuit Blanche artist: Sara Hartland-Rowe
Last week’s annual all-nighter was a poorer, slimmer version of its past incarnations. It seemed there were fewer bright lights in the autumn night. OCAD was closed. Grange Park was dark and empty. La dolce vita was only a memory for the Italian consulate lawn. For most of the evening, I felt like I was missing something. This was definitely not the case with a hand full of sites, however.
The night was off to a perfect start with a screening of The Trip to the Moon (1902), a very early piece of movie magic at Cinematheque Ontario. The silent film was accompanied by a live piano performance. This was a special journey for everyone in the theatre. Later that night was a visit to the Gladstone Hotel where several artists were invited to paint murals on the hotel room walls. It was getting late and I got a much-needed boost of energy from a sincere, thoughtfully composed and soulful wall work painted by Sara Hartland-Rowe. Her subdued palette complimented the sophisticated composition, overlaid with canvas cut-outs of figures. Thanks for the buzz, Sara! Next it was off to the financial district. It was worth the agoraphobia of wadding through crowds at King and Bay to see Rebecca Belmore’s “rezzed-up” pickup truck. Unfortunately, my arrival was poorly timed having just missed the performance. There was that feeling again—missing something. On the way back home a song on the radio seemed to epitomize my mixed feelings: “it’s never as good as the first time.”
Nuit Blanche installation by artist Sara Hartland-Rowe.
September 11, 2009
Unparalleled terrorist attack on New York City - September 11, 2001
Mornings are inherently unmemorable, even fugitive. We can all remember where we were and what we were doing in the morning on this day in 2001. Over the past eight years, I’ve shared my story verbally dozens of times and this is the first time I’m writing about that beautiful autumn dawn, a day before my 29th birthday.
I had marked my first year working at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in my hometown. The day began like any other with checking e-mail, maybe a coffee was at my side, I can’t recall. The daily routine was shattered with a cell call from my older brother at a quarter after nine that morning. Gasping for air he said, “There’s going to be a war!” He had just witnessed, with his own eyes, the second plane crash into the South Tower. At the time, my brother was working in 1 Liberty Plaza, one of the seven buildings in the WTC complex. He had just narrowly escaped death. My brother knew that the horrific news would shave years off our mother’s life not knowing if her eldest was alive. Shortly thereafter, there was no way of dialling out of Manhattan—all communication lines were jammed. His directions to me were simple: I had to tell my mother that he was safe and out of harm’s way. I asked my boss to drive me to St. George’s church where my mother was teaching kindergarten kids in the basement. I interrupted the class, took my mom aside and let her know that our family was intact.
August 31, 2009
Although they’re rare, those unplanned moments become the most memorable in our lives. And what better way to experience spontaneity than to simply get in the car and drive? This is what I did last weekend. I packed my tent, sleeping bag, Coleman stove, cans of Puritan beef stew and hit the road in true nomad-style. The wind blew me north, and I landed lakeside somewhere outside of Bon Echo Provincial Park. The loons and coyotes were already there and called out in the warm night air (these recollections get us through the winters in Canada). When I woke the next day, it was as though I felt some sort of “Great Canadian” homing device awaken in me—Ottawa. I couldn’t ignore this call and set off for the nation’s capital.
The first stop was the National Gallery, where a fittingly titled show Nomads was on. The exhibition touched on themes of exploration, wanderlust and perambulations. One of the highlights in this show was Althea Thauberger’s video set in a remote village in the Dolomites, in the north of Italy. The artist had hired local villagers to act out a folk legend in their mother tongue. I heard Ladin spoken for the first time; a rare, ancient language spoken in this mountainous region to this day. Later that night, a free light-and-sound show was scheduled on Parliament Hill. As the skies darkened, a massive campfire flame projected on the Peace Tower. In full surround-sound the recorded calls of loons and coyotes echoed through the heart of the capital.
The night lights of Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario Canada.
August 14, 2009
I wondered what happened on this day a year ago. I opened my 2008 day planner to August 14. In pencil, I had scribbled “meet with mihau m. (?)” This is how I was introduced to the emerging artist by Sarah Felgemacher, our summer student at the time. She was adamant that I meet her pal “Mihau”—Sarah’s tender nickname for Michal Majewski—a promising local musician and graphic artist. It seemed only fitting that an artist like Michal get involved with Station Gallery–he was an early-career talent based in the region interested in printmaking. And on that sunny August afternoon last year he came to the gallery to check out our permanent collection. Our holdings were of particular interest to Michal, since most of the works are prints, which was the young artist’s specialty (I remember how he was particularly impressed by the graphic and whimsical works of Rudolph Bikkers). I asked if he’d be interested in showcasing some of his own prints and posters in the Yourspace Community Gallery. He was modest about his talents and said that he would follow-up one day with a disc of his images. That day never came.
