A raft made of pants. Really.

Pictures don't lie -- well, fine; of course they do, all the time -- but this one doesn't, at least. That's artists Christine Swintak and her temporary protege, Sebastian Koever, making the crossing from Toronto island back to the mainland last weekend on a raft, as the title says, made of pants.

The things we do in the name of art. Swintak, of course, is no stranger to these public experiments, most recently having demolished and rebuilt a ramshackle cottage at the Blackwood Gallery with Don Miller. Then there was the memorable installation of a boutique hotel suite in a dumpster for Nuit Blanche a few years back, and a cheeky little piece in Brooklyn, a personal fave, called "The World is My Studio," for which she coaxed audience members to chase cars, sprint through local shops while she went along with them, explaining how ... well, you get the idea.

The fact is, for Swintak, the world is always her studio, and she's imparting the zany wisdom of that practice to Koever, this year's recipient of the Will Huffman Award, given to the student deemed to be "most promising" in the Art and Art History joint program between Sheridan College and U of T Mississauga.

The prize is a collaborative project with an established artist (that's Swintak) that shows at  Red Bull 381, where the product of their current residency, "Doing Five Things," opens later this month. The pants raft was one; the second, on display this week, is, as they put it, "quite possibly the most banal rollercoaster ever made." Two down, three to go. We're watching ... 

SPECIAL BONUS IMAGE! Following on Nick's desire for visual proof, I've done my best amateur photoshop job of providing further panatalicious detail of the vessel in question. Apologies for pixellation, I remain your humble digital servant ...

 

In case you missed it ... Goodwin, Martin, Hesse at AGO next month

 A month ago, the AGO announced three exhibitions featuring significant woman artists that explore studio process in the making of their art. This week, they announced it again, so not wishing to be the deaf ears on which such things fall, let me remind you that "At Work," three separate exhibtions featuring Agnes Martin, Eva Hesse and Betty Goodwin will open Sept. 22.

Pleading self-promo aside, it's hard not to look forward to this. Martin, the lone skirt in the Abstract Expressionist club, may have spent her final few decades on a ranch in New Mexico (as Bruce Nauman's neighbour, no less), but we proud Canadians know she was really from tiny Macklin, Saskatchewan, working her way to New York just in time for everything to change. Hesse, whose devotion to prosaic production materials like plastics and fibreglass did as much as anyone to undermine notions of preciousness in art, is a similar landmark artist, and Goodwin (in 1986, at right), who seemed to gush gentle angst from every stroke of charcoal she laid to paper, is simply one of Canada's best ever . 

The Martin show holds special interest for me, though, in that the AGO is importing several major works from the Whitney, which has the most significant holdings of her work in the world. Should be a good one.

Online Canadian art marketplace ArtBarrage up and running

This is kind of interesting (or maybe it isn't; you tell me): Kelly McCrae, the co-director of the Edward Day Gallery has teamed up with Walter Willems and RK Mann to create an online art market called ArtBarrage.

The idea, from what I can gather, is for artists to upload their works for sale to the site, and then ArtBarrage takes a commission (sort of like Etsy, I guess, but less crafty). Anyway, notables among the 34 artists currently online include Jakub Dolejs, Geoffrey Pugen, Jessica Eaton (above) and Alex McLeod. I'd be curious to know if you think such a model makes any sense in the Canadian marketplace; speak!

Been there, done that? Buy the t-shirt

A little while ago, I wrote about the show at MKG127 curated by Micah Lexier, of whom I am an unabashed fan. It's nearly impossible to keep up with eveything Micah gets up to, here and elsewhere, but another local favourite has been his treatment of the wall space above the Drake's Sky Yard; on a white background, the respnse space to a yes or no survey question floats in clean black sans-serif text (of course). In no surprise to anyone who knows him, Lexier has, with a crisp red checkmark, answered 'yes.'

I'm not one to recommend product, but I'll be in line for the t-shirt version, which goes on sale at the Drake General Store Aug. 15. Can you pre-order these things? They'll be gone quickly.

Like I was saying, Steven Shearer to represent Canada in Venice next year

Just the other day, I was wondering what happened to Steven Shearer. After being a finalist for the Sobey Prize in 2006, he seemed to vanish from view, dropping off the roster of one of the big galleries in his hometown of Vancouver (Jeffries? Clark? I honestly can't remember which). 

Anyway, my mistake: Shearer's just removed himself from the Canadian commercial gallery system, finding more love in Europe and Japan (much like such superstar Vancouverites as Jeff Wall did a generation before; Wall hasn't had gallery representation in Canada since the 70s, which, arguably, was the best possible thing for his career).

In any case, Shearer gets the really big show next year, the Canadian Pavilion in Venice, where his beguilingly angsty take on the obsessiveness of youth cultures long since faded into oblivion -- hair band photo collages, yearning text pieces, soft-focus profile sketches of unidentifiable rock stars -- will play on its biggest stage yet. 

National Gallery curator Josee Drouin-Brisebois submitted Shearer for consideration; she'll work with him on the Venice project, which will open June 4. Give the Canada Council and the National Gallery credit: Though he's achieved a degree of international stardom, Shearer is not a safe, conservative choice by any means. I'm looking forward to what he comes up with.

