Art Review Archives - Page 2 of 2

Social surveillance

Written on March 2, 2012. Posted in Arts.

No matter where you enter Reflections in Time, there’s an overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia. The walls of the Artel are crowded with the artwork, enforcing a common theme — imprisonment. This isn’t a surprising choice considering the artist Peter Collins is a social justice activist and political...

Shades of humour

Written on February 14, 2012. Posted in Arts.

And this is why art matters. I was having a down day — one of those days drowning in self-pity — before going to see the Agnes Etherington Art Centre’s Discontinued Colours. Layered with radical political activism and complex social commentary, the collection is a blip of contemporary art genius. But...

Cultural collage moments

Written on February 10, 2012. Posted in Arts.

A cut-out of the iconic phrase, “Want fries with that?” is the first of many cultural moments you’ll see in a new light at Civic, a recent exhibit from a fourth-year BFA student. Civic is a multi-canvas collection by Janghan Hong in Union Gallery’s Project Room. Sprawling across three adjacent walls,...

Disorienting encounters

Written on January 27, 2012. Posted in Arts.

David Yu’s exhibit at the Artel uses glass tables and coffee mugs to recreate chance encounters. Inside the exhibit, Other Random Encounters, loud speakers play several conversations at the same time. You can’t make out what the people are saying. It’s disorienting. Inside the mugs are projections...

Archaic aesthetic

Written on January 24, 2012. Posted in Arts.

A new exhibit at Modern Fuel’s State of Flux Gallery is chronicling the progression of an artist’s career. Kingston artist Tim Murphy’s discography is laid out among countless crinkled editions of his zine Ponyboys in his exhibit, Cheap, Fast, and Easy. Murphy published his zine Noise Queen from 1996...

Unfinished narratives

Written on January 24, 2012. Posted in Arts.

A new exhibit at Union Gallery features two seemingly incompatible artists. But when hung together, the collections reveal common themes in the aptly titled show Stories We Tell Ourselves. Fourth-year BFA students Mackenzie Browning and Heather Smith explore the mystery of unfinished narratives, which...

From art to ashes

Written on January 17, 2012. Posted in Arts.

Over 1,400 books were burned for Tammy McGrath’s latest installation, Voir Dire, in the main gallery of Modern Fuel. Three strange animals made of feathers, hair and petrified claws hover over the piles of singed pages. “It’s up to the viewer to decide whether these creatures act as protectors of...

Ink culture

Written on January 13, 2012. Posted in Arts.

Curator Jan Allen didn’t hesitate when asked if she considers tattoos to be art. “Oh absolutely, absolutely,” she said. “It’s an art form in all its traditions.” As she took me around the Agnes Etherington Art Centre’s upcoming exhibit, Bernard Clark: Tattoo Portraits, we talked about reasons why...

Music between the leaves

Written on December 1, 2011. Posted in Arts.

To the exam-consumed passerby, a black Flying V electric guitar protruding from the ground at 448 Bagot St. could go unnoticed. The guitar, nestled amongst the fallen leaves, is a new art installation by the Swamp Ward Window project. Flying V Down is a tribute to the history and culture of the electric...

Rural reality

Written on November 25, 2011. Posted in Arts.

Lianne Suggitt and Emily Turner are very different artists. But in The Sins of Our Fathers at Union Gallery, they revive history together. Suggitt’s painting and multimedia works are displayed alongside Turner’s arrangements of photographic prints. Suggitt and Turner, both fourth-year BFA students...

Modern medieval

Written on November 1, 2011. Posted in Arts.

A new exhibit at Studio22 contrasts one artist’s hand-printed images with another’s colourful collage. Impression: Expression is an apt title for the dual exhibit, pairing Larry Thompson’s ink prints and Holly Dean’s textured, multi-media canvases. It creates a connection between modern and decorative...

Deceptively simple

Written on October 28, 2011. Posted in Arts.

Annie Pootoogook’s Kinngait Compositions is adjacent to a Baroque Art exhibit in the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. Beside its neighbour, the collection of pencil crayon drawings can seem childish at first. Intended as honest portrayals of her experience, the images are misleadingly simple. They speak...

Technology tie-down

Written on October 7, 2011. Posted in Arts.

A stuffed pigeon tied to a brick, a message in a bottle and a photograph of smoke signals are the only items in Abbas Akhavan’s Correspondences, on display at Modern Fuel. The dead pigeon is a morbid, yet effective, allegory for modern communication’s effect on relationships before phones, internet...

Comfort in tears

Written on October 4, 2011. Posted in Arts.

A blanket of hand-stitched Kleenexes float beneath an airplane in Andrew McPhail’s new exhibit at Union Gallery. CRYBABY tells of McPhail’s experience on a transatlantic flight when a fellow passenger died of a heart attack. Although McPhail’s work is a product of personal experience, it speaks of...

A game of two cities

Written on September 23, 2011. Posted in Arts.

Thirty years before the advent of Skype and Twitter, Vera Frenkel’s String Games used technology to orchestrate a game of cat’s cradle played by teams in Toronto and Montreal. The piece, seen as the anchor work of Frenkel’s career, was originally created in 1974 through the Bell Canada Teleconferencing...

A tapestry tale

Written on September 13, 2011. Posted in Arts.

Most pregnant women spend the months leading up to their child’s birth decorating the nursery and getting extra sleep. Kingston artist Rebecca Soudant didn’t stop working. She documented everything from her morning sickness to her fears of a miscarriage on a 35-foot tapestry. Soudant’s A Tapestry...

Bodily ornamentation

Written on September 9, 2011. Posted in Arts.

John Massey’s silk-screen print, “Versailles,” is of two arms. One is normal. The other is made of gold and twice the size of an average human arm. It’s the first thing you see at Adornment, the latest exhibit at Agnes Etherington art gallery, which contains several prints and photographs that are...

Brawn on the lawn

Written on June 28, 2011. Posted in Arts.

There are three life-sized sculptures made out of chicken wire on the front yard of 448 Bagot St. The spectacle is part of the Swamp Ward Window project that presents artwork in a location for people to pass by everyday and interact with in an unconventional way. The current installment at the Bagot...

Tag: Art Review

Social surveillance

Shades of humour

Cultural collage moments

Disorienting encounters

Archaic aesthetic

Unfinished narratives

From art to ashes

Ink culture

Music between the leaves

Rural reality

Modern medieval

Deceptively simple

Technology tie-down

Comfort in tears

A game of two cities

A tapestry tale

Bodily ornamentation

Brawn on the lawn

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