Shwa-ltz 2009, event poster by late artist Michal Majewski.
Earlier this summer Michal met his untimely death in an accident out in BC. He was only 28. He left behind a prolific body of work. Posters, prints, pictures with a distinctly energetic and graphic style; this was the unmistakable visual hallmark of Michal’s work. Everyone in the local music scene recognized his posters advertising bands in the area. Maybe Michal never had a chance to “follow-up” but the Yourspace will be his from September 12 to October 25. Michal’s work will be featured in a posthumous show, guest curated by Sarah F., the person who first introduced me to Michal Majewski.
Summer Solstice poster by late artist Michal Majewski.
July 6, 2009
Station Gallery has recently revived its N. Novak Print Studio. This is an exciting move, since this box car studio was once a locus of printmaking experimentation and production for decades. It was after all, one of the hallmarks which set the Station apart from other public galleries. This made us unique—and it now continues to do so. The studio played host to many preeminent printmakers such as Otis Tamasauskas, Anne Meredith Barry, Don Holman, Richard Toms and many others.
Artist Todd Tremeer works on his latest print in the Nicolas Novak Print Studio at Station Gallery.
I believe that the momentum of the Print Studio will continue as we enter the mid-point of the First Phase of the print studio revival. I’m very hopeful that the studio will attract many artists and that this will be a creative hub of a printmaking renaissance in the region. Traction is what we need now that the print studio is back on track.
July 3, 2009
The University of Toronto Art Centre is currently hosting an exhibition titled Sense of Place. Having visited the exhibition last Friday, July 3rd I found the show a peripatetic survey of contemporary printmaking. It would seem that the medium is alive and kicking in Canada and Michigan. This cross-border survey gave audiences an opportunity to absorb the scope of print technologies. I was delighted to see Dan Steeves’s print (free to ignore moments of restlessness in the mind) of the evacuated void in the place of domicile. This 2006 work was also featured along with other works in a show called Tantramar Gothic.
Other highlights were Libby Hague’s work Everything Needs Everything: Rehearsal for Disaster. In looking up Hague’s title in the accompanying catalogue, I see that her piece was awarded Second Place. My initial response was “Congrats, Libby!” but then I wasn’t aware that this show was a juried exhibition. This adds a problematic layer to an exhibition which seemed to be a themed meditation on the vagaries of place. Adding the competitive and adjudicated layer certainly complicates a show whose intent was to present selected artists in a open forum of discussions surrounding the print medium.
I always enjoy to hearing of N.E. Thing Co. co-founder, the artist formally known as Ian Baxter. He has recently legally changed his name to IANBAXTER& (the ampersand is emphasized!). I’m not really sure how he is associated with the printed medium, exactly, but his inclusion in the project calls for more thought. I don’t know where to start first, conceptualizing the ampersand in his name or his relation vis-a-vis the printmakers in the show… I guess the word “and” prompts an entire series of inquiry.
June 26, 2009
For many years now, I’ve participated in the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. It is a great place to meet up with old friends and colleagues. I’ve also been introduced to many new artists. In particular, I think of first seeing Natalia Laluque’s Canadiana Project several years back.
This year will prove to be particularly challenging to imagine anything in the ordinary. Metro civic workers are on strike. But how will this play itself out on Nathan Philips Square? Will volunteers clear the rubbish bins? Will the underground parking lot be barricaded and off-limits?
A similar thing happened several years ago when a Garbage Strike threatened to de-rail the Exhibition. As a precaution, the show dates were moved to Labour Day of 2002, I think it was. This had a detrimental effect for both buyers and sellers of artwork. Circumstances had put a strain on the fragile supply and demand equilibrium. For this year, the show will go on as scheduled and it should be a good one. Unlike any other outdoor show before, this years will be fraught with restlessness and insurgence. In a parallel exhibition at Lennox Contemporary, will be Rejects a kind of Salon des Refusé held by some of the artists rejected by the TOAE jurors. This recalls the words of Napoleon III: “Let the public judge!”
curator by day 