Boyle/Ashoona at Justina M. Barnicke, in living colour

 

I was a little disappointed to see my piece on the excellent show, Noise Ghost, at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at Hart House, accompanied in the paper by a black and white version of a hauntingly colourful drawing by Shary Boyle. Happily, I can issue my very own corrective here: Have a look at a handful of Boyle and (all but the top left, which is) Shuvinai Ashoona's work, which is smartly justaposed in the show, in honest-to-gosh colour. And check out the opening tonight at 5, or at least see the show; it's a great one, and open to August 28.

 

Contact '09: (sort of) A Photo A Day (or so) -- White Squirrels @ The White Squirrel

The mythic white squirrels of Trinity Bellwoods Park are captured here by Michael Werner in a reverential tone befitting their heroic status. At the appropriately-named White Squirrel cafe at 907 Queen Street West, just across from their park habitat. To June 8.

Dufferin Jog: And the winner is ...

      

... Toronto's very own Luis Jacob -- a well-deserved feat indeed for the local artist whose work has so often been directly engaged in civic issues and the public realm.

Chosen over senior luminaries like Vancouver's Ken Lum and Toronto video art grand-dame Vera Frankel, Jacob's work is expected to be drawn from his series of photographic tie-dye images, They Sleep With One Eye Open, which showed recently at the Birch Libralato Gallery, though I can't say for sure because Clara Hargittay at the City of Toronto's public art office isn't getting back to me and I haven't managed to connect yet.

Until then, herein you can gaze at an image from the series and contemplate an array of them lining the underpass that's soon to re-unite Dufferin Street where it was chopped off at Queen for a railroad bridge. Enjoy ...

Addendum at 1.30 pm: Clara got back to me with images; here's the idea, quite officially and in situ:

Auction uptick? Joyner's records big dollars in Spring sales

Yesterday in the paper, I did a small item about the Sotheby's/Ritchie's auction of "important Canadian art," which is a matter of opinion, of course, but the fact of it was that it offered very little as an indicator of the market's health. Some big names, like a Lawren Harris, reached their pre-sale estimates (it was the biggie at $175,000); others, like an Emily Carr with an estimate of $250,000, failed to sell at all.

The very next day, though, Joyner's seemed to defy that hesitance, selling major works like A.Y. Jackson's Sun Gleams Near Bic (left) for a whopping $478,000, well beyond its $250,000 estimate. Another, Franklin Carmichael's Howry Creek, La Cloche, more than doubled its estimate of $50,000, selling for $115,000.

Smaller contemporary works shot past their estimates, too, with a Greg Curnoe selling for $34,500, well past the $25,000 estimate, and a Kazuo Nakamura painting bettering its estimated $15,000 by almost $10,000, going for $24,150.

No doubt, Heffel's, which holds the biggest auction of the season next June, will be encouraged by this; it has 2 pieces set at over $1 million for its sale, an Emily Carr at $1.2 million and a Jean-Paul Riopelle at $1.5 million. It will be the most telling of whether confidence has returned to the game or not.

The Grange Prize; huh?

The second Grange Prize was awarded last night, to Mexican photographer Marco Antonio Cruz.

It's more or less impossible to criticize the selection, as, American-Idol style, Cruz was chosen by We The People, over the course of a lengthy online voting process. And frankly, I wouldn't want to; while the conceptualism of the Canadians in the field -- the provocative coolness of Lynne Cohen, or the quirkily sombre work of Jin-me Yoon -- are more my cup of tea, Cruz's straight documentary work, on a school for the blind, is accomplished and engaging, to be sure.

What I do feel I can criticize, however, is the Grange Prize itself. Its mandate, apparently, is to engage the public in a dialogue about contemporary photography, which, by way of the voting process -- 20,000 strong -- I suppose it's done.

But the institution itself is a puzzlement. Sponsored by the AGO, we have Canadian entrants, which is good; so we should. But it seems, in its second instalment, that the model is for the AGO to go hat-in-hand to whatever national tourist board wants to use the gallery as  a promotional vehicle. Hence this year's field of Cohen, Cruz, Yoon and Federico Gama -- 2 Canadians, 2 Mexicans. Why? Because the Mexican government chipped in the $50,000 purse.

If the Grange were awarded amid a field of contemporary Canadian photographers voted on by the public, then it might make a little bit of sense; or, if the prize were awarded amid a truly international field, then okay. But choosing photographers exclusively from a country simply because their government sponsored it is, on the one hand, bizarre, and on the other, transparently tokenistic.

Grange Prize 2010 will intermingle Canadians and photographers from France. What can we expect from Grange Prize 2011? The best of Canadian and Belarussian photographers, or Canadians and Luxembourgians? No disprespect to the fine photographic communities that I'm sure exist in those places, but really, the Grange Prize, much like the AGO itself, feels just that random. In some ways, it's a perfect marriage; but that doesn't make it a happy one, does it?

Luminato clues in: No 'each hand' this year

In the slow-on-the-uptake department, Luminato today sent out a release that Reena Katz's each hand as they are called has been "postponed indefinitely" and would not be part of the Luminato visual arts program, as planned. 

Well, no kidding. As reported here, where a lively discussion has ensued, Katz and curator Kim Simon said last week that, with the pullout of the Baycrest Centre, many of whose seniors were vital to the project, the project was on indefinite hold. each hand, meant to explore the many layers of immigrant history in Kensington Market, which began in the 19th century as a Jewish market, needed the seniors for its interactive concept.

They pulled out when the Koffler Centre for the Arts, which was funding the project, removed its name from Katz's piece when they learned that Katz, who is Jewish, was a participant in Israel Apartheid Week, an event protesting Israel's Palestinian policy.

Luminato must not have been paying attention as this unfolded early this month; yesterday, in a widely-circulated promotional email, the festival still touted each hand as part of its program. Today's follow-up appears to be a hasty corrective to the somewhat embarassing oversight ...

A Photo A Day: Contact '09 -- Craig Bell @ Terroni

In his exhibition Touching Rust, Craig Bell explores well-worn territory with his conjuring of the sublime from the relics of our industrial near-past. Familiarity, in this case, makes the eye grow fonder; his take is like a warm -- if somewhat frayed -- favourite visual blanket. At Terroni, 57a Adelaide Street West, until May 29.

A Photo A Day: Contact '09 -- Beverly Owens @ Beverly Owens

Beverly Owens inaugurates her eponymous gallery with "All Present and Accounted For," an encaustic treatment of archival group photos Owens has sought ought over the years. Surrendering individuality for the purpose of the group, while still maintaining one's identity, is Owen's central concern.At The Beverly Owens Project, 1140 Queen Street West, until May 31.

A Photo A Day: Contact '09 -- Louis Helbig @ Koma Designs

Photographer Louis Helbig calls his current series 'Beautiful Destruction,' and if you've been to the Oil Sands in Northern Alberta yourself, the 'beautiful' part will be lost on you. But from thousands of feet above, Helbig's aerial images teeter between document and abstraction, and capture the terrible beauty of man's ability to alter the landscape at will. At Koma Designs, 1239 Queen Street West, to May 31

For those in the 'hood(s), the AGYU is hosting a bi-part DJ throwdown tonight, simultaneously held at The Ossington (61 Ossington) and The Beaver (1192 Queen W) as part of its excellent spring show The Communism of Forms: Sound + Image + Time - The Strategy of the Music Video. DJ's Cozmic Cat and Vaneska go toe-to-toe over live video feed, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Beaver owner/artist/DJ Will Munro dive behind the decks for a set ... should be a good time.