This just in: Steven Shearer to represent Canada at the 2011 Venice Biennale

Just got the release from the National Gallery. I'll post more later, but here's the release: 

Artist Steven Shearer to represent Canada

 at the 54th International Art Exhibition − La Biennale di Venezia

Ottawa (Ontario), August 3, 2010 − Steven Shearer is known for using a wide range of traditional and contemporary media in works that address the human subject and its relationship with the outside world. The Vancouver-based artist will represent Canada at the 54th International Art Exhibition − La Biennale di Venezia 2011 (Venice Biennale), from June 4 to November 27, 2011.  The only international visual arts exhibition to which Canada sends official representation, the Biennale is among the most prestigious contemporary art exhibitions in the world.

The artist was chosen by a national selection committee comprised of senior contemporary art curators from across Canada and formed by the National Gallery of Canada (NGC), organizer of the Canadian representation for the 2011 Biennale.  The NGC's Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Josée Drouin-Brisebois, will organize the exhibition of Steven Shearer’s work. 

Adopting and elaborating upon distinct stylistic repertoires and themes specific to the history of figure painting, Shearer draws formal and thematic parallels between art history and the iconography associated with various subcultures including their modes of dissemination such as fanzines, online message boards, and image shrines on personal websites. He is interested in how contemporary society unconsciously echoes and shapes specific manners of appearance that have been explored by historical movements or schools.  Central to Shearer’s work is his ongoing compilation of an archive of thousands of images and text culled from magazines, appropriated from songs and captured from the internet. In his paintings, text-based works, sculptures and photographic compilations, these fragmentary sources function generatively as they are combined and recycled across his works.

"Under its pop cultural surface, Steven Shearer's work is surprisingly complex and insightful," said National Gallery of Canada Director and CEO Marc Mayer. "By showing us aspects of popular culture anachronistically, and from so many different points of view, he exposes the false hierarchy of high and low art and prompts us to consider the more interesting differences between the cultural industries and the art world. Shearer's intelligence and originality are now widely recognized among the cognoscenti. It is time to broaden the audience for this brilliant young Canadian artist and Venice will do that." 

The official Canadian participation at the Biennale's 54th International Art Exhibition will be made possible by the generous financial assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts and of private philanthropists from across Canada and beyond.

The Artist: Steven Shearer  

Since 1996, Steven Shearer has exhibited across the globe, with solo shows in Amsterdam, Birmingham, Zurich, Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Turin, Tokyo and Vancouver notably.  His group exhibitions include Double Album: Daniel Guzman and Steven Shearer at MUCA, University Museum of Arts and Sciences in Mexico City and at the New Museum in New York (2008); The Order of Things at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Belgium (2008); Blasted Allegories - Werke aus der Sammlung Ringier at the Kunstmuseum Luzern in Switzerland (2008); Canada Dreaming in Kunstverein, Wolfsburg (2006); All the Pretty Corpses at The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago (2005); Pin Up: Contemporary Collage and Drawing at the Tate Modern, London (2004); Rock My World in San Francisco at the California College of the Arts Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts (2002).

In recent years, nine of his works have entered Canada's national collection.

The Curator: Josée Drouin-Brisebois

Josée Drouin-Brisebois is the Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Canada. She has organized and written essays for numerous exhibitions, including Nomads (2009); Caught in the Act: The Viewer as Performer (2008); Dé-con-structions (2007) and Christopher Pratt (2005). Her writing has also appeared in the book Otherworld Uprising: Shary Boyle as well as in Canadian Art Magazine, Border Crossings, PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art and Prefix Photo.

The National Selection Committee:

·         Josée Bélisle, Curator of Contemporary Art, Musée d’art Contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec

·         Catherine Crowston, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta

·         Josée Drouin-Brisebois, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

·         Reid Shier, Director, Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia

 The Venice Biennale

Established in 1895, the prestigious Venice Biennale was originally devoted only to the visual arts.  It has since expanded its scope to encompass theater, music, dance, film and, more recently, architecture. The Biennale's visual arts component, the International Art Exhibition, is held from June to November on alternate years.  In 2009, 77 countries participated in the 53^rd Biennale, which drew more than 375,000 visitors.

The Biennale exhibition and National Pavilions are primarily located in the historic Giardini di Castello. In recent years, the exhibition site has expanded to include installations in the ancient structures of the great Venetian shipyards (the Arsenale) and other locations throughout Venice. For more information, visit www.labiennale.org.

Canada and the Biennale: The Canadian Pavilion

Canadian representation at the Venice Biennale dates back to 1952. It has helped to launch the international careers of some of the most celebrated artists in recent Canadian art history.

Since 1958, artists representing Canada have shown their work in the  Canadian pavilion, built from war reparation funds as part of the Canada-Italy Cultural Agreement signed in  1954.  The pavilion was built under the direction of the National Gallery of Canada by famed Milanese architect Enrico Peressuti, of the Studio Architetti BBPR.   The National Gallery of Canada still  retains  custodianship of the Canadian pavilion on behalf of Canada.

Organization of the Canadian representation was under the direction of the National Gallery of Canada from 1952  to 1986.  From 1988 until 2009, primary responsibility for managing the Canadian representation was transferred to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), working in partnership with the NGC and the Canada Council for the Arts (Canada Council). Selection of both artist and museum organizer was awarded through a biannual competition held by the Canada Council. Effective 2010, the National Gallery agreed to study resuming managerial oversight for the Biennale project.  In consultation with the Canada Council for the Arts, the Gallery will make its recommendations in the near future.