Canadian Art Gallery Hop: Super Saturday, Delicate Discussions
Angus Ferguson Untitled 2007 Courtesy of Blanket Contemporary Art
The 2008 Whitney Biennial curators pegged it as a zeitgeist of “lessness.” The New Museum heralded it in its relaunch as a movement towards the “unmonumental.” And the Carnegie International compared it to “life on Mars.”
Whatever you choose to call it, it’s clear that there’s a predominating feeling of fragility or delicacy in the art world right now. Sculptures no longer tower—they teeter. Paintings articulate not confidence, but crisis. And everywhere across North America and Europe recent survey exhibitions reflect a cautious awareness among artists and curators of the fragile state of art, culture, history and even the planet itself. We are in a time when post-millennial doubt and the post-9/11 political world have engendered not the optimistic futurism imagined at the close of the 20th century but rather a new instability characterized by threatened global horizons.
This Saturday, the Canadian Art Gallery Hop initiates a conversation on this important trend—and other related ones—with a free panel discussion and a dozen gallery talks that add up to an intensive consideration of the forces shaping our art world today.
The free panel “Delicate: Art and Post-Millennial Culture” kicks off the day at 11am with insights from a trio of respected figures—Vancouver artist Gareth Moore, whose playful, ephemeral artworks have been exhibited from Rotterdam to San Francisco; Toronto curator Helena Reckitt, whose exhibition “Title in Progress” on lo-fi, participatory artist Harrell Fletcher has just opened at the Power Plant; and Montreal curator John Zeppetelli, whose work at the DHC-ART Foundation includes a major Christian Marclay exhibit opening this December. Canadian Art editor Richard Rhodes moderates.
(From left) Panellists Gareth Moore, Helena Reckitt and John Zeppetelli
Starting at 1pm, critics and curators continue the conversation with presentations at a dozen galleries across the city. Talks include Dan Adler in conversation with Nestor Kruger at 1pm at Art Metropole, curator Haema Sivanesan discussing the exhibition at Georgia Scherman Gallery at 2pm and artist Micah Lexier analyzing Jeannie Thib’s new wall-mounted works at Leo Kamen Gallery at 2:30pm.
Kim Dorland, Painter, Angell Gallery from Canadian Art on Vimeo.
Finally, the Gallery Hop throws a spotlight on the many galleries across the city that work year-round to bring contemporary art and its lessons to Canadians. Online video previews from several of these galleries, including the Barnicke Gallery, Feheley Fine Arts, Le Gallery, Angell Gallery and the Toronto Sculpture Garden offer special insights into the current moment, while an online mapping feature offers the opportunity to create one’s own customized, comprehensive tour.
Barbara Fischer, Curator, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, U of T from Canadian Art on Vimeo.